Out of the past: Oct. 28

1998

One bridge down and one to go; a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the recently opened Washington Street bridge in Jackson will be held tomorrow morning; the city decided to replace the bridge after the concrete support structure started eroding; construction began in August, with Dumey Excavation of Benton, Missouri, doing the work; next up is the Old Cape Road bridge over Goose Creek; work began on replacing that 1900 span in September.

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and Democratic challenger Jay Nixon accuse each other of slinging political mud during separate campaign stops in Cape Girardeau; Bond, who has served in the Senate since 1986, voices his views during a visit to the Southeast Missourian; Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, counters Bond's statements during a visit to the Cape Girardeau Alternative School on Broadway.

1973

The Rev. James E. Norris is the new pastor of Maple Avenue United Methodist Church, replacing the Rev. Theodore Probst, who was forced to retire because of ill health; Norris comes here from a six-year pastorate at Cabool (Missouri) United Methodist Church.

The Chapel Choir of William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri, presents a concert in the morning at First Baptist Church in Jackson; the concert is one of seven appearances the choir will make during a five-day tour that began Friday; other area appearances will be at Poplar Bluff and Sikeston, Missouri.

1948

In a chain which will run back to the very founding of the school in 1873, State College alumni by the hundreds and representatives of the venerable school's history are expected to return to campus tomorrow and Saturday for the 75th anniversary of the founding; they will be feted and entertained in a program which begins Friday at 1 p.m. and doesn't cease until the last strains of music at the Diamond Jubilee Ball Saturday midnight; an honored guest will be George Nelson Cheney, 86-year-old son of the first president of the college, Lucius H. Cheney.

Gene LeGrand, 5, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.R. LeGrand of Cape Girardeau, was rendered temporarily unconscious and suffered a fractured left arm and multiple lacerations about the eye when struck by a city bus while in the 300 block of South Sprigg Street at 5 p.m. Wednesday; the operator of the bus, going south, told police the child ran into the street and into the path of the bus.

1923

Cape Girardeau is to have a new postal directory; postmaster H.H. Haas says the work of securing names and addresses of every resident of Cape Girardeau, as well as those living on rural routes served by this office, has been started; Hahs says when the work is completed, it will show almost exactly the population of Cape Girardeau, as the name of every member of a family living here is to be secured.

The Rev. A.B. Carson, for four years pastor of the First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau, tenders his resignation at the morning worship service; he will leave Thursday for Mitchell, South Dakota, where he has accepted the pastorate of the White Temple Baptist Church; he preaches his last sermon at the local Baptist Church in the evening to a large crowd; the resignation of Carson, who for several months has been making plans for launching a $40,000 improvement program for the church, comes as a surprise to members of the congregation and to his friends here.

-- Sharon K. Sanders