MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago — 1998

If the prospect of selling Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division brings dollar signs to the eyes of city leaders, some analysts caution there’s a fundamental question that should be cleared up before any money changes hands: Is the utility really the city’s to sell? At first blush, the answer might seem as clear as the word “Memphis” in the utility’s title. LG&W, after all was authorized in a Nov. 6, 1934, landslide by city voters and conceived through a 1939 amendment to the city charter.

50 years ago — 1973

Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division customers “in a temporary financial crisis” will be allowed to make partial payments on utility bills beginning immediately.

75 years ago — 1948

The service stations holding membership in the Gasoline Retail Dealers Association of Shelby County yesterday joined enthusiastically in the safe driving campaign sponsored by the Insurance Exchange of Memphis with the cooperation of The Commercial Appeal. Through their president, James H. Perry Sr., the filling station operators volunteered to become distributors of thousands of yellow-andblack “29” stickers for auto rear windows, with which the motorists will pledge themselves not to drive faster than 29 miles an hour.

100 years ago — 1923

LITTLE ROCK — The Brookfield Bill passed the Arkansas Senate yesterday fixing an improvement district for the purpose of building a concrete viaduct in Crittenden County, Ark., to connect with the Harahan Bridge crossing the Mississippi River to Memphis.

125 years ago — 1898

Colonel M.C. Gallaway died at the Peabody Hotel yesterday. He was once editor of The Memphis Appeal.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FILES March 1, 1984: Entertainer Mitzi Gaynor visits the Orpheum to give a talk to the local United Way. She opens at the newly renovated theater the next night for a three-day run.