Missouri History

Birthday of actress, singer, and pin-up girl, Betty Grable from St. Louis.  Lloyds of London insured her legs for $1 million.

C.C. McCallon’s clothing store in West Plains was robbed by Ma Barker’s gang.  It was noted that they took over $2,000 worth of clothing and only the latest fashions.

This date in Missouri history: The steamboat Alice Gray exploded her boiler and sank at Rocheport.

The mayor of St. Louis approved plans to appoint 5,000 auxiliary police officers to help in the event of nuclear attack.  Their jobs would be to patrol devastated areas.

The Taum Sauk Reservoir collapsed sending a fifteen-foot-tall wall of water and mud into the valley below and destroying the Johnson Shut-Ins State Park.

This is the birthday of Joseph Rutherford Walker, one of the greatest of all the westward explorers and a Missourian from Independence.

Missouri’s “separate but equal” policy was struck down in the U.S. Supreme Court and Lloyd Gaines was admitted to the University of Missouri Law School.

Robert Pankey of Eldorado Springs was a model youth. He was said to never swear, smoke, or touch liquor. But, on this day, he held up the Bank of Washburn and took $12,850.

The 2021 Christmas Country Church Tour, set for December 16-17, encompasses more than thirty churches in tiny hamlets, villages, and towns spread across Perry, Bollinger, Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau counties in southeastern Missouri, and one in Kaskaskia, Ill. All but three of the church buildings are more than 100 years old; three churches recently celebrated their 200th anniversaries. Each church on the free, self-guided driving tour is staffed with volunteers eager to share information about the church’s history and traditions.

The St. Louis schools were overcrowded and the school board blamed the depression. They said the kids couldn’t find jobs so they were staying in school.