MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
A Houston High School senior who surprised school officials by leading a prayer at the school graduation despite a ban on prayers said Thursday it was “something I felt led to do.” Josh Perry, student government president and editor of the school newspaper, was to have given the welcome during the graduation ceremony Wednesday night at the Mid-South Coliseum. He welcomed the estimated 3,000 in attendance and asked them to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Perry, 18, then noted how schools have gone downhill since the 1940s, recited a quote from former president Ronald Reagan on God’s importance, and invited the crowd to join him in prayer. The crowd erupted in applause, forcing Perry to pause before he could continue.
50 years ago — 1968
A Negro student at Memphis State University, Miss Pamela Baker, and a white Navy ensign from Tulsa, Okla., James Lee Elder, were married here this weekend, the city’s second interracial marriage. Mrs. Elder, 21, is a senior at MSU majoring in dramatics. Ensign Elder, 23, who was graduated from MSU in January, has been stationed at the Naval Air Base in Meridian, Miss. Father Theodore Wieser, pastor at St. Thomas Catholic Church, performed the ceremony Saturday. The city’s first interracial marriage was in January. James Edward Todd, 23, a white sailor stationed at Millington, married Miss Floria Marquita Mayhorn, 23, of Memphis.
75 years ago — 1943
A campaign to keep Memphis quiet will be launched next month during National Noise Abatement Week, Police Commissioner Joe Boyle said today. Statistics show that nervousness caused by lack of sleep due to noise slows production as much as absenteeism, he said.
100 years ago — 1918
Leading all cities in the Southern division of the Red Cross drive, Memphis has contributed $302,159 or 63 per cent more than the city’s quota. Nearly 70,000 Memphians gave, according to R. Brinkley Snowden, drive chairman.
125 years ago — 1893
Several months ago Dr. Antonin Dvorak, the great Bohemian composer, came to this country to take charge of the National Conservatory of Music. Since being here, he has tried to find themes for a new American school of music and has concluded that the Negro folk melodies must furnish the basis for any original American sound. The tunes are passionate, melancholy, solemn and tender in a way no other folk music can match, he said. Dvorak is planning to write a symphony around Negro spirituals.