MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1998
DRESDEN, Tenn. – The congregation at First United Methodist Church collected two offerings Sunday. The second was just money. The first was a collection of tiny acts of love and obedience, neatly stacked on the altar rail in precious piles of pastel prints with ribbons and lace. “Bless these gifts in a special way,” Rev. Jim Calhoun said as he consecrated more than a thousand handmade baby jackets bound for hospitals in Memphis and Los Angeles. The pink and yellow and baby blue jackets will be worn only once — by newborns who die and have nothing to buried or cremated in but paper hospital shirts. 50 years ago — 1973
First Lady Pat Nixon smoked in public this week. Aides said they could
not recall it ever happening before. Mrs. Nixon joined her son-in-law, Navy Lt. David Eisenhower, in having a cigarette after they, the president and Julie Eisenhower dined at Trader Vic’s restaurant in Washington. Her smoking was a surprise to reporters whom she had told in a White House interview that she doesn’t smoke. “But who hasn’t tried?” she had added, teasingly.
75 years ago — 1948
About 450 large lumber producers from all sections of the United States are expected to be present to sell lumber at a three-day auction to be conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers at the Peabody beginning at 9 a.m. today. More than 26,000,000 board feet of soft woods in boards and timber will be purchased during the auction, Col. Mason
J. Young, division engineer of the South Atlantic Division of the Corps of Engineers, said in Atlanta.
100 years ago — 1923
FULTON, Ky. – P.C. Ford was last night elected president of the Fulton Commercial Club; A.G. Baldridge, vice president; Warren Graham, treasurer; and John Stuart, secretary. Directors: I.W. Little, Ernest Fall, A.M. Nugent, C.P. Williams, Joe Davis and Arch Huddleston.
125 years ago — 1898
HAVANA – The United States Cruiser Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor last night. A great many of her crew perished. Captain Sigsbee, in command, and other officers were saved. This information was received as a bulletin by The Commercial Appeal at 4:15 this morning.