TheActiveAge

By Amy Houston There is life after divorce or the death of a longtime spouse. This Valentine’s Day, three couples will celebrate the new partners who helped them find love when they least expected it.  Rick...

By Joe Stumpe Don’t expect Edna Hall to single out one remarkable day from her remarkably long life. “My life was all pretty interesting,” Hall, who will turn 107 on Jan. 31, said. “I was a...

By Joe Stumpe Lisa Hittle discovered jazz as a seventh grader in Winfield. It wasn’t just the swing and soul of what’s been called America’s only original art form, it was the chance to do...

  Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from “Cooking with Inspiration: Lebanese Cuisine” by Ilham Saad, who owned Byblos, one of Wichita’s most popular Lebanese restaurants, from 1989-2017. The book, which includes 124 recipes, can...

By Mike Dwyer Ten years ago, in Dale Strattman’s 65th year, CityArts held a retrospective of his black-and-white, silver gelatin print photographs. Since then, several exhibitions of a topical nature – on women, on children,...

By Helen Bullock A classical violinist playing on stage in bright red shoes? What is this? Oh, yes, it’s the Wichita Symphony Orchestra’s “Wizard of Oz” movie/concert with its story of Dorothy trying to get...

By Ted Blankenship Watch some of those cable shows where they “flip” houses (no they don’t toss them on their roofs), and you’ll discover that the laundry room is an important part of the modern...

The active age Kansas Advocates for Better Care has released its annual report on health safety inspections of nursing facilities for 2018. Several area facilities appear in the report’s “good” or “poor” performance columns. KABC, a...

By Joe Stumpe Growing up in Newton, Verda Byrd felt lucky to be the daughter of Ray Wagner, an African American railroad porter, and his wife, Edwinna. “They loved me,” Verda said. “They were my world....

By Joe Stumpe Dale Bing hadn’t run on a regular basis since junior high school when his 11-year-old son asked him to jog alongside him in the 1998 5K River Run. “I thought it was pretty...

Artist GLeo, left, may be camera shy, but there’s nothing quiet about the mural she’s painted on the east side of the Beachner Grain Elevator. The mural can be seen from 1-135 and E....

Beth Bower hit the highway to map Kansas’ pie ways. Bower, a food writer and freelance editor, hosted “The Pie Way…Kansas Style,” a documentary which debuted on KPTS-Channel last month, and also wrote the...

By Ted Blankenship Drop in for a nightcap at the Wichita Country Club and if you’re lucky, you’ll hear the sweet sound of traditional jazz coming from a grand piano. Delicately touching those 88 keys...

By Leslie Chaffin When Sharon Brown read to her grandchildren, she often found herself “thinking that I could write a better story.” Today she’s the author of three children’s books and is at work on a...

By Amy Geiszler-Jones A seminar about downsizing and senior living options was just the “incentive” that Joe and June Miller needed. With information gleaned from that seminar, the Millers felt more confident about making the decisions...

By Ted Blankenship When you penalize your friends, they ought to be able to retaliate, and they often do. Consider Canada, Australia and Mexico. Our President slapped tariffs on the import of some of their...

Editor’s note: Reader Rita Hephner came across this story of Depression Era Wichita while going through some family papers. It was written by her mother, Lela Eitel, and presented to Lela’s siblings at Christmas...

By Joe Stumpe When members of the Thursday Afternoon Cooking Club first got together 127 years ago, they surely didn’t anticipate that some of their great-granddaughters would be carrying on the tradition today. Yet that’s what...

By Fran Kentling The active age marks its 40th birthday this month.  Strike up the band, blow out the candles and celebrate! First, let’s thank the mother of the active age, the Older Americans Act (OAA).  It was...