MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1994
Police Director Walter Winfrey Monday unveiled a seven-member team chosen to study the department’s firearms and deadly force policies. The group includes an Arlington Development Center psychologist, a church pastor, a security firm executive, the head of the local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office, a criminologist, a Memphis City Schools administrator and a federal conciliation specialist. Winfrey promised after the fatal shooting Nov. 4 of Maj. Rufus Gates by a rookie patrolman that he would select a team to conduct such a review. The shooting of Gates, who died Nov. 7, followed two shooting deaths of citizens by police in recent weeks.
50 years ago — 1969
It wasn’t enough for carrot noses and stick arms, but bitter northwest winds carried snow into Memphis and the Mid-south yesterday just the same. The flake sprinkle caught Memphis’ crack meteorologists by surprise — some with winter coats still in the lay-away and antifreeze still in the can. Although the Memphis Weather Bureau gave the flurries no official accumulation, some areas of the U.S. got more than just chapped hands and red noses. Northern Michigan was covered with 14 inches of snow. Snow accumulations in Tennessee ranged up to five inches in the Cumberland and Great Smoky Mountains.
Icy streets caused three major traffic jams in Memphis and a seven-car pile up, but there were no serious injuries. 75 years ago — 1944
Rep. Clifford Davis said last night he will leave today for Washington to take his place in the House, which reconvened yesterday. The representative, re-elected in the general election, has been in Memphis since Congress adjourned.
100 years ago — 1919
The condition of Alfred A. Plough, run down by a taxicab in front of the Plough Chemical Laboratories, Second Street and Gayoso, early Wednesday, was said to be improved last night at the Baptist Memorial Hospital. He is sales manager of the Plough Chemical Company.
125 years ago — 1894
Yesterday Miss Kate Haworth was to have been married to Nathan Taylor and a crowd of their friends had gathered to witness the event. Just before the ceremony, a former lover, Joseph Goodwin, came riding up to the fence in front of her house and asked to speak to the bride “for just a second.” Miss Haworth complied with unseemly haste and the two conversed together in low tones for several minutes, after which she sprang onto his horse and the two went bounding away and have not been seen since.