Cape Girardeau History and Photos » Students

Girl Scouts of the 60s

Ken Steinhoff — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:37:12 +0000

Here are a couple of random Girl Scout photos. I think I recognize some girls from the Central High School Class of 1968, but don’t hold me to it. There are girls from Troops 113, 96 and 4, among others.

Beyond that, it’s all a mystery to me. I don’t know why they were all gathered together or where they were.

Trinity Lutheran Church Girl Scout

This young lady is receiving some kind of award at Trinity Lutheran Church. I’m assuming it’s the Girl Scout equivalent of the Boy Scout Pro Deo et Patria award. (Most Protestant Boy Scouts earn the God and Country award; Lutherans have to be different and use the Latin translation.)

The photo was taken March 11, 1967, but I don’t know who the man and girl are.

Studying the Human Body

Ken Steinhoff — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:16:01 +0000

Six or eight months ago, I scanned these pictures of kids in an unidentified school obviously posing for me. I figured they had to be posing, because the boy is holding a notebook labeled The Human Body and everybody else is engrossed, but not excited.

Science class at St. Vincent’s School

I was looking for something else this afternoon when I stumbled onto a Feb 12, 1966, Missourian Youth Page that contained these photos, which turned out to have been taken at St. Vincent’s School. You can read the whole story by Judy Crow here.

The photo caption says “Reviewing with pride the drawings and descriptions of parts of the human body that earned them ‘A’ grades for their science notebooks are Ruth Schnurbusch, Peggy Casey, Danny Wengert, Mike Wulfers and Steve Todt. They are 7th graders.

Getting to the heart of the matter

In the other photo, three pupils are transfixed by a guy in a dark suit holding something that looks like an alien mounted on a microphone stand.

The actual situation is much less interesting. The caption says that James J. Hopen demonstrates the mechanism of the heart model he recently donated to the science classes of St. Vincent’s Grade School. Watching attentively are sixth graders Mike Klipfel and Kathy Stranahan, front, and eighth grader Mark Wood, rear.

Class of 65: Who We Were

Ken Steinhoff — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:23:38 +0000

One of the advantages of being a pack rat is that you stumble across neat stuff. Here are scans of the bios we all submitted for the Class of 1965′s 10th Reunion and 25th Reunion.

Click on the link below to download a file with the all of the 10th Reunion biographies.

CHS Class of 65 10-Year Reunion bios

Click on the link below to download a file with all of the 20th Reunion Biographies.

CHS Class of 1965 20-Year Reunion bios

These are fairly large files, so here’s a way to download them if you get an error message: Right-click over the link, then chose “Save Link As” or the equivalent. When the file is finished downloading, open it with Adobe Acrobat or other pdf reader.

Doin’ the math

I did a short stint as Society Editor at The Missourian while the real one was on vacation or they were searching for a replacement. I was grousing about what a pain it was to write up all the engagements and weddings when one of the old-timers told me how it was important that I got all of the dates exactly right.

“There are a bunch of busy-body old biddies in town who clip the wedding announcements so they can do the math when the birth announcements come out to see if anybody jumped the gun,” she said.

Do you think anyone will care?

Someone asked me if I thought anyone would care that I was dredging up all of this old information on my classmates.

The Internet and my Mother’s attic are forever.
You’re the one who married him / her. Don’t blame it on me.

We’ll see you all this weekend. Stay tuned to this space for pictures. (Russ Doughty said that skinny dipping was involved at the 10th Reunion. That’s the one I missed, wouldn’t you know it?)

3rd Year Art Class Mystery

Ken Steinhoff — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:27:39 +0000

The Third Year Art Class produced calendars with images of local landmarks to present to Principal Fred Wilferth and School Superintendent Charles House.

I couldn’t find a story in The Missourian to give me any details. Like I’ve mentioned before, Google searches of old newspaper microfilm files are more miss than hit. It might have been that I shot it for The Tiger because a quick scan of the 1964 and 1965 Girardots turned up nothing.

School Superintendent presentation

In addition to Mr. House , I can identify the teacher, Edna Glenn; Ron Marshall; Norma Wagoner; Marcia Maupin; Martha Mahy and Nancy Jenkins. I’d guess on the others, but I’m probably wrong on the ones I THINK I know, so I’ll let you ID the rest.

Gallery of photos

Here are some miscellaneous photos of art students. I don’t know if they were part of this group or if they just got filed in with the Third Year Art Class.

I was NOT a member of the Art Class, something is clearly evidenced by my experience with Art 101 at Ohio University.

Red Dagger Play, Which One?

Ken Steinhoff — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:24:39 +0000

We haven’t had a mystery post in quite awhile, so here’s the question: What is the name of the play? I thought it was My Sister Eileen, but I couldn’t find anything in the Google News Archive for 1964-1965 in either The Missourian or The Southeast Weekly Bulletin that supported my guess. Ditto my Girardots.

Was it Our Hearts Were Young and Gay?

Vicky Roth wrote a piece for The Missourian’s Youth Page on Feb. 15, 1965, headlined Casting for Red Dagger Production Is Completed.

Cornelia Otis Skinner will be portrayed by Miss Sally Wright, senior, and Miss Sharon Stiver, who is also a senior, will enact the part of Emily Kimbrough. Cornelia’s father will be played by Albert Spradling, and Mrs. Skinner will be characterized by Miss Mary Sudholdt. The two young women’s romantic interests, Leo McEvoy and Dick Winters, will be portrayed by John Magill and Lee Dahringer.

On a cruise to Europe, Cornelia and Emily have amusing encounters with the ship’s company, among them the steward, Gary Fischer; the purser, Steven Crowe; the stewardess, Miss Frances Hopkins; the admiral, Wm. East [Editor's note: The Missourian had a style quirk that said to abbreviate William as Wm.]; and the inspector, Miss Marcia Maupin. The two girls also meet two English girls, Harriet St. John and Winifred Blaugh, portrayed by Miss Norma Wagoner and Miss Ann Buchanan, respectively.

During the Paris visit, Cornelia and Emily conquer their living problems with the aid of Madame Elise, Miss Yyonne Askew, the landlady, and her daughter, Therese, played by Miss Sheila Kirchoff. Cornelia also attempts acting lessons with the “great” French actor, Monsieur De La Croiz, who will be portrayed by Ronald Marshall. During the confusion and laughter, the window cleaner, Grant Holt, adds his comments to the hilarious events. The play is under the direction of Mrs. Wm. Busch.

It STILL sounds more like My Sister Eileen

When I read a synopsis of My Sister Eileen, it sure sounds like the characters I see in the photos, up to and including the pack of Portuguese Merchant Marines and their conga line, led by Sherry McBride.

I started to put names on the pictures, but then decided, hey, if I don’t even know the NAME of the play, what are the odds that I’m going to get the names of the cast right? So, I’m going to throw up a gallery of photos, some of which have names (some of which might even be correct); the rest are going to be fill-in-the-blanks.

Gallery of high school play

Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery. Good hunting.

Cape Central’s Dreaded Rope Climb

Ken Steinhoff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:50:39 +0000

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I never played any team sports and, despite the fact that I’ve covered just about every big sporting event to come along, I’ve never had any interest in any them. Super Bowls, championship golf tournaments and college bowl games were just another day at the office. I’m a cyclist, but that’s pretty much a solitary sport, at least the way I do it.

PE was probably my least favorite class at Central High School. The rope climb, which was intimidating when I was a freshman, became one of my favorite challenges later on after I had spent a summer loading and unloading trucks for my dad’s construction company. I could zip up the rope using only my upper body after that workout.

Still, every time when I got up to the top of the rope and just before I slapped the rafter holding the collar that secured the rope, I wondered how often that thing got checked.

“What’s a Jesus Nut?”

I had similar concerns when I was doing a story on the sheriff’s helicopter (that’s me dangling in the rescue sling during a practice). On the first day, I asked the standard question, “What happens if the engine quits? Do we gently auto-rotate down or do we drop like a rock.?”

“Let’s find out,” Andy, the pilot said, gaining some altitude over a rural area. He cut the engine and we gradually descended toward what looked like a smooth, green pasture. Just before we touched down he fired up the engine and did an abrupt pull-up.

It wasn’t a green pasture, it was a green, algae-covered pond. We agreed that we wouldn’t mention the experiment in my story. Andy’s dead now, so I guess the statute of limitations has expired.

After establishing that a helicopter WILL set you down relatively gently if you aren’t aiming at a farm pond, the pilot said the worst thing that could happen would be a failure of the Jesus Nut.

Seeing the expression on my face, he explained that the Jesus Nut is the thing on the very tip top of the shaft that holds the rotor on. “If it fails, ‘JESUS!!!!’ is about all you’ll have time to say before things go REALLY bad.”

Now, I know what they should have called the thing that held the rope to the rafter.

Reversible orange and black gym uniforms

The girls had blue and / or green suits that ranged from “hideous” to almost not too bad, depending on what year you went to school. The boys were luckier. They had basic shorts with a shirt that was orange on one side and black on the other so you could tell teams apart.

These guys look like they are formed into lines so they can duck under the divider, run across the gym, perform some act of pain and run back. I don’t see any smiles.

Coach Goodwin checks his list

Coach Robert Goodwin and I had an uneasy relationship. Well, it was uneasy from my perspective. I tried to stay as far below his radar as possible. Since I possessed no jock characteristics, he generally overlooked me.

I DID make a mistake one day. He had us running endless laps of the track. “It’s good for you. Every lap burns out the nicotine equal to a cigarette.”

I don’t know what kind of scientific study he was quoting, but I made the mistake of piping up, “I’ve got a problem, then, Coach. I don’t smoke. I’m building up a huge nicotine deficit that’s going to come back and haunt me some day.”

He was not amused. I’m not sure, but I think I’m still supposed to be running around that track.

Calisthenics: Are we having fun?

If the weather was bad or the coach’s mood was bad, it was push-up, chin-up, jumping jack, sit-up time.

When I got to SEMO, phys ed was a requirement. By the time I got all the academic classes scheduled, the only PE class open was something with a fancy name that was really nothing but calisthenics. The instructor told us on the first day that we would do a series of tests to establish our baseline and that our final grade would depend on how much better we were at the end of the semester.

My momma didn’t raise a fool. When I took the baseline test, the coach was appalled at what lousy shape I was in. At the end of the semester, though, he was convinced that he was a great instructor because of my tremendous improvement.

The next semester, the only thing open was Beginning Wrestling. This did not sound good. The first day, two or three of us showed up; the coach said to come back for the next class to see if anyone else signed up. On the second day, he said the the group was too small, so he was going to fold us into the Advanced Wrestling class. I didn’t like the way that sounded.

I showed up for the first day of Advance Wrestling, took one look around the room and decided that I liked all of the body parts I was born with and dropped the class. That’s when I decided to transfer to Ohio University, where PE was not required.

Joni Tickel DID Have Big Hair; PE Uniform Girls Identified

Ken Steinhoff — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:31:28 +0000

When I ran the photo of Coach Jane Womack and two girls in Central High School PE uniforms, I said I didn’t know who the girls were and asked for help identifying them.

The electrons had barely enough time to go squirting down the Internet pipes before the answer started coming back.

I was right about Coach Womak, said Libby Koch, who had her for PE and Government.

Bill East said the girls were Rosanne Hecht (center) and Joni Tickel.

I made the mistake of questioning his judgment by saying, “I’ll concede that MIGHT be Rosanne, but I don’t recall Joni ever having Big Hair.

Almost immediately he fired back, “Check out 1964 Girardot, p. 106, bottom, and p. 107, top.

Bill East must have the doggone Girardot memorized

Joni looks more Frizzy than Big Hair in this homeroom picture, but her hair color looks close to the PE photo. It certainly moves her into the realm of possibility, particularly when Sally Bierbaum Dirks chimed in to support Bill.

Patti fisher Caid, who was a Notre Dame student and shouldn’t have a dog in this hunt, posted, “There you go Ken, two against one! The odds are not looking good.”

By the time Jane Neumeyer and Sheila Hopkins Phillips weighed in on Bill’s side, I gave up.

Here’s Page 107 of The Girardot showing Roseanne Hecht

I ran the bottom of the page because it has a picture of Bill and Terry Hopkins on it. Both of them are frequent contributors to this site, so you might want to know what they looked like. OK, and the Barringer Twins are in the picture, too. That, of course didn’t influence my decision to run the picture.

Bill’s easy to pick out. He has the same expression in the picture I shot of the Teen Age Club dance that was moved to a bank parking lot. He’s in the right center of the first picture at this link.

Joni Tickel and Bill Withers as Royalty

I checked my 1965 Girardot and Wife Lila’s 1966 yearbook without seeing this picture, so I don’t know what the event was. Since she’s wearing short sleeves, I’m thinking it may have been a spring event that happened too late to make the yearbook. Ideas, anyone? Bill?

Girls, Did You Have the Ugly Phys Ed Uniform?

Ken Steinhoff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:42:13 +0000

There’s been a lot of discussion on the alumni newsletter email lists about the “ugly” (OK, I think someone called them “hideous”) uniforms the girls had to wear for physical education class.

I found this picture of Coach Jane Womack demonstrating the finer points of serving a volleyball to a couple of students. They have their names on the uniforms, but I couldn’t quite make them out. Maybe someone can identify them.

Those uniforms aren’t exactly “hideous”

These must have been a later, more compassionate version, because even I remember something that was a cross between bloomers and a bag that the girls were forced to wear.

I’ll keep looking for the other uniforms. Ladies, how much would you pay me to lose THOSE negatives?

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!

The girls have been identified. Here’s the whole story.

Charles Dockins, 12, Rescued 2 Girls 50 Years Ago

Ken Steinhoff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:23:04 +0000

Bill East sent me a clipping from The Southeast Missourian’s Out of the Past column Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010.

50 years ago: Feb. 20, 1960

A tour south, having traveled some 5,000 miles since leaving on Jan. 27, was completed by Mr. and Mrs. L.V. Steinhoff and sons, Kenny, David and Mark, of Cape Girardeau, when they returned here late yesterday; their itinerary included many cities, including Miami, Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens, St. Augustine and St. Petersburg, Fla., and New Orleans, La.

That was a trip my brothers and I will never forget. I’m sure you’ll hear a lot about it one day.

Chuck Dockins was a hero

What I didn’t see until later was the item under that one:

Charles Dockins, 12, rescues two small girls from a burning car in Cape Girardeau in the evening; Dockins, a Boy Scout, notices the fire in a car parked on the National Food Store lot and goes to the girls’ rescue; they are unharmed.

Are we talking about THIS Chuck Dockins?

The one who was playing in the 1965 Central High School Red Dagger play with Sally Wright and Sherry McBride?

Here’s the Google Archive story from the Feb. 19, 1960, Southeast Missourian.

A Cape Girardeau boy, 12 years old, who happened to be nearby at the time, rescued two small girls from a burning car in Cape Girardau early Saturday night. The girls were not hurt, except that they inhaled some smoke.

The lad, a Boy Scout, is Charles Dockins, a son of Mr. and Mrs. P.L. Dockins, 1807 Bloomfield St. The fire was in the parking lot of the National Food store on Sprigg at William, and it was about 7:15 Saturday night. The car which suddenly caught fire was on the west middle section of the parking area.

The Dockins family had stopped at the store and Mr. and Mrs. Dockins had gone into the store to make a purchase. Charles remained in the family car to mind a granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dockins, Wendy Louise Dockins, 20 months old.

The car that caught fire was that of Mrs. Christine Petty of Cape Girardeau.

The Dockins car was near the Petty machine in which the two girls were seated. Charles said he noted a flash suddenly appear in the back half of the other sedan. He left the baby in the Dockins car after closing the door as he got out, and ran over to the other car.

One girl, about 5, was seated on the front seat, and the other was there too, by that time, and Charles said she evidently had just climbed from the back seat.

The boy said he first opened the door and pulled out the smaller of the girls, with the fire getting pretty hot by that time. He then took the arm of the other girl, about 7, and got her out of the car. He led them to near the door of the store and asked people to call firemen. He then checked back with the baby. The rescued girls were crying a little, but the Dockins baby seemed merely to be entertained by the whole proceedings.

Follow the Google Archive link to read the whole story and to see a photo of 12-year-old Chuck.

Mystery Cheerleaders

Ken Steinhoff — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:39:21 +0000

This is going to be one of my mystery posts. I don’t know who these girls are, what they are doing or even what town they were in.

I know that the house they’re practicing in front of is numbered 121. The trees have plenty of leaves, so it must be late summer or early fall, particularly since most of the girls are dressed in shorts. The year is sometime between 1963 and 1967.

Since these girls don’t look like anyone I remember as being Cape Central cheerleaders, I’m guessing that I might have shot this while cruising Jackson for The Jackson Pioneer. Of course, they could also have been from Notre Dame or College High.

Let me know if you recognize anyone.

Photo gallery of mystery cheerleaders or wannabe cheerleaders

(Click on any image to make it larger, click on the left or right side to step through the gallery.)