MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

ABERDEEN, Scotland — The British royal family turned to cocaine and heroin for medicinal purposes around the turn of the century, according to pharmacy records published Saturday. British newspapers seized on a report in a Scottish magazine that Queen Victoria and other royals ordered cocaine and heroin-based remedies when vacationing at their Balmoral estate. Records from 1897 to 1914 from a long-closed pharmacy near Balmoral showed royals and others, including a young Winston Churchill, ordered items such as belladonna or cocaine lozenges to be “sucked occasionally” for a variety of maladies. Such drugs were regularly prescribed in the early part of the century, before being made illegal in 1920.

50 years ago — 1968

The name of W.C. Handy is well preserved in Memphis. We have Handy Park and the statue of Handy and his horn, and we have Beale Street, which Handy made world famous. But it seems his birthplace, Florence, Ala., is even prouder of the musician-composer. Florence has a W.C. Handy School, a Handy Recreation Center and a Handy Heights subdivision. Now funds are being raised to restore the home in which he was born. His grandfather’s home has been dismantled and preserved as numbered logs. The money will be used to put it together again in permanent form as a museum. Apparently by the time his centennial arrives in 1973 his name will be even more familiar than it was when he died, just a little more than 10 years ago.

75 years ago — 1943

The 1944 campaign will pit President Roosevelt, “if he wants the nomination,” against Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, Shelby County political leader E.H. Crump predicted yesterday. “There are three great dates,” Mr. Crump declared, “the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of our Republic and the years of Roosevelt’s work since Pearl Harbor for the American people and the whole world.”

100 years ago — 1918

A novel court martial charge, “deserting to the front,” has had to be initiated in France. General Pershing’s headquarters reports that a number of American soldiers, reported as deserters from their units behind the lines, have been found in the front line trenches. Some of them were disguised in British uniforms and several had received decorations for bravery from King George.

125 years ago — 1893

Episcopal Bishop Thomas F. Gailor, one of the most eloquent speakers in the state, was in Memphis yesterday to visit local parishes.

PHOTO FOR THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL BY Mrs. Dave M. Williams, seated, of 175 Picardy Place hoped on 29 Aug 1960 that Mrs. Ann Daws, first-grade teacher at East, would draw four of a kind when pupil assignments are dealt out as she completed registering 6-year-old Debbie Williams. Mrs. Daws taught Debbie’s three sisters, from left, Bonnie, 16, Joanie, 14, and Patsy, 13, when they were first-graders. Oh, and by the way, Debbie was in Mrs. Daws’ class, too. WILLIAM R. HERNDON JR./ COURTESY BONNIE WILLIAMS REAGAN