Cape Girardeau History and Photos

February 27, 2015February 24, 2021

The Circle Grows Smaller

Mother called with shocking, though not totally unexpected news: Katy Proctor, one of her closest friends had died. She and her husband had been in ill health some time, but Mother and Katy still talked and visited fairly frequently.

In 2001, Brother Mark and I surprised Mother by renting a couple of stretch limos and taking her and her friends to a birthday dinner. We planned it for a month before her actual birthday so she wouldn’t expect anything. Katy and her husband, Woody, were part of the crowd.

The group decided they wanted to see and be seen in their limos. As they cruised down Broadway, throngs of people lined the street, and she thought that maybe the whole town had turned out to celebrate her birthday. It was actually spectators showing up for the SEMO Homecoming parade, but, what the heck.

There was some discussion about mooning the crowd, but the folks in MY limo were talked out of it. I can’t testify as to the behavior of the rowdy senior citizens in the other car.

Unfortunately, most of the people in this photo are no longer with us, something that makes Mother feel increasingly more isolated.

Katy’s obituary

Kathryn Revelle (Katy) Proctor passed away on Feb 24 2015 at Assisted Living West at the Lutheran Home. She was born on November 23, 1920 at Hickory Ridge, Missouri to Melvin and Chlora McNeely Revelle. She grew up in Delta and graduated from Delta High School. She married Woodrow Proctor on June 7, 1941 at Oran, Missouri. They lived at Chaffee until 1964 when they moved to Cape Girardeau. She was cafeteria manager at Franklin School for 22 years. After her retirement she worked at Mothers Day Out at Lynwood Baptist church many years and volunteered at the Fish Food Pantry and SE Hospital Auxillary.

She is survived by her husband of 73 years, Woodrow Proctor, a son, David (Jeanie) Proctor of Nellysford, VA, a daughter, Brenda (John) Faris of Cape Girardeau. Five grandchildren, Stephen Faris (Jenny Weiss) of Cape Girardeau, Stuart (Megan) Faris of Webster Groves, Mo, Amy (Jack) Leachman of Asheville, NC, Andrea (Tarlton) Brewer of Richmond VA, and Kipp Proctor of Bozeman, MT and three great grandchildren Delia and Grady Faris of Webster Groves and Mary Grace Brewer of Richmond. She is also survived by a sister, Audrey Kitchen of Union, Mo.

She was preceded in death by her parents, 6 brothers and 4 sisters.

Active in organizations

I did some newspaper searches several years back for some celebration Katy’s family had planned.

The November 9, 1961, Missourian had a society brief that The Fern Herrington Intermediate G.A.s of Calvary Baptist met at the church on Monday to study, under the guidance of their counselor, Mrs. Woodrow Proctor, the chapter on “Germany, A Nation Divided,” from the book, Teen Traveler Abroad.

Woody served in World War II

A brief in the August 6, 1945, Missourian said that Pfc. Ralph W. Proctor of Chaffee, a member of the 13th AAF Bomber Command in the Philippines, had been promoted to corporal in the Netherlands East Indies, according to a dispatch from headquarters overseas. Corp. Proctor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Proctor, joined the service in December, 1942, and saw his first action with the veteran “Jungle Air Force” in June 1943, at Guadalcanal. His wife, Mrs. Kathryn Revelle Proctor, lives at Chaffee.

Squabbles

Mark and I were always amused at how the group of women were constantly squabbling and getting on the outs with each other, then reuniting like nothing had happened.

We’re going to miss her

Katy had an infectious grin that wrapped all the way around face, she could talk a mile a minute, and break out laughing at the least little thing.

She was a good friend to Mother. We’re all going to miss her.

February 26, 2015March 6, 2021

Angel with a Broken Wing

I ran across this yellowing print from the Old Lorimier Cemetery that I must have taken around 1966. You can see the an angel with wings and an upraised arm to the left of the big tree. There’s a tall monument to the left of it that has a cross on its top. Both of those grave markers would be vandalized about twenty years later.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Mamie Lee Lilly

Mamie Lee Lilly was an 11-year-old girl who died Dec. 30, 1893. The March 22, 1989, Missourian reported that Terrell Weaver, Old Lorimier Cemetery’s sexton helped to piece together the apparent solution to a cemetery crime. More than 50 tombstones were vandalized the previous August. Police who served a search warrant at 129 South Lorimier recovered a damaged angel, a tombstone and a stone cross, which Weaver helped trace back to Old Lorimier.

Two men and a woman were suspects in the vandalism, but no charges had been filed when the story was written.

Made of hand-sculpted Italian marble

The angel, Weaver said, is made of hand-sculpted Italian marble. He thought the 100-pound cross belonged on top of the 10-foot-tall monument for the Albert family to the left of Mamie Lee. “I climbed up there yesterday and tried to feel the top,” he said, but the only way to be sure would be to fit the cross to the monument.

Old Lorimier Cemetery has about 2,000 tombstones. “Over the years, probably 90 percent have been vandalized,” Weaver was quoted.

February 25, 2015

American History Review

I touched on the dreaded math word problem, stressed out over the rules of grammar, and expressed my intense dislike of cursive writing in earlier posts.

Today we’re going to look at what we were supposed to know in Second Semester American History.

I had Miss Kathryn Sackman and Mrs. Lois K. McKinnis for history. I think the former taught American History, and the latter had World History – or it might have been the other way around. The thing I remember best about Miss Sackman was her jet-black hair.

Nearly got ulcers

Phyllis Hansen commented on another post, “I was so scared of Ms. Sackman I nearly got ulcers in the first month of school, but I developed a great love for history from having had her as a teacher.

In the Class of 1965 reunion bio, Nancy Jenkins Wilson said Miss Sadler and Miss Sackman were her most influential teachers. David Spradling echoed that: “Miss Sackman influenced me the most. She taught me that learning could be fun as well as a challenge.”

Miss Sackman retired in 1972 after 20 years in the Cape school system. Her obituary in the July 8, 1992 Missourian reported that she died on her 87th birthday in 1992. She was the daughter of John Theodore and Barbara Louisa Juden Sackman. Miss Sackman was a graduate of Central High School and Southeast Missouri State University. She did research at Columbia University in New York City and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and received a master’s degree in education from Vanderbilt.

Are you ready for the test?

I broke the page into two pieces to make it easier to read, but you will probably still need to click on the image to make it larger.

“Discuss the date, causes, leaders, events, and results of every war the U.S. has entered since 1865.” A variation says to “Review causes, events, results of each of the following wars: Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War.”

Kids back then had it easy: look how many fewer wars they had to learn. In fact, I’m not sure we ever made it all the way through World War I; I’m positive we didn’t discuss Korea.

Discuss present day problems

“Discuss fully present day problems concerned with: Elections; Education; The Mississippi River; Science; Foreign Policy; The Census; Segregation, labor.”

The problems of the CENSUS ranked right up there with problems of SEGREGATION?

Now that what I used to cover as news has grown enough whiskers that it has become history, I’ve gained a real appreciation for the past. The difference between what we memorized in school and what I find interesting today is discovering His Story and Her Story, not the name of some obscure, long-forgotten treaty, bill or politician.

Tell me the story about Louis Houck’s ghost whistles instead.

February 24, 2015February 24, 2015

Seelitz Cemetery

Seelitz, in eastern Perry County, was a short-lived town near Altenburg. It was one of the seven colonies established in 1839 in the Saxon Migration.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Not a good location

Gerard Fiehler from the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum walked me back to where a memorial stone contains the names of some of the earlier settlers. You’ll notice that many of the dates are from the first two years of the settlement.

Seelitz, I was told, was located in a low area that it made it disease-prone. The other problem was that the the early inhabitants were mostly students and professional men poorly prepared for carving out farms and houses from wilderness.

Rev. Stephens exiled

The Rev. Martin Stephan was the leader of the movement. He and his followers, with a communal treasury of $88,000 (you can see the chest it was kept in at the museum), landed in Wittenberg with the goal of farming about 4,500 acres of land that resembled what they had left in Saxony, Germany.

Rev. Stephan, however, was accused of “voluptuous living and dictatorial conduct” and put in a boat for exile to Illinois. It is rumored that he had been tapping the till and some of the wives.

That was the start of the Missouri Synod

Despite all the difficulties, the Saxon immigration was the start of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, which was established in 1847.

The beautiful and still active Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg was built in 1867.