Looking back at Roanoke Valley history: July 22, 2013

1988 (25 years ago)

• “Peter Rippe has resigned as executive director of the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts.”
• “Valley Metro will begin using five small, 25-passenger buses next week, a move that has long been advocated by some Roanoke City Council members.”
• “Roberto Suarez Gomez, the reputed ‘King of Cocaine,’ has been arrested at his Bolivian ranch. Suarez, 56, believed to be the biggest supplier of raw cocaine in the world, is wanted by federal authorities on drug-smuggling charges in both Miami and Roanoke.”
• “July has become a scorcher. More than half of the first 20 days this month saw temperatures climb into the 90s.”
• “Plans began taking shape Friday for the dilapidated Jefferson High School to become an arts and education center that would be the western ‘anchor’ in a revived downtown.”
• “Judy Clarke, who cut her acting teeth in Roanoke during the late ’70s and early ’80s, is the star of a revival of Jean Cocteau’s ‘The Human Voice’ in New York.”
• “A century ago, Alexander Nelson, pioneered the first hardware store in the 6-year-old town of Roanoke. That venture evolved into Nelson-Roanoke Corp., a wholesaler and distributor serving retailers in several states.”
• “A trolley bus service may be started soon in downtown Roanoke if businesses and merchants will help pay for it.”
• “The Washington Capitals informed LancerLot owner Henry Brabham on Tuesday that they have decided not to move their 1987-88 National Hockey League preseason camp to Vinton.”

1963 (50 years ago)

• "Lots of stay-at-home Roanokers may have looked upward with lively interest — but the typical Man (and Woman)-in-the-street accepted Saturday afternoon’s partial eclipse of the sun with large gobs of unconcern.”
• “Twenty-nine Roanoke area high school students are working without pay at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Salem this summer in a program profitable to them and to the hospital.”
• “It’s against the law to smoke on a Roanoke city bus, but seemingly a lot of people don’t know that.”
• “Several young men, including one from Roanoke, have won honors in a nationwide model car designing and building competition, sponsored by Fisher Body Division of General Motors Corp.”
• “Salem broke loose with a murderous batting attack Wednesday night to bury Middlesboro in an Appalachian league donnybrook, 11-6.”
• “A tall, young college professor [Dr. Lee S. Anthony] has, in one year, brought the Roanoke College physics department to its highest level of achievement in the school’s history.”
• “Jefferson High School will admit its first Negro pupils this fall, School Supt. E.W. Rushton’s office disclosed Thursday.”
• “Barbershop singers in the Roanoke Valley have something working for them. A local chapter of The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. is being formed in Roanoke.”

1938 (75 years ago)

• “Jack Fishwick, Roanoke city youth, has turned in an outstanding record in his first year in the Harvard law school.”
• “Roanoke had something new to talk about yesterday, for those parking meters came to town.”
• “Two score old time players who wrote their names in the baseball history of early Roanoke will lay aside their worldly positions tomorrow afternoon … for a game of baseball at Maher Field.”
• “Little relief was promised Roanokers last night as they saw pass the seventh consecutive day of rainfall.”
• “Tony Gstalder, of the ‘million dollar fingers,’ will be featured at the console of a Hammond organ at the S.&W. cafeteria throughout this week as the cafeteria observes its eighth anniversary in Roanoke with a week-long celebration.”
• “In a screwball game that went only four and one-half innings, the Oldtimers defeated the baseballers from farther back, the Horse and Buggymen, 8-5.”

1913 (100 years ago)

• “A great ball game was pulled off at the fairgrounds yesterday afternoon, when the Lynchburg descendants of those who came to America in a slave ship crossed bats with the Roanoke representatives of the African wilds. The game resulted in a score of 7 to 6, in favor of the Lynchburg sluggers.”
• “According to figures furnished by Captain R.F. Bell, volunteer weather observer, who furnished the only official information on weather conditions in Roanoke, last week was well up towards a record in heat.”
• “ ‘The Thriller,’ the newest amusement at Mountain Park, erected there last spring, has proven to be one of the most attractive features of the park. The roller coaster has been largely patronized this summer and it is popular with old and young.”
• “During the severe storm last Saturday afternoon the entire top of the pretty trees in the court house lawn [in Salem] was blown down … and considerable damage was done to the telephone and electric light wires.”
• “Roanoke took revenge today for the two defeats of the series by playing all round the Tars and showing them up as an erratic and unreliable bunch of ball tossers.”
• “The Tigers accumulated some errors again yesterday. This loose fielding game will not do. It gives the opposition a big advantage which good pitching can not overcome at times. They will have to put on the brakes if they want to cop this rag.”
• “After flinging his team to an 8 to 0 victory in the opening game, Bert Gardin came back in the second game of the scheduled double header and again shut the shipbuilders out 5 to 0, thereby hanging up a pitching record in the Virginia League for eighteen consecutive innings without being scored upon.”

Weather Journal

2 hours ago

1. Defense heeds the call as Virginia Tech squeaks out win over ECU 

2. One person injured in Friday night shooting in Roanoke

3. William Byrd stuns Salem in football win

4. Lowe's tapes may hold clues to Roanoke woman's death

5. Britney Spears spotted at Lynchburg restaurant

6. East Carolina poses new challenge for Virginia Tech football 

7. Concert review: Timeless Willie Nelson plays to appreciative crowd

8. Blacksburg lawyer Painter’s bond revoked

9. History says this one will matter for Virginia Tech

10. Principal who guided Patrick Henry through integration dies