Cape Girardeau History and Photos

September 9, 2013

Roy Glass: 1931 – 2013

Roy Glass, 81, of Jackson, died Friday, September 6, 2013, at the Missouri Veterans Home. He served as principal of Alma Schrader School for 21 years.

I photographed him in 2010 when the school celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Missourian’s September 8 obituary read, in part, “He was born Oct. 3, 1931, in Biggers, Ark., son of Raymond H. and Nancy Hudgins Glass. Roy was a corporal in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Roy was an avid Cardinals fan, and enjoyed John Wayne movies and cattle farming.

Survivors include his wife, Iverne Glass of Jackson; a son, Kevin (Ann) Glass of Bowling Green, Mo.; a daughter, Marilyn (Kevin) Perego of Ballwin, Mo.; a brother, Douglas (Yvonne) Glass of Williamsville, N.Y.; seven grandchildren, Neil Glass, Kyle Glass, Kent Glass, Jeni Glass, Andy Glass, Paige Perego and Matt Perego; and six great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Ron Glass; and two brothers, Bill and Jim.

[Editor’s note: I don’t know when Missourian obits became so informal. We would never have referred to the deceased by a first name when I was writing them.]

Grandson used to play in gym

At the 50th anniversary, Roy’s grandson, Neil Glass, third from left, director of administrative services, said he used to ask his grandfather for the keys to the school so he could play in the gym when he was a kid.

“I hope you don’t get in trouble for that,” he joked. “I didn’t turn on the lights,” he added.

Signs and Superstitions

This motorcycle wreck on Hwy 51 near Lutesville in July 1967 didn’t make the paper. It might have been because the wreck was at the edge of our circulation area or it might have been that the wreck wasn’t all that serious.

The main reason, though, is that I didn’t have the rights lens or the right skills yet to make a good piece of “sign” art.

Elements needed to be closer

Unfortunately, the “Prepare to Meet Thy God” sign was just too small to be read.

This might have been the start of my superstitions and hunches. When I moved to Florida, lots and lots of cars had “Arrive Alive” bumper stickers on them. I shot so many of those things on wrecks they became cliches. I refused to put one on my car because that was just tempting fate.

I did a number of stories about houses that burned down on the day the homeowner brought home a smoke alarm, but held off installing it. I made it a point to ALWAYS put up the smoke alarm with fresh batteries as soon as it hit the door. I didn’t want some photographer doing that story about me.

Hunches and feelings

I also paid attention to “feelings” and hunches. I can think of a couple of times when I started to walk into a hot spot news scene only to turn back to grab my body armor out of the trunk. I never needed it, but I could see myself in a hospital bed wearing all kinds of tubes and wires telling a reporter, “I had this hunch…..” That vision was the convincer.

I pushed the envelope in a lot of situations, but never when I had that bad feeling alarm bell ringing. Well, ALMOST never. I guess you can get away with a certain number of false alarms.

September 6, 2013April 17, 2024

Indians Vs. Tennessee

There’s nothing particularly spectacular about this game except that I could find the story that went with it. The microfilm copy is a bit ragged, but I could read that the “Indian Zone Halts Martin,” Martin being the University of Tennessee Martin Branch. SEMO won 75-71 in the game that showed up in the December 23, 1966, Missourian.

Two photos ran with the story. This one was captioned, “Curtis Williams of State College takes the ball into Martin territory as Byron Kuehner tries to halt the Indian swifty.”

Misfire

The caption labeled “Misfire” said “Charlie Bertrand, State College, between Byron Kuehner and Pat Taylor (3) of Martin, looks back at a pass that went off its mark in Thursday night’s game.”

Photo gallery

Here’s a collection of photos from the game. I cropped them a little looser than we would have used them in the paper on the off chance that you can spot yourself in the audience. Despite the rather close score, at least one guy mopped up the court that December evening. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides to move through the gallery.

September 6, 2013

Roland G. Busch, Korean POW

I was looking at a copy of my first grade scrapbook when the entry for September 22, 1953, caused me to scratch my head. The last sentence said, “Mother and [I] went to the parade for Roland Bushe POW. They took so long in getting ready that I went to sleep in the car.”

It took a little while to track the story down because the Korean prisoner of war was actually Lt. Roland G. Busch.

You can read the whole Missourian story here (some of the microfilm didn’t copy cleanly). In part, it said, “An estimated 3,000 persons gave Roland G. Busch, Jr., a hero’s welcome Tuesday night as the young Navy flyer returned home after 16 months in a Communist prisoner of war camp in Korea. Busch, three times decorated, presumed dead, and newly promoted to lieutenant junior grade, told a crowd in Courthouse Park he just wanted to see some State College Indian football games.

The photo caption said that Lt. Busch was greeted by Mayor Manning P. Greer and the flyer’s family: his mother; Mrs. R.G. Busch, his sisters, Mrs. Gene Olson and Miss Della Lee Busch; his brother, Elwin, and his father, R.G. Busch.The family stopped in Columbia to visit the veteran’s youngest sister, Miss Jacqueline Busch, a student at University of Missouri.

Pilot dies in crash

A February 18, 1961, Missourian article added details about the flyer’s Korean saga, but also carried the sad news that he had been killed in a plane crash off the coast of California. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.G. Busch, 309 South Spanish, were told that his plane collided with the water and neither it nor his body were recovered.

Subject of wartime mystery

“During the Korean Wat, Lt. Busch was the object of one of wartime’s mysteries that was not cleared up until he was finally released from a P.O.W. camp.

“His parents, on May 28, 1952, were notified by the Navy he had lost his life the previous day when his plane crashed into a Korean mountainside. Yet they talked with him only a few days before in a Tokyo hospital and he said he would not be going back into combat because of burns suffered when an anti-aircraft incendiary burst in his plane’s cockpit. It subsequently developed that Lt. Busch had been dismissed from the Tokyo Hospital and returned to his carrier, The Valley Forge, but not on combat flight duty. The ship was to have returned to the States in just a few days on rotation and he was to have come back.

“But in the meantime, his shipboard roommate, now Lt. Cmdr. H..E. Sterrett, Jr., who married one of Lt. Busch’s sisters, was shot down. Lt. Busch asked for flight assignment to join search parties. It was while he was on this mission that his plane was shot down.

“He remained a prisoner of war for 17 months.”

Here’s my “sailer hat”

Since it was mentioned above, I guess I should include a photo of me sporting my “sailer hat.”

Side note: Mother has been out in Austin visiting her Granddaughter Kim’s family. She called me from the airport in Austin. “I was sitting here waiting for my flight to be called when a man walked up and asked if I was Mrs. Steinhoff. When I said I was, he said he recognized my photo from the blog.”

She didn’t get his name. They should quit hanging photos of the Most Wanted on post office walls. I think we can do better publishing them here.