MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
Nashville – When Lamar Alexander and Ted Welch rose from an early breakfast at the Governor’s Mansion after Alexander’s 1982 re-election, Welch — a leading national Republican money man — added a postscript to their meeting. “I told him that morning that if he ever decided to run for president, I would like to be helpful to him,” the Nashville entrepreneur recalled last week. Welch had helped raise campaign money for Alexander. That power breakfast at the mansion was 12 years ago, but neither man forgot Welch’s parting offer. Welch now is leading a huge effort to raise $20 million this year for Alexander’s 1996 Republican presidential race — a down payment on the $90 million to $100 million Welch estimates it will cost to wage a presidential campaign through the general election still 20 months away.
50 years ago — 1970
Washington – Overriding objections that it might throw the next presidential election into confusion, the Senate voted 64-17 Thursday to lower the voting age to 18 in all elections starting Jan. 1, 1971. The Senate turned a deaf ear to protests by some members that the Supreme Court might rule the 18-year-old vote amendment invalid after millions of young people had cast ballots in the 1972 presidential election. “What sort of confusion would reign?” asked Sen. James Allen, D-ala. “Who would be president?”
75 years ago — 1945
The Civic Committee of the Memphis Men’s Garden Club came up with an idea yesterday that may replace some of the festivity lost when the war started and may make the city a magnet for tourists — after the war, of course. Flower lovers will get a break sometime this spring: The dates have been set tentatively for April 7-8, when “Azalea Days” will be inaugurated under the sponsorship of the Men’s Garden Club. Azalea gardens all over the city will be opened up for public view.
100 years ago — 1920
Mrs. Thomas F. Kelley, who will become judge of Juvenile
Court in May, is planning a trip to New York and Washington to study juvenile delinquency work. She will visit Juvenile Court Judge Mrs. Katherine Sellers in Washington, who is the only woman judge in the United States.
125 years ago — 1895
J.S. Menken, member of the Memphis school board and foremost advocate of a kindergarten system in Memphis public schools, has presented to the board an impressive collection of testimonials collected from police chiefs, school principals, doctors and college professors across the nation, praising the work of public kindergartens in their cities.