Out of the past: Sept. 18

1992

A grand jury will investigate drug trafficking and other drug-related crimes in Cape Girardeau, Presiding Circuit Judge A.J. Seier says. Seier says an increase in drug crimes "in certain areas of the city" has made convening a grand jury necessary.

Work on three highway-intersection improvement projects, two in Cape Girardeau and one in Jackson, is nearing completion. Meanwhile, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department says it appears a project to widen Route K to five lanes and install traffic signals in the vicinity of Walmart won't begin until next spring.

1967

Voters of five Southern Illinois counties gave a junior-college issue a comfortable margin of support Saturday and will go to the polls again within three months to select a board of education to operate the college. The location of the school will be a matter for the Shawnee Junior College District board.

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- Frisco Railroad workers are busy here clearing and repairing track damaged when an old engine veered off the tracks Sunday, piling up 16 cars behind it and depositing them along the roadbed. The engine was part of a line of freight cars headed for Chaffee, Missouri. It wasn't pulling the cars, but was part of the train.

1942

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Charles R. Rhodes, 24, an aviation cadet in training at the air school here, is killed instantly when his plane crashes near Charleston, Missouri, while on a routine training flight. Flight instructor Howard H. Flentge, formerly of Cape Girardeau, manages to bail out and parachute to safety, sustaining only a wrenched back.

The city of Cape Girardeau will consider elimination of some of its "stop" signs as a means of letting motor vehicles move without so many stops and starts, thereby saving some wear on tires.

1917

Mary L. Leyhe, daughter of one of the prominent old families of Cape Girardeau, has executed a deed to her splendid residence property at the corner of Lorimier and Themis streets, which she has given to the city of Cape Girardeau to be used for public-library purposes. The property is to become vested solely in the city at her death. She also reserves the right of her friend, Mena Almsteadt, to live in the house until her death.

Councilman Fred Brunke called the attention of the city council last night to the deplorable condition of Courthouse Park. He spoke of the badly-washed terraces, the weeds and the filthy conditions existing all around the premises.

-- Sharon K. Sanders