MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago – 1997

MONTREAL – Backed by the Teamsters union, Mcdonald’s employees in a Montreal suburb are moving closer to making their restaurant the first unionized outlet of the fast-food chain in North America. The Teamsters said Thursday 51 of the 62 workers at the restaurant in St. Hubert have signed union cards, and the Quebec Labor Ministry has been asked to certify the union.

50 years ago – 1972

Representative William M. Colmer (D-miss.), 82-year-old chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, announced yesterday he would not seek re-election this year, ending a 40year tenure in the House. Meanwhile, there was increasing speculation that Representative Thomas Abernathy, 69-year-old House member since 1942, will announce his retirement later in the week. These two announcements would bring to three the number of pending retirements in Mississippi’s veteran congressional delegation. Representative Charles Griffin (D-miss.) earlier announced he would not seek re-election.

75 years ago – 1947

A new Walgreen drug store, one of the most modern in the South, will be erected on the site of the Walgreen store at Main and Union which was destroyed by a spectacular fire early yesterday morning with a loss of nearly $500,000. William W. Goodman Sr., Memphis attorney and one of the four owners of the building, made this announcement last night after a telephone conversation with Robert Hirsch, head of the real estate department of the Walgreen Drug Co. at Chicago. Other owners are his brothers, Charles and Abe Goodman of the American Finishing Co., and Abe Plough, president of Plough Inc.

100 years ago – 1922 MADISONVILLE, Ky. – Union coal miners of Western Kentucky are voting almost solidly for a suspension of work April 1, unless operators agree to a new wage scale prior to that date, according to opinions expressed by officials at district headquarters of the United Mine Workers here tonight.

125 years ago – 1897

While its building is being removed to its new site on Williams Avenue, the Porter Street Presbyterian Sunday School will meet in the Mississippi Avenue Christian Church, tendered them by the official board of that church. The school meets promptly at 3 p.m. A musical program has been arranged.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FILES March 21, 1951: Mayor Watkins Overton and two members of his staff slipped away from their work at City Hall to admire the bed of red and white tulips in full bloom on Adams. The tulips are a gift to the mayor from Enschede, Holland. Ann Roth, left, the mayor’s secretary, picks one of the flowers for her boss’s lapel while Louise Archer admires a white tulip in the background.