Windy City sounds

25 years ago: 1988

Teacher pay raises, approved by the Legislature this year and scheduled to go into effect in December, are helping bring more teachers into Mississippi schools, officials say. The state’s 505,000 schoolchildren go back to school this week, and superintendents across the state report many of them can expect to see full faculty staffs. “This is the first time I’ve been able to start school with all the critical teaching areas filled — the first time in six years,” said James Pair, assistant superintendent for the Hancock County school system. “I can attribute a lot of that to the pay raise.”

50 years ago: 1963

A venerable chapter in the city’s river history will close next week when the former queen of the U. S. Engineers’ fleet leaves Memphis on her last voyage. The once-proud steamer Mississippi will be towed to St. Louis where her new owner will convert her into a floating museum, restaurant and lounge. “I’m securing transportation for the vessel now and am sure we can leave within a week,” John C. Groffel Jr. said yesterday when contacted at his St. Louis office. He paid $35,111 for the boat in January on an as-is basis. The sternwheeler, which is the last of the Texas or triple deck steamers on the river, was decommissioned April 19, 1961, after 34 years with the Engineers.

75 years ago: 1938

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan will fly to Memphis today from St. Louis in the $900 “crate” in which he flew the Atlantic and will be greeted by a delegation of Memphis Irishmen led by a delegation of Memphis Judge Sam O. Bates and Joe Brennan.

100 years ago: 1913

Completion of the “Great White Way” on Main will be observed with a pretentious program being arranged by Commissioner Dies.

Property owners are providing the ornamental lampposts under a front foot assessment plan, the city will furnish the current and the Merchants Power Co. will maintain the lamps.