MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
The fear of being in Memphis, even inside a church and maybe especially inside a church, was a fear she couldn’t conquer alone. Her father had preached his last sermon inside a Memphis church — the night before he was assassinated at a Memphis motel. Bernice King was 5 when that happened. But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived long enough to teach his youngest child something about fear. Tuesday afternoon inside a Memphis church, King’s daughter declared herself free at last from a fear that has gripped her since that dreadful April 1968. ”I have been struggling for some years to deal with the assassination, the death of my father, the loss of my father,” Bernice King told a standingroom-only crowd at Calvary Episcopal Church downtown. ”I’ve been a little skeptical about coming to Memphis. I thank God that He has delivered me from that fear.”
50 years ago — 1971
The kidnapping of a young boy Thursday night is the latest in a series of bizarre incidents — including attempted bombings — which seem to have nudity as their trigger. Professors and officials at the Memphis Academy of Arts think the Thursday kidnapper is the same person who placed bombs on the cars of two professors and made numerous threatening telephone calls to the academy in the past two years.
75 years ago — 1946
NEW YORK – The National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada legalized transparent backboards and modified the rule governing play in the last four minutes of a game Tuesday but refused to tamper with any regulations affecting extra tall players. The most important of the four minor changes made in the rules for the 1946-47 season modified the legislation which allowed no player to re-enter a game in the last four minutes.
100 years ago — 1921
Many a dainty feminine hand which for weeks has labored industriously to make the Easter bonnet and gown to be worn today will be clenched in despair if the prophecy of the weather man comes true. The prediction yesterday was for showers and thunderstorms today with strong southerly winds and gales. It is expected to be colder tonight.