Yesterday in La Crosse
Judge Toepel wins a full term, 60 years ago
In 1958, Eugene Toepel defeated Edward Gansen, a justice of the peace, to keep his new job as La Crosse County judge. Toepel, a Bangor native, had served in the Assembly before being appointed to the bench in ’57 by Governor Vernon Thomson. Another local election winner in ’58 was Onalaska Mayor I.H. Pertzsch…re-elected to the job he had already held for 16 years.
Sears was the big store at 5th and King in La Crosse. For 99 cents, you could buy 20 feet of garden hose at Sears, while $99 could get you an automatic sewing machine. In between, for $28, Sears was selling canister vacuum cleaners.
The Starlite Theatre on La Crosse’s south side was open for a “10th great year.” The biggest hit movie released in ’58 was the musical “South Pacific,” followed by “Auntie Mame” with Rosalind Russell, and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Sixty years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.
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