MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
The Elvis Presley estate has joined Memphis’s prospective NFL expansion franchise ownership group. The surprise announcement came Monday on the grounds of Graceland with William B. Dunavant Jr., who leads the ownership group, and Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. chief executive officer Jack Soden hailing the partnership as a marketing coup for the city’s expansion drive. It came also as Dunavant prepared to lead Memphis’s contingent to Chicago for a Wednesday presentation to National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue and the league’s expansion and finance committees.
50 years ago — 1968
The City Council Budget Committee yesterday gave its approval to nearly everything that Mayor Henry Loeb had sought for the Police Department out of new funds expected from a sales tax increase — but was not quite as generous to the Fire Department. The committee recommended the Police Department receive $400,000, a cut of $43,225 from the Mayor’s request. The Fire Department would receive $290,000, a cut of $301,340.
75 years ago — 1943
Eddie Anderson, Rochester of the radio and motion pictures, came to Beale Street yesterday and in no time at all, an eight-inch cigar cocked between his teeth, turned the old street over. Here for the big Negro War Savings Bond rally last night in Ellis Auditorium, Rochester stayed in character during his visit.
100 years ago — 1918
Yes, they did it. The Memphis school teachers played hookey the first day of the school year. Solemnly sworn not to return to the classrooms until their demands for a 33 percent salary increase are met, 316 members of the Memphis Teachers Association assembled in the County Courtroom this morning. Meanwhile Snowden, Peabody and Lauderdale schools were entirely without teachers and others had no more than one or two. Members of the school board spent the morning trying to coax the teachers back to work.
125 years ago — 1893
NASHVILLE — The remains of James K. Polk, 10th President of the United States, and his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, were removed yesterday from the tomb at Polk Place, the old family home in Nashville, to a picturesque spot in the State Capitol grounds.