Cape Girardeau History and Photos

May 28, 2017June 18, 2017

Freedom Rock

My eye kept being drawn to something colorful under the huge flag at North County Park.

The weather geeks had been promising stormy weather for Saturday, which included 70 mph winds and golfball-sized hail. When the radar started looking nasty, I decided to go mobile to get the car under cover if the hail really did arrive. That gave me an excuse to cruise by the park, but still stay close to my hidey-hole.

Work done by ‘Bubba’ Sorensen II

The Freedom Rock artwork was done by Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II on a 32-ton limestone boulder that came from the Buzzi Unicem quarry. He painted his first rock in 1999 in his home state of Iowa. This will be his 59th creation, only the second in Missouri. All but three of the 59 are in Iowa. You can get the whole story in a Southeast Missourian piece by Mark Bliss.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Back depicts avenue of flags

The back of the stone has a rendition of the veterans’ flags donated by their families and displayed on holidays.

Battleship USS Missouri

The Battleship USS Missouri appears on one end of the stone. It was on the deck of that ship that the Japanese signed the surrender that ended World War II.

Cox and Willard

Prominent Missouri military men are recognized. Maj. Gen. John V. Cox was born and raised in Bevier, Mo., in Macon County. He joined the Marines in 1952, and served two tours in Vietnam, where he flew 200 combat missions, and logged 4,000 accident-free flying hours.

Vice Adm. Arthur L. Willard’s career almost ended before it started when he and 15 other cadets were expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy over a hazing scandal in 1888. Missouri Congressman William M. Hatch interceded with President Grover Cleveland to get him reinstated. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, he led a shore party under fire to raise the American flag over a Spanish blockhouse in Cuba. The Missouri legislature presented him with a jeweled officer’s sword for his efforts. (The New York Herald gave him a $100 prize for being the first U.S. serviceman to raise the American flag on Cuban soil.) He received the Navy Cross for being able to solve logistical problems during World War I.

Gen. McKee was a Cape boy

Gen. Seth J. McKee, graduated from Cape Central High School in 1934, and attended Southeast Missouri State College from 1934 to 1937. At the time of his death at 100 in 2016, he was the oldest survivor of the D-Day invasion of France in World War II. He ended his career as commander of the North American Air Defense Command. It is said one of his retirement gifts was a replica of the red phone he would have used to notify the president that the country had come under nuclear attack. Mark Bliss wrote an obituary that contains more details.

Stephen W. Thompson was born in West Plains, Mo., and joined the army when the U.S. entered World War I in 1917. On the way to Virginia for training in the Coast Artillery Corps, he saw his first airplane. After his first flight, he switched to the Air Service. Even though his squadron had not yet begun combat operations, Thompson and a buddy hopped aboard French aircraft to serve as gunner-bombardiers. On that flight, he managed to shoot down an attacking fighter, the first aerial victory by any member of the U.S. military. He was awarded the Croix de guerre by the French government.

Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr.

Gen. Roscoe Robinson, Jr., born in St. Louis, was the first African-American to become a four-star general in the U.S. Army. He served as a platoon leader and rifle company commander in Korea in 1952, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. In 1967, he served as a battalion commander in Vietnam. For that service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, 11 Air Medals, and two Silver Stars.

Cape’s Medal of Honor recipient

PFC Richard G. Wilson was born in Marion, Ill., but moved to Cape Girardeau in 1939. He attended May Greene School and Central High School, where he played guard on the football team.

Wilson served in Korea as a private first class with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. On October 21, 1950, he was attached to Company I when the unit was ambushed while conducting a reconnaissance in force mission near Opa-ri. Wilson exposed himself to hostile fire in order to treat the many casualties and, when the company began to withdraw, he helped evacuate the wounded. After the withdrawal was complete, he learned that a soldier left behind and believed dead had been spotted trying to crawl to safety. Unarmed and against the advice of his comrades, Wilson returned to the ambush site in an attempt to rescue the wounded man. His body was found two days later, lying next to that of the man he had tried to save. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on August 2, 1951.

May 14, 2017

Making the Rounds for Mother

When I pulled into 1618 Kingsway Drive late April 18 after a marathon month on the road that took me from Missouri to Ohio to Florida to Ohio, then back to Missouri, the first thing I noticed was a single red rose on the bush around the yard on the front yard.

The next morning, the bush was covered in blooms. Even though we had several days of torrential rain over the past few weeks, there were quite a few blooms ready for me to make the Mother’s Day rounds.

I don’t like plastic flowers

I’d rather leave some ratty real blossoms cut from the front yard instead of plastic plants made out of dead dinosaurs. The latter might last longer, but they are impersonal. The first stop was Wife Lila’s mother’s grave in St. Mary’s Cemetery off Perry Avenue.

Unusual tributes

My brothers and I usually mark Mother and Dad’s graves with things we pick up on the road, or things from the house. I’ve left tiles from the ruins of a building in Cairo, a railroad spike from Wittenberg and a coin smashed flat by a train car. David and Mark have buried tiny shoes from Mother’s shoe collection and Christmas ornaments.

Mother was an unusual lady, so we think she’d appreciate our quirky leavings.

“Who will decorate the graves?”

I spent many hours with Mother driving all over Cape and Stoddard counties visiting tiny cemeteries that contained the final resting places of her friends and family. This is my grandparents’ grave in Advance. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

I don’t know how many times I heard her ask, “Who will put flowers on the graves after I’m gone?”

I’ll do my best.

May 4, 2017

“You’re Kidding, Right?”

I just looked at the calendar and saw that it is May 4. That’s the day that my old chief photographer John J. Lopinot always sends me a message that says, “Never Forget,” referring to the killing of four students at Kent State on that date in 1970.

I almost forgot.

I’ve always been amused at this photograph of a student offering sandwiches and drinks to a highway patrolman who was called in when students conducted a sit-in at Ohio University’s administration building over an increase in student fees. His good-natured expression seems to be saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me if you think I’d eat something you made.” His fellow officers seemed to be less good-natured. This picture was taken in January 1970. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

A look back

Here are some of the earlier stories I’ve done about the era.

January 31, 2017

Raised on Raisin Bread

We Steinhoff boys were raised on cinnamon sugar peanut butter toast made with raisin bread bought at the “used bread store.” Mother would go to the Bunny Bread outlet and buy loaves of the stuff, and turn out a dozen or so slices every morning.

Sounds as much as taste

What I remember more than the taste of the gooey stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth concoction was the sounds of its making.

It would start out with the squeak of the springs in the oven door being pulled down. Then there was a clatter and crashing when Mother removed all the heavy pots and pans stored in the oven. That would be followed by a tinny sliding sound when she took out the warped and bent cookie sheet.

She’d butter up as many slices of bread as the sheet would hold, then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on them, and stick them in the oven. Just as the sugar was beginning to bubble and, hopefully, before the toast would start to burn, she’d snatch it out of the stove and put a dollop of Peter Pan crunchy peanut butter on it. (I always liked a thin coating of the butter on mine. I didn’t like big globs of the stuff.)

Peach milk shakes

When peaches were in season, she throw some fresh peaches in the blender, along with ice cream and a little milk. Because I was scrawny in grade and high school, she might pitch a couple raw eggs in my shake. Little did we know the delayed effect of that. It took about 35 years for them to add more than the desired bulk.

I don’t do peach milk shakes in the morning, but I DO like a smoothie in the evening. Since I had some fresh strawberries and blueberries for my smoothie, I thought I’d try them on my morning toast. They added an interesting taste change, and looked pretty darned colorful. (The picture was taken with my Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge smart phone. I’m always amazed at the quality it produces. Click on the photo to make it larger.)

For what it’s worth, I’ve found the raisin bread sold at Sam’s Clubs is some of the best around: it’s very dense and has a gazillion raisins. Wife Lila said she likes it with some cream cheese spread on top.

(That’s Son Matt and Grandson Malcolm. Malcolm is sneaking up on his teen years now, but he’s still not crazy about being stuffed into funny shirts.)