MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1998
As a frightful mixture of freezing rain, sleet and snow fell on the evening of Jan. 15, the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division quietly reaffirmed the one thing on which proponents and opponents of a restructuring sale of the utility agree. It’s a smoothly run provider of low-cost service. LG&W’S current service and rates notwithstanding, the question to be put before a Memphis panel this week is whether the well-regarded, financially strong municipal utility of today is in danger of becoming the floundering, quaint anachronism of tomorrow. The answer will hinge on issues as diverse as cash reserves, utility deregulation and return on investment. 50 years ago — 1973
DISMISSED: Thomas Gregory, 26, a college student who admitted being a spy in the Watergate case, has been dismissed from Brigham Young University. BYU President Dallin Oaks said Gregory, who was scheduled to be graduated this spring, has been dismissed for at least two semesters for violating the school’s honor code. Gregory said he was hired as a spy by former White House consultant E. Howard Hurt Jr. for $175 a week last summer, while at the same time receiving academic credit from BYU for working in a political campaign. He was given failing grades in the project, Oaks said.
75 years ago — 1948
BUNNELL, Fla. – An Eastern Air Lines Constellation carrying 69 persons landed safely here Saturday with one engine gone and another afire in an epic feat of airmanship directed by famed flier Dick Merrill after an engine exploded over the sea. But miraculously averting a crash at sea, Merrill, from Iuka, Miss., and his heroic crewmen brought all the passengers down safely and prevented what could have been the worst disaster in commercial aviation history.
100 years ago — 1923
NEW ORLEANS – Ferdinand Katz, vice president of Cuyamel Fruit Company and one of New Orleans bestknown business men, died today of heart trouble. Mr. Katz was 56 years old and was a native of New Orleans.
125 years ago — 1898
As outlined by The Commercial Appeal, Chief of Police Richards yesterday
inaugurated the first of the proposed reforms in the conduct of the police department. Orders were read to the men to keep out of saloons while on and off duty. The patrolmen were warned that
if they entered saloons in uniform, for the first offense they would be suspended, and for its repetition would be removed from the force. The order will be strictly enforced.