Springfield Diary 1953
Springfield’s Diary for ‘53
Sunday News-Leader December 27, 1953, page D1
Selections from ‘Springfield’s Diary’ give a short and exciting look at the year 1953 -- a year of drought and ice storms, new businesses and new locations for old business, and above all the year of the cobras.
January
1-First baby born was a boy.
6- County Prosecutor Douglas Greene announces he’ll recommend minimum punishment of $250 fine for motorists accused of reckless driving while drinking…New spire erected atop Drury’s historic Stone Chapel.
8- Springfield Television, Inc. granted FCC permit to operate on Channel 3.
13- Dr. W. A. Delzell elected president of Ozark Empire Fair Ground, succeeding H. Frank Fellows, who had been president since fair was organized in 1937.
24- Col. Eugene Hale sends belated Christmas greetings from Communist prison camp ‘to my dear friends and neighbors in Springfield’.
February
6- Construction starts at television station KYTV.
16- Five prisoners, including Frank Isaiah, 21-year-old Springfield amateur boxer, dig through thick concrete wall, escape from county jail. (All recaptured later.)
21- Korean war veteran Billy J. Adams, Jr., on ‘unauthorized flight,’ killed when borrowed plane crashed into field south of city.
25- Kraft Foods Company says it will build 200,000 square feet multi-purpose dairy products plant on 33-acre tract just east of city.
March
3- Clyde H. (Bud) Martin, 14-year-old automobile dealer, named Springfield’s outstanding young man of 1952.
6- 2,000 teachers, representing 250 schools, register, for Southwestern Music Educators conference at SMS.
7- Work begins on First Congregational Church to replace one destroyed by fire Jan. 12, 1952.
13-Consumers Warehouse Market announces it will build store in 2500 block College.
19-Thieves raid Savage-Juliette Shop, make off with between $5,000 and $6,000 worth of lingerie, jewelry, dresses.
30-Old City Hospital converted into privately operated hotel for Negroes…eight Germans arrive for two-day study of labor industry relations.
April
1-Work begins on widening of Sunshine from Fort to Scenic Drive.
6-Mayor Karchmer says he wants federal government to operate O’Reilly Hospital.
12-500 persons attend dedication ceremonies for Negro Community Youth Center.
18- City suffers heavy loss from freakish spring ice storm...Hundreds of trees and power lines downed…much of city left in dark, 1900 telephones reported out…Terry Lynn Mahaney, 11, electrocuted when he brushes against ‘hot’ wire on way to see cowboy star Roy Rogers at Shrine Mosque.
May
2- 6,000 attend two-day Boy Scout exposition at fairgrounds.
4-City health department sets up 11 dog vaccination clinics as part of rabies control program.
10- Cross burned on SMS campus…authorities call it a prank.
15- New bypass, linking highways 66 and 166 a mile west of city, opens for traffic.
June
3-200 ticketed by police for not displaying city car stickers.
8-Gamma globulin made available in limited quantities in case of possible outbreak of polio in Springfield.
10-Ice cream, electric fans sell like cold cakes as city staggers under heat wave.
July
15- Greene County listed as one of 32 in Missouri as drought-disaster area.
17- Lily-Tulip Cup Corp. begins work on 300,000 square feet addition to plant on North Glenstone.
23-111 county farmers ask for government drought relief in first few hours program in operation.
30-F. W. Woolworth Company announces it will build a three-story structure on the Public Square.
August
6-Mrs. Edna B. Thomsen…learns her son, Capt. John B. Rhoads, was killed in action in Korea July 27, the day the truce was signed.
13-Cpl. Eugene Hale [of Springfield] freed by Communists after 33 months as prisoner of war.
21- Fair comes to close with seven day attendance total of 151,613.
22-Snake story starts: 4 ½-foot hooded Indian cobra killed in shrubbery in 1400 block East Olive.
26-New company headed by Jack Landers buys all equipment and fixtures and unexpired lease of 200-room Colonial Hotel from Beck-Cross of Kansas City.
September [several more cobras found]
14-Drought causes run at Union Stockyards; more than 8,000 animals, most in history, sold in single day.
20-200 florists register for 32nd annual state convention here…200 Negroes protest Community Chest’s refusal to include Colored Welfare Home in Chest’s budget.
25-Public Library observes 50th anniversary.
October
4-Weatherman Williford says all Ozarks needs ‘is five feet of snow a week and [a] cloudburst in between’ after driest and next to hottest summer in history…Ozarks drought losses estimated at $180,000,000.
5-As officials play eerie ‘Cobra Blues,’ a recording of Hindu snake charmers in action, a cobra is killed four blocks from ‘Little India’…Wonders one bystander: ‘Which is worse. The snakes or the music?’
12-City Utilities office force completes move to new building at Central and Robberson.
15-3,000 teachers arrive for Southwest District Teachers convention.
29-Dewey Short claims O’Reilly Hospital to be released by Army soon.
November
1-Burge gets green light – and $524,000 in government funds – from state on its $1,500,000 expansion program…5,000 persons view live Springfield cobra at Zoo Park [it later died].
2-Frisco locomotive ‘Old 4524’ begins last journey to Grant Beach Park.
5-Aton Brothers awarded contract to build $1,250,000 Sears-Roebuck store.
9-St. Agnes school announces it will build second story on high school building.
December
4-State park-board visits Wilson’s Creek Battlefield, announces it will act on proposal to make area a state park on Jan.4.
21-City council voices approval of ordinance prohibiting keeping or possession of snakes and reptiles of a deadly or dangerous nature inside city.
24-Frisco imposes embargo on drought hay shipments into Missouri.
25-130 Fort Wood trainees eat Christmas dinners at Springfield homes.
Newspaper microfilm is available at the Library Center.
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