MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago — 1995

A little over a month after a tongue-lashing from Mayor W.W. Herenton, the city school board voted Monday night to build a downtown school. The facility will be constructed with part of $33 million in capital improvement funds the city school district expects this year from county government. The elementary school is projected to serve about 650 students in grades kindergarten through fifth. A site has not been selected.

50 years ago — 1970

In an effort to get the “power of prayer” into decisionmaking policies of society, Mayor Henry Loeb and 82 sponsors have scheduled a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. June 25 at Holiday Hall in the Holiday Inn Rivermont. About 2,500 persons in the Memphis area have been invited. They represent an interfaith effort to bring about a rededication to Judeo-christian ideals in business, government and all phases of community life. 75 years ago — 1945

While Attorney General Will Gerber’s criticism of gambling at Black Fish Lake, Ark., drew a stinging reply from the sheriff of St. Francis County, the Gerber action has received the stamp of approval of the sheriff of Desoto County, Miss. Mr. Gerber took Sheriff Roger W. West of Forrest City, Ark., to task recently after a Memphian allegedly lost $18,000 of embezzled funds at Black Fish. Sheriff West replied that gambling did not exist at the Black Fish spot.

100 years ago — 1920

The William White Real Estate Co. reports sales totaling $350,000 in the neighborhood of South Second Street. Much of the property was owned by Col. Luke Lea of Nashville.

125 years ago — 1895

The Cuba revolutionists are praying for a yellow fever epidemic to purge that island of Spanish troops. They don’t mind a little thing like that themselves.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FILE Evelyn Estes, 21, left Memphis on June 6, 1927, to ride a horse to the West Coast. Accompanied only by a dog, she rode through Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Everywhere, she was met with kindness from strangers, who took her in, stabled her animals, prepared her meals and nursed her bruises.