Cape County haunting
Halloween has always been a favorite holiday in my family. Perhaps that's because my middle sister, Jean, was born that day. My oldest sister still celebrates in grand style with a pumpkin-carving...
View ArticleBoys will be boys, and other mischief
Under the heading of "Boys will be boys," I collect stories of mischief gotten into or odd little items that give me pause. I think it's appropriate to share some of these stories in this first blog...
View ArticleCat mascot brings Indians luck
I'm not much of a football fan, high school or otherwise. But I am a cat person. This front page story in the Southeast Missourian from 1938 caught my eye, and I decided to feature it in a blog as we...
View ArticleJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy
Some questions are almost universal. Probably one of the most frequently asked is, "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?" At almost 2 1/2-years-old, I was probably stealing toys from my...
View ArticleRemembering the Trail of Tears
This photo was taken in 1976 by Missourian photographer Fred Lynch. It was published in the newspaper's Bicentennial Edition on July 4 of that year. The image shows the approximate location of the...
View ArticleMausoleum honors Peironnet family
Have you ever noticed the small, granite mausoleum in New Lorimier Cemetery? It's dwarfed by the much larger, {http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/47594 1917 "Temple of Rest" mausoleum}...
View ArticleMa Kopper retires
Mrs. Ollie "Ma" Kopper decided to hang up her spatula in 1936, retiring from feeding Cape Girardeau's hungry masses after 28 years in the boarding and rooming business. Here's a feature story the...
View ArticleGobbler makes a break for it
Around Thanksgiving, I tried to find a story I vaguely remembered about a turkey that decided it wasn't time to sacrifice itself to grace someone's holiday dinner table and made a break for freedom. I...
View ArticleA few 1913 ads
In this blog a year ago, I featured a collection of Christmas ads that ran many years ago in the Southeast Missourian and its predecessor, The Daily Republican. I thought I'd do something along those...
View ArticleSt. Mary's to take on more traditional look
Under the guidance of the Rev. Tom Kiefer, pastor, and a committee of interested parishioners, and representatives of the architectural firm Chiodini Associates, the interior of the Cathedral of St....
View ArticleThe talented Keys family
Last week, "Pictures of the Past -- semissourian.com's weekly gallery of old photos -- featured this band photograph. Easily recognizable in the picture was guitarist Eddie Keys. Colleen Keys emailed...
View ArticleCape's ice-skating tradition
It isn't often these days that Girardeans wander down to the riverfront during winter to see the Mississippi frozen solid, as these folks did in the mid 1930s. It would take a long spell of frigid...
View ArticleBill Wilferth served Cape schools for 31 years
A story from January 1964 about a power outage in Cape Girardeau caught my eye, not because of the subject of the story, but because of the photo that accompanied it. Central High principal Fred M....
View ArticlePlans for Meyer-Albert building announced in 1914
When it was announced in November 1913 that the Albert Grocer Co., one of the oldest wholesale businesses in Cape Girardeau, was being sold to a St. Louis firm, the new Meyer-Albert Grocer Co. promised...
View Article58 years of wedded bliss
Every now and then, wedding anniversary stories on the Missourian's microfilm catch my eye. In this case, it was because of the couple's surname: Suedekum. I had the privilege of working with Marj...
View ArticleRiding the Mississippi in a No. 2 wash tub
My dad, Louis Sanders, used to tell stories from his days as a young man living near Commerce in Scott County, Mo. Frequently, he would refer to the time he saw a man float past that river town in "a...
View ArticleSamuel A. Martin: A veteran of four wars
I've been known to brag on my Uncle Jim Sanders' military service. My dad's younger brother served in three branches of the military -- Marines, Army and Air Force -- and in three wars -- World War II,...
View ArticleCentenary UMC burned a century ago
I can still recall standing at my upstairs bedroom window in 1987 watching as flames consumed the Southside Baptist Church. While I never attended the church, it was an every-day part of my life, as it...
View ArticleBill Upton pitched in the Majors
A photo as wide as the Missourian's Aug. 19, 1947, Sports page drew my eye. It pictured the 63 young men who demonstrated their baseball talents for the St. Louis Browns during a three-day tryout that...
View ArticleCape Girardeau's orphans home
Pictured here is the house at 604 Jefferson Ave., in Cape Girardeau. The structure, just a short walk west of Cauble & Field, is now an apartment house, but back in the early 1900s it was a...
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