MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
Strain as it might, the hickory sapling was no match for the privet hedge and honeysuckle vines that were coiled around it in a strange death dance amid the thick forest undergrowth. “This one’s had it,” said Sierra Club wetlands chairman Larry J. Smith, looking at the tiny, doubled-over tree in the Shelby Farms forest. As evidenced by the hickory sapling, the forest today is under siege from an insidious enemy, one that environmentalists are doubtful they can defeat. Exotic vegetation, which has taken hold because of man-made alterations in the area, is choking off native hardwoods and wildflowers in nearly two-thirds of the forest, environmentalists and local officials say.
50 years ago — 1968
NEW YORK — Robert F. Kennedy came home across the full majestic breadth of springtime America Thursday to New York, his adopted state where he found political haven in the doleful aftermath of his brother’s assassination. A four-engined presidential jetliner landed with the senator’s body at LaGuardia Airport at 7:58 p.m. (Memphis time) after a 41⁄2-hour flight from Los Angeles. There an assassin’s bullet to the brain claimed Robert Kennedy’s life early in the day, just as it had John F. Kennedy’s less than five years ago.
75 years ago — 1943
LONDON — Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s visit to North Africa with British and American chiefs of staff was widely viewed as a last minute check-up on plans for the Allied invasion of Europe. The British press seems to think that the next major blow will be directed at Italy and that the bombing raids are designed to pave the way for the big assault.
100 years ago — 1918
WASHINGTON — Germany, in its U-boat campaign off the coast of New Jersey, is only trying scare tactics, War Secretary Daniels told the House of Representatives yesterday. The design of the Germans is to draw United States battleships away from European waters. Daniels made it plain that not one capital ship will be brought home. Destroyers, chasers and aeroplanes will take care of the situation, he said.
125 years ago — 1893
A special dispatch informs us that the Humboldt Suspender Company is moving to Memphis. The firm, which employs about 30 workers, will be located on Poplar and will turn out men’s garters, braces and suspenders. Its suspender production capacity is 70,000 dozen pairs a year. Memphis can thank Robert Gates, secretary of the Commercial Association, for enticing this industry to our city.