By Kevin Gray When I read the other day about how community colleges in Kansas are bursting at the seams, I realized what young people are facing. Seniors will graduate from Kansas high schools in May, community colleges will continue to swell and the state’s colleges and universities will release their hopeful grads to a [...]
By Jeremy Gulley To set the stage for this column, I think it important to take a minute to remind readers that the Kansas City Royals used to be good. When I was a child, I saw them win multiple American League titles, play in the World Series twice, and win once. My childhood and [...]
By Kevin Gray For a 10th year, bowlers and non-bowlers alike joined together at Olathe East Lanes wearing special lane shoes and sending balls, either down the lane or gullies, to raise funds for Miami County Big Brothers Big Sisters. Cinco de Marcho was the theme. Bowl For Kids’ Sake has been ongoing, said director [...]
By Shirley Erickson 100 Years Ago Chapin Fuller, who formerly lived here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Fuller and received his high school education in this city, came in from Hoisington to visit with them and assumed the duties of Manager of Meek’s Drug Store. Chapin completed the course in the Pharmacy [...]
By Jeff Gulley Angela Kline has witnessed a lot of changes in her 33-plus years at First Option Bank. Hired to be a secretary for Ted Lewis in 1977, Kline has witnessed the banking industry evolve with technology and her career path advanced also as she will retire next week from her position as vice [...]
By Jeff Gulley Steve Benner was thankful his wife Dixie and her two sisters had not yet arrived in New Zealand when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake ripped apart Christchurch on Feb. 22. The earthquake, the second to rock New Zealand in less than a year’s time, killed at least 103 people and injured hundreds more. [...]
By Jeff Gulley Trojan Elementary students had heard the message before about the state assessment tests. Eat a good breakfast, take your time and do your best. But when that message was delivered by former Kansas University basketball player and world champion NBA player, it may just have sunk in a little deeper. Jayhawks great [...]
By Grady Atwater Anna January worked to preserve Osawatomie’s history and heritage from 1898 to 1946. Anna January taught locally for three years before marrying D.A. January in 1901. Anna January was driven, ambitious and community minded, and the Western Spirit reported on March 22, 1946 that “Mrs. January did not confine her talents within [...]
Kevin Gray A few weeks ago, I posted my Philmont Scout Ranch group picture taken in 1967. Almost 15, I found myself in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northeastern New Mexico, along with ten other Boy Scouts, one leader – all of us from Virginia – and our guide, an Explorer Scout. In the [...]
By Jeremy Gulley On January 18, 2009, the day before his inauguration as President of the United States, Barack Obama spent time painting the walls of a Washington D.C. area teen homeless shelter called “Safe Space.” The shelter houses troubled teens, runaways and other at risk youth, but was in desperate need of renovation. “Currently, [...]