MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1994
Washington – President Clinton approved a Pentagon plan to withdraw 6,000 of the nearly 15,000 U.S. ground forces in Kuwait by Dec. 22, administration officials said Sunday. Clinton’s national security advisers debated and approved the plans at a White House meeting and the president, who has been campaigning on the West Coast this weekend, approved them Sunday, officials said. The withdrawal decision, particularly removing some troops from their controversial deployment in Haiti, was described by officials as being unconnected with the political campaign, now in its final day.
50 years ago — 1969
Three Memphians are among the 1,000 “makers of the 20th Century.” That is the considered opinion of the Sunday Times Magazine of London, England, a publication of international prestige that earlier this year set about biographing the persons who have made this era either function or malfunction. Memphians among the 1,000 are: Kemmons Wilson, chairman of the board of Holiday Inns Inc., who, the Times says, brought the motel to “its apotheosis;” Dr. John J. Shea Jr., who operates the Memphis Eye and Ear Hospital and is “one of the pioneers of the surgery of deafness;” and Elvis Presley, who is called the “hero figure” who first “gave the nascent teenage movement a leader.”
75 years ago — 1944
An estimated 60,000 Shelby Countians, holding the largest block of votes in Tennessee, will go to the polls today from 8:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. to participate in the first wartime presidential election since the Civil War days. 100 years ago — 1919
Rowlett Paine, candidate of the Citizen’s League, was elected mayor of Memphis yesterday over J.J. Williams by a majority of about 2,700 votes. Mr. Paine swept his entire ticket into office with him, including T.G. Scarbrough, independent candidate for tax assessor.
125 years ago — 1894
The Rhodes Furniture Company on Second Street, largest furniture dealer in the South, now has solid oak bedroom suites for $11.35, ladies’ red rockers for $2.15, and solid oak center tables for 85 cents.