MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1997
How do you want your tax dollars spent? Esther Anderson and others got in on a poll Tuesday on Court Square downtown, where Mid-south Peace & Justice Center gave participants 65 cents to shell out to areas they think most needed. Education was the overwhelming favorite, then health care and housing. The 65 cents is what’s left of each tax dollar after financing the national debt. Lawmakers will see the National Priorities Project poll results.
50 years ago — 1972
Not even the White House is immune from the current budget crunch. Lucy Winchester, the President’s social secretary, says the executive household is often forced to “rent, borrow
and scrounge.” Interviewed in Good Housekeeping magazine, Mrs. Winchester said the White House routinely rents dishes, platters, utensils, pots and pans — and also silverware, until she recently purchased some at a Washington discount house, and with only six butlers on the permanent staff, others must be hired for VIP dinners — with the provision they furnish their own dress suits.
75 years ago — 1947
KANSAS CITY – Lieut. Roy Wigdon, stationed in Tokyo, Japan, telephoned his wife here Tuesday, despite the telephone strike. Later, Mrs. Wigdon, who is planning to leave next month with their 5-month-old son to join her husband, was asked if it was an emergency call. “In a way it was,” she replied. “My husband
wanted me to be sure and take the washing machine with me. There are no proper facilities in Tokyo to wash baby diapers.”
100 years ago — 1922
NEW YORK – John Mccormack, world-famous Irish tenor, battled for his life tonight. The laryngitis with which Mccormack became afflicted a week ago nearly prevented his breathing today and he was operated upon for the third time. The singer’s condition was critical tonight. Antitoxin was administered this afternoon.
125 years ago — 1897
The steam tug El Rio Bey, which came to Memphis from St. Louis to assist in flood relief, sank last night in deep water at the foot of Beale, Memphis.