Saturday
__Oct. 28, 1923__
• A Doniphan man is demanding $10,000 in damages after being struck by a car.
Claud Kinnard was struck by E. Gartman after getting out of his car to fix a flat tire; he sustained a broken arm, shattered kneecap, sprained ankle, and cuts and bruises. Kinnard’s lawsuit alleges Gartman was speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road.
According to CoinNews Media Group’s US Inflation Calculator, $10,000 in 1923 equals $236,760.77 today.
__Oct. 28, 1948__
Mary Hunter of Poplar Bluff is fined $20.50 and sentenced to five days in the city jail on a charge of neglecting her 3-year-old daughter.
According to police reports made by neighbors, the mother repeatedly locked the child in the home and then left for hours at a time. The child would cried, beat on the doors and windows and gave other evidence of distress. The neighbors responded to the child’s distress but could not intercede because of the locked doors.
The child was taken by the juvenile division of the circuit court and another home will be found for her.
— No editions available.
Sunday
__Oct. 29, 1923__
• Miss Margaret Ashcroft is crowned queen of the Mo-Ark Empire on Saturday night after a spirited contest. Coronation exercises were staged at the court square during the Chamber of Commerce fall festival.
J.H.C. Anderson, superintendent of the Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company’s Poplar Bluff factory, reportedly crowned Ashcroft with real jewels and presented her with the strand of pearls always given to the elected queen.
Ashcroft and Miss Marie Blevins were summoned to the platform where Ashcroft received the regal honors and Blevins received the second honors given by C. Knecht, a local druggist.
Blevins extended hearty congratulations to Ashcroft. The queen was then escorted to her new Ford Runabout, another prize in this year’s contest. The winners went to the Plaza Cafe for refreshments and then to the home of Mr. and Mrs. O.A. McCroskey, where they had a dance.
Ashcroft succeeds Mrs. Luther Goins, nee Gertrude Bates, who was crowned at the festival last year by the Hamilton-Brown team. The new queen reigns for one year.
__Oct. 29, 1948__
• Construction on an East Poplar Bluff flood control project is 65% funded, according to the District Engineer Office in Little Rock, Arkansas. Work is expected to start in the spring of 1949, and will end in the fall if the remaining funds are approved by Congress.
__Oct. 29, 1973__
• A motorcyclist is in the ER following a collision with a car, while his passenger had a narrow escape.
Jimmy Lowder, 21, was taken to the emergency room of the Doctors Hospital this morning after an accident with a car on Pine Street, in front of the hospital. Lowder was hurled from his motorcycle and went through the car’s windshield. He suffered multiple facial lacerations and a possible broken leg.
The accident occurred at about 10:15 a.m. according to Police Sgt. David Foulk. The driver of the car attempted to turn his westbound car left off Pine toward Seventh Street and into the path of the eastbound motorcycle. The motorcycle struck the right front fender.
A passenger on the motorcycle, Harry Vaughn, 28, did not report any injuries despite being thrown over the car onto the street. No vehicle passengers were injured.
Monday
— No editions available.
__Oct. 30, 1948__
• Poplar Bluff City Council announces it will review the will of the people at its next meeting (Nov. 1) when deciding whether to install parking meters. Mayor Arch Bartlett believed “19 out of every 20 people” contacted about the meters thought they could solve the city’s parking problem.
__Oct. 30, 1973__
• Poplar Bluff High School Drama Club will populate a haunted house with ghosts and ghouls on Halloween night. Club sponsor Mary Ann Fletcher is transforming her abode into a “spook house” with a scary maze for the occasion. Admission is free, and kids can wash down their frights with punch, candied apples and popcorn balls.