Out of the past: Sept. 12

1997

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education yesterday approved a "clean, simple, economical" design for a new elementary school; a groundbreaking for the school at the northeast corner of Bertling and Sprigg Streets may be held in October; the facility was designed by architect Thomas Holshouser.

After 30 years teaching Cape Girardeau Central High School students how to sing, Judith Williams-Johnson has turned pro; on Monday, she shot a 78 from the 5,800-yard men's tees at the Hermitage golf course in Nashville, Tennessee, to earn her Ladies Professional Golf Association card; although she has been giving golf lessons locally for about two years, she is now a certified teaching pro.

1972

The 1972 edition of the SEMO District Fair opens officially at 3 p.m. in Arena Park; entries have increased in most every department, especially in horses and miniature mules, over last year; premiums this year total $64,575 in 18 categories; happening on the fairgrounds this evening will be the Blue Grass Shows and the garden tractor rodeo, followed by a tractor-pulling contest.

The first payload of scientific apparatus launched by stratospheric balloon from Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport early yesterday morning has returned to earth; the payload, brought to Earth by parachute, was tracked to a cornfield near Newkirk, Oklahoma, 450 miles west of Cape Girardeau; during its 17 1/2 hours in flight, the balloon traveled west at a rate of approximately 25 1/2 miles per hour.

1947

Jackson Day and Perry County Day are observed at the SEMO District Fair; paid attendance yesterday -- Cape Girardeau Day -- was 7,779, but with passes, season tickets and non-paying children, it is estimated more than 10,000 persons were at the new city park.

Plans for marking two more historical points in Cape Girardeau and for the observance of Missouri Day will be discussed Monday night in Little Theater, State College, at a meeting of the Associated Committees of Historic Cape Girardeau; planting of the cross here in 1699 will be recalled in one memorial, while the other will mark the historic significance of Old Lorimier Cemetery.

1922

Federal prohibition officers in Southeast Missouri made 12 arrests Friday night and Saturday; five of these were arrested in Jackson at Homecomers; among those arrested at the reunion were William Hersinger, 40, a painter, who had a stand at the picnic; agents claim he was dispensing "white mule" instead of hot dogs; the other four arrested at Jackson were allegedly peddlers for Hersinger.

The Rev. C.A. Neumery, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has returned from the Methodist Episcopal Conference in St. Louis with news that he will be transferred to a church at Owensville, Missouri; the Rev. Henry E. Ross of Puxico, Missouri, will take charge of the local parish.

-- Sharon K. Sanders