MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
Washington – A Secret Service officer Wednesday contradicted the White House account of the night of Vincent Foster’s death, telling the Senate Whitewater panel that he saw Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top aide remove files from Foster’s office. The aide vehemently denied it. Testifying under oath, Henry O’neill said he saw Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff, Margaret Williams, carrying two handfuls of folders from the office of Foster, the deputy White House counsel, into her office several hours after Foster’s body was found in a Virginia park. Williams, who testified that she went to the White House that night after being called twice by the first lady, said she was drawn to a light in Foster’s office in the irrational hope that she would find her colleague still alive. She said she went inside and wept as another aide looked for a suicide note. She told the committee she took nothing out of Foster’s office and had never been instructed to remove any files. Asked if he was certain he had seen Williams carrying folders out of the office that night, O’neill replied: “I’m not in any doubt about it, sir.”
50 years ago — 1970
Brenda Patterson kept right on singing. And her audience — 1,000 strong — kept right on listening and rocking. Not unusual except that this time — 3:45 p.m. yesterday at Crump Stadium — mesmerization came during a rainstorm that drenched the stadium for 15 minutes. And the singing and rocking and the festivaling were all staged for the Girls Club of Memphis in a drive to open a clubhouse in the South Park School area of Parkway Village. The eight-hour rock festival, as it was billed, was sponsored by Parkway Village Junior Chamber of Commerce and its woman’s auxiliary, the Jaycettes. Also participating in the festival were Jimmy Hart and the Gentrys, Caboose, Silver Paper, Moloch, Memphis Shalome, Greg Todd Group, Burnt Cane and Snake.
75 years ago — 1945
Members of the Board of Directors of the Memphis Union Mission were told yesterday in a meeting at The Peabody that the institution will move into its new home at 107-11 Poplar Aug. 25. T. Walker Lewis, president of the mission, conducted the meeting at which five new board members were present for the first time following their election at the previous meeting. They were Maj. Thomas Allen, Dave Jolly, O.D. Bratton, John Gray and Charles T. Wheat.
100 years ago — 1920
The work of clearing the site for the Auditorium and market house on the west side of Main Street, between Poplar and Exchange avenues, is expected to begin during early autumn. Pfeil and Awsumb, architects, yesterday announced that bids for the contract for wrecking the buildings and clearing the block will be received by them until Sept. 15.
125 years ago — 1895
Atlantic City, N.J. – It took six visits to a presentation of the danse du ventre by Turkish girls here to convince city councilmen that the dance is improper. In response to citizen complaints, the city fathers ordered a private performance of the dance last Saturday night. They announced they “couldn’t agree” as to its impropriety, so similar shows were staged the five nights following.