MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1998
A 300-year-old Italian Baroque painting was reported stolen Monday from the historic Calvary Episcopal Church in downtown Memphis. The large painting, attributed to the school of prolific 17th-century painter Luca Giordano and said to be worth $35,000, hung on the right wall in the nave of the church. Sextons cleaning the church at 102 N. Second over the weekend noticed the art missing. “They knew what they were getting,” said the Rev. Doug Bailey, rector of the church.
50 years ago — 1973
SAIGON – The first group of American war prisoners will be released Monday (Sunday night, Memphis time) to begin their trip home from Communist captivity, the United States announced Friday. United States spokesmen said an estimated
142 of the long-awaited POWS, including some sick and wounded, will be released from camps in North and South Vietnam in the first repatriation of the Vietnam peace agreement.
75 years ago — 1948
Two days of comparative relief from cold, sleet, snow and rain are promised for today and tomorrow. The Weather Bureau says today will be “fair and not so cold,” with “cloudy and rather cool” weather in prospect for tomorrow. The 1.2-inch snow that fell early yesterday afternoon was enough to make Memphis streets dangerous for driving and walking again, creating a need for more cinders to be sprinkled. The day’s low of 22 came during the snowfall. A “substantial group of large Memphis industrial gas users” have had their supply cut off or curtailed because the demand exceeds the capacity of the line from here to the fields in Louisiana, Maj. Thomas
Allen, president of the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Commission, said.
100 years ago — 1923
Inspired by the spirit of a successful two weeks revival which ended last night, and impressed with the immediate need of a new church and Sunday school building, the members of Idlewild Presbyterian Church are ready to enter with zest and enthusiasm into an intensive campaign of a week’s duration, having as its objective a building fund of $150,000. The week’s drive will open with the 11 o’clock morning service on Sunday, Feb. 18, and will conclude with a big rally at the church on Friday evening, Feb. 23.
125 years ago — 1898
Treasury Secretary Gage has submitted to congress the draft of a bill that proposes to wipe out the port of Memphis and consolidate it with the New Orleans office.