October 1, 2024 | By Jim Miller
How to Assess What You Need in a Walker Dear Savvy Senior, Can you give me some tips on choosing an appropriate walker for my elderly father? He has some balance issues along with arthritis in his hips and could use a little more help than a cane provides. Wobbly in Wisconsin Dear Wobbly, When […]
| By Bob Rives
Like their Major League careers, the news was welcome but a bit late for two Wichita baseball stars. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball announced that Negro League statistics would be considered big league stats. For Bob Thurman, who started a Major League career at age 38 after three seasons of Negro League play, and […]
| By The Active Age
Vera Jane Davis, seen with her “Sunset on the Farm,” and Naomi Ullum, pictured with “Peonies-Sunlit Luminescence,” are among artists chosen to have their work featured in the 2025 Art is Ageless calendar, postcards and greeting cards produced by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. Others include Patt Sharpe, for “Catus;” Paulette Mattingly, for “Giraffe Fabric Collage”; […]
September 26, 2024 | By The Active Age
Here are some facts you might not know about Lincoln Heights Village, which became Wichita’s first shopping center when it opened in 1949. It was named for Abraham Lincoln, whom realtor and developer Walter Morris greatly admired. Morris bought the property at Douglas and Oliver in 1926 from a wealthy St. Louis financier, Harry F. […]
September 4, 2024 | By The Active Age
A man who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of mistreating a 90-year-old resident of a Bel Aire nursing home was sentenced Wednesday to a year of probation and ordered not to be employed in any capacity where he would be providing medical care to patients. According to a news release from the District Attorney’s […]
September 3, 2024 | By Joel Mathis The Journal
On the day after Valentine’s Day, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach went to the Capitol and made a surprising announcement to the media: Nearly 60 years after the state carried out its last execution – and almost exactly 30 years after its current death penalty law went into effect – Kansas might soon be ready […]
August 30, 2024 | By Sherry Graham Howerton
Don Suderman discovered his passion for roses more than four decades ago. “I grew some roses starting in the 1980s. Then I went to a garden tour in Wichita and got invited to a Wichita Rose Society meeting, which increased my knowledge on how to grow them,” said Suderman, who is now president of that […]
| By Joe Stumpe
BTK wasn’t Wichita’s only serial killer to escape detection for decades. On April 11, 1992, 23-year-old Patricia Smith and 32-year-old Patricia Magers were shot to death while working late at Magers’ bridal shop, La Bride d’ Elegance, on east Kellogg. Less than a month later, police announced that their killer had murdered four other people […]
| By The Active Age
Senior Carnival fun night Senior Services, Inc. is holding a Senior Carnival for people 55 and older from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13 at Linwood Senior Center, 1901 S. Kansas St. The $5 admission includes a hot dog dinner, games, goodie bag and more. RSVP to (316) 263-3703 by Sept. 11. Senior Services operates the […]
| By Joe Stumpe
I always assumed flour tortillas were an offshoot of corn tortillas, which have been made in Mexico and Central America since prehistoric times. Not so, says Gene Chavez, a Kansas City-based scholar specializing in Mexican-American history. Chavez believes the flour tortilla’s precursor originated in North Africa and was similar to what we know as pita […]
| By The Active Age
There’s been a debate of late in Wichita over the importance of art, particularly as it relates to public funding, but artist Kay Ferris can make her argument for it in two words: It’s everything. “Being creative . . . and playing with my ideas . . . is what has given me life and a […]
| By Diana Breit Wolfe
My dad said there was no electricity on the family farm in the 1930s because they “didn’t need it.” Their water was pumped from the windmill. Their stove burned wood. They did have a phone on the wall for a while (electricity provided by the telephone company), but only got calls when somebody […]
| By Ted Blankenship
Recently, I read a newspaper article about the Rorschach test. That’s where a psychologist asks his or her patient to look a series of ink blobs on white sheets of paper and express what they mean to the patient. The patient may say something like, “It looks like you spilled some ink on your prescription […]
| By Nancy Wheeler
How many legendary male actors can you identify from the clues below? (Female legends from the big screen will appear in a separate quiz.) 1. Whose on-screen relationship with Ingrid Bergman has been described as the “greatest love story in American cinema”? 2. Whose good looks and debonair style led to his frequent casting by […]
| By Joe Stumpe
TOPEKA — The growth in the older population is a public health success story that’s created its own challenge: how to help that burgeoning group live as healthy, fulfilled and independent lives as possible. Kansas is now part of one response: a push to create what’s being called Age-Friendly Kansas. An advisory committee held its […]
| By Diana Morton
Forum Theatre, at the Wilke Center, 1st United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. The Who’s TOMMY. Stage version of The Who’s exhilarating 1969 rock opera, including the anthems “I’m Free,” “See Me, “Feel Me,” “Sensation” and “Pinball Wizard.” Sept 19-21 8pm; Sept 22 at 2pm; Sept 26-28 8pm; Sept 29 2pm; Oct 3-5 8pm; Oct […]
| By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior, I recently received an email that I needed to update my online Social Security account. Is this legit or is it a scam? Suspicious Susan Dear Susan, The Social Security Administration did indeed send out a legitimate email last month to notify recipients that they are making changes to the way you […]
| By Joe Stumpe
DERBY — Jodee Dalton has seen a few younger students shed tears as her Derby school bus pulls up in the morning. Her pep talk goes something like this: “You’re on here with your friends. I know it’s early, and it’s hard to go. We’re buddies.” Most of the time, it’s the students who keep […]
August 28, 2024 | By The Active Age
The 2024-2025 Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have received federal and state approval and will be available in mid-September. According to a news release from Sedgwick County, the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines are no longer approved for use. A vaccine locator lookup tool will be added to www.vaccines.govwhen the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines become widely available. The updated […]
August 26, 2024 | By Zena Taher/KSN-TV
Last year, 800 new housing units were built in Wichita, a five-year high. Still, even with the supply going up, rent went up by 10%. A real estate expert at Wichita State University said the new apartments aren’t helping the market as much as you’d think because we’ve been in a deficit of new builds since the 2008 […]
August 1, 2024 | By Tim Carpenter Kansas Reflector
A national coalition’s report says one-fourth of Kansas’ 300 nursing homes were categorized as problem facilities due to substandard care and persistent compliance issues. The Long-Term Care Community Coalition’s latest summary, based on the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ five-star quality rating system, showed 24.6% of nursing facilities in the United States were […]
| By The Active Age
Here are the most recent overall ratings of nursing homes in The Active Age’s primary service area of Butler, Harvey and Sedgwick counties, as determined by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Five stars is the highest possible rating and one star is the lowest. For more detailed information about nursing homes, including […]
July 31, 2024 | By Carl Williams
Working in Wichita’s aircraft industry during the 1960s, Herb Schnoetzinger met many other immigrants from around the world. Whatever the cultural and language barriers, they often shared a love of the world’s most popular sport — soccer (actually, “football” to most of the world). It was through those new friends that Schnoetzinger, a native of […]
| By Joe Stumpe
The journalism industry is in crisis, and there aren’t nearly enough reporters around to cover all the public meetings they used to attend. So what if a small army of citizens could be recruited to attend and make a record of those meetings? That’s kind of the idea behind Wichita Documenters, a program launched earlier […]
| By Joe Stumpe
EL DORADO — They called themselves “The Magnificent Seven.” At least when no one else could hear. In truth, the group of seven friends from El Dorado High School’s class of ’67 weren’t the type to wind up in the headlines or principal’s office. “We weren’t the wild bunch, and I guess that’s a lot […]