MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1994 Saying the bright lights of the big city are too bright, the U.S. Coast Guard is pulling the plug on the illuminated “M” that has become a signature of the Memphis riverfront. For at least a few weeks, the decorative lights adorning the Hernando Desoto Bridge over the Mississippi River will be doused while city officials try to solve navigation hazards cited by federal officials. “The bridge lights look nice, but they can create certain problems for the towboats,” said Roger Wiebusch, bridge administrator for the Coast Guard district covering most of the Mississippi River basin. The Coast Guard ordered the lights extinguished until a reliable system is installed allowing southbound tow captains on the Mississippi to darken the bridge before passing beneath it. 50 years ago — 1969 NEW ORLEANS — A New York accountant yesterday testified he attended a party in June 1963, where Clay A. Shaw sat around a kitchen table with seven others and talked about the best way to kill President John F. Kennedy. Charles I. Spiesel said he was introduced to Shaw by the late David W. Ferrie. Shaw is charged with conspiring with Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald to kill the president. Another state witness, Vernon W. Bundy Jr., told Shaw’s trial jury he went to the New Orleans waterfront in June 1963, to take heroin, and saw Shaw give Oswald “what looked like money …” 75 years ago — 1944 NASHVILLE — Roy Acuff, fiddling, ballad-singing star of the Grand Ole Opry, announced last night he will not make the race for governor of Tennessee. Acuff said he wanted to continue his radio work, “and bring my friends the folk music of our God-fearing, pioneering ancestors.” 100 years ago — 1919 The health and lives of Memphis children are endangered by the deplorable conditions of the city school buildings, according to a report laid before the Board of Education by the Parent-teachers Association last night. Classrooms in poorly ventilated basements, frame annexes which are little more than firetraps, lunchrooms in which children must sit on the concrete floor to eat, rickety stairways, splintered flooring, inadequate lighting and overcrowded classrooms were the principal complaints in the report. 125 years ago — 1894 FORREST CITY, Ark. — Bandits last night blew the door to the Bank of Eastern Arkansas but fled before they stole any money. Night Watchman Jennings and Express Agent Boyle, hearing the explosion, ran to the bank.