MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
Backers of Memphis’s NFL expansion bid Wednesday night announced lease totals of 60 luxury skyboxes and 3,450 club seats but devoted most of their words to those Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium premium seats still available. William B. Dunavant Jr., who heads Memphis’s proposed team ownership group, and one of his partners, Federal Express Corp. chairman Frederick W. Smith, were among those making strong sales pitches to about 500 at The Racquet Club.
50 years ago — 1968
Acting Postmaster Lydel Sims will become Postmaster Sims in a public swearing in ceremony at his office Thursday afternoon. Mr. Sims, a former columnist for The Commercial Appeal, has been the city’s acting postmaster since Dec. 1, 1966, and was approved by the Senate for the permanent position this summer. He will be sworn in by Percy Coleman, Memphis regional director of the post office. Former Representative George Grider, now of Niagara Falls, N.Y., whose nomination of Mr. Sims, his ex-campaign manager, drew sharp criticism, is expected to attend the ceremony.
75 years ago — 1943
“Sonny,” the year-old giraffe who soon will become the center of attraction at the Overton Park Zoo, left his family home in the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago yesterday in a specially-built truck. N.J. Melroy, Memphis zoo superintendent, is in charge of the expedition and designed a canvas hood for lowering Sonny’s head for low bridges. Sonny, who now towers 12 feet above the ground, is expected to grow to his father’s height of 19 feet.
100 years ago — 1918
From Paris came a report last night stating the number of prisoners taken so far in the Allied offensive in Picardy totals 34,000, including 1,000 officers and about 700 guns. London states the Germans have started to retreat.
125 years ago — 1893
Mrs. May Thompson and Miss Lillian Waller of Germantown, a village near Memphis, came to Memphis yesterday on a shopping trip.