February 1, 2022 | By Amy Geiszler-Jones
When Wanda Parker-Givens retired last month from her 34-year career with the Wichita Police Department, she already had a plan for a second career. This fall, she’ll start on a doctorate in educational leadership at Wichita State University. “I think I’m going to teach,” Parker-Givens said. “I always wanted to go back to school. I […]
| By Joe Stumpe
TOPEKA — Organizations that represent older Kansans have released their lists of legislative priorities for 2022. The fact that practically all of the goals have been on the same lists in years past isn’t lost on the groups’ members. “Nobody listens to us,” said Donna Lehane, a member of the Silver Haired Legislature from Wichita. […]
| By Dale Goter
Cathryn Dye has lived a long life of following the rules and doing the right thing. For 82 years, that included a strict adherence to driving the speed limit. Learning to drive at age 13 on her family’s farm north of Wichita, she never ran afoul of any speed limit, anytime, anywhere. That included early […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Beans will never be the most glamorous ingredient in the pantry, but some Wichita cooks are sure making them sound like it. And these beans happen to be grown in Kansas, known more for wheat, corn and cattle than beans. Mary Singleton said it was a “weird coagulation of things” that led her to the […]
| By Tammara Fogle
We get periodic requests for gluten free recipes at The Active Age, so the idea of gluten-free dishes made with bean flour produced right here in Kansas is an intriguing one. These recipes are made with bean flour from 21st Century Bean, the western Kansas farmers processing cooperative. It’s our experience that some people love […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Art Deco exhibit opens with WAM celebration The Wichita Art Museum will open a new exhibit on American Art Deco with music, dancing and a look at the movement here in Wichita. American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918-1939, features more than 140 iconic works, including paintings such as Kenneth Haynes Miller’s “Show Window […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Painting Kansas wheat is hard. Just ask Mary Stafford. But that didn’t stop the 90-year-old Derby artist from completing this farm scene with the state’s signature crop lovingly detailed. “I wanted to do a painting that looks like Kansas,” Stafford said. We’d say she succeeded.
| By Ted Ayers
“Apocalyptic Polly: A Pandemic Memoir,” by Polly Basore Wenzl (AngelBooks, 2021, 125 pages, $16.99) By Ted Ayres Polly Basore Wenzl’s book, subtitled “A pandemic memoir,” proposes to be the story of her life in Wichita during 2020-21. And the book does address the chronological period between February 25, 2020, when Wenzl heard a radio report of […]
| By Ted Blankenship
By Ted Blankenship A television commercial for lactose-free milk states that if it isn’t real milk, then the cow conveniently standing nearby isn’t a real cow — “and Mabel doesn’t really like that.” Mabel the cow answers with a brief “moo.” When we lived on 20 acres north of Rose Hill, we had cows and […]
| By Tammara Fogle
The Active Age lost a treasured friend and volunteer when Delores Burris died on Jan. 16 at age 78. If you received a copy of our newspaper over the past 12 years, it was likely due to Delores, who kept our subscription list updated. Despite the fact that she had a full-time job, Delores came […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Jeramy Anderson W.C. Ashcraft Barbara Bennett-Graham Wade Brodin Dale Brown Evelyn Carroll Judy Christensen JanetCunningham Carolyn Davis Nancy Davis Diane Dean Sylverina Depperschmidt Linda Destasio Patty Donham Jane Eaton Max Fraizer Beatrice Frazier Marjorie Gilbertson Margaret Good Donald Grabendike Barbara Grimes Susan Grimes Marilyn Hall Susanne Hamker Linda Hammerle Belva Harris Beverly Harshbarger Fritz Henseler […]
| By Tammara Fogle
The Active Age AUGUSTA — A proposed new veterans memorial has found a home. Now supporters are trying to raise the rest of the money needed to build it. The idea for the monument was suggested to Augusta’s Leonard Whitehill American Legion Post 189 by Linda McBride, the daughter of a deceased member. Augusta has […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Social Security calculators can help you decide when to claim Dear Savvy Senior, Can you recommend some good resources that can help my wife and me determine the best claiming ages for maximizing our Social Security retirement benefits? Just Turned 62 Dear 62, Deciding when to start collecting your Social Security benefits is one of […]
January 5, 2022 | By Tammara Fogle
Three and a half years ago, Dan Hill’s wife, Lori, invited him to join her for pickleball at the Andover rec center. “I went out there to appease her,” Hill said. “I didn’t like it.” Hill, 70, a longtime tennis player, didn’t like the way the pickleball bounced. He allowed his wife […]
| By Tammara Fogle
After years of deferred maintenance and delayed capital improvements, low-income senior housing owned by the city of Wichita is undergoing major renovations. Plans also call for Mennonite Housing to take over management of the 226 units from the Wichita Housing Authority. The four facilities to be improved are the 86-unit Greenway Manor, 315 N. Riverview; […]
| By Joe Stumpe
If we are what we eat, I’m hoping my new book presents a self-portrait that Wichitans find deliciously recognizable. Iconic Eats of Wichita: Surprising History, People and Recipes features nearly 200 recipes that I’ve collected while writing for the Wichita Eagle, Splurge magazine and The Active Age over the last two decades. Of course, you […]
| By Amy Geiszler-Jones
AUGUSTA — A recent article in The Active Age about the all-female Krome Kitty Motorcycle Club sparked memories for a Butler County family whose motorcycle-riding grandma was part of a similar national club called the Motor Maids in the 1950s. Shawn Davis, owner of Free State Cycle Works in Augusta, has seen photos of the […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Jim McCann learned sales working in his grandfather’s insulation business, even if he did have to take a bit of kidding along the way. “We’d go out to people’s houses and I was his driver,” McCann said. “He’d tell me how to sell them, how to estimate things. When it was time for me to […]
| By Annie Calovich
Keeping a close connection to nature is vital to daily life, even during the winter. That’s why Wichitan Pam Pavlick pulls out a plant-growing appliance called the AeroGarden and puts it on her kitchen counter to grow lettuce this time of year. “You really have fun, growing the Black Seeded Simpson and curly varieties you […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Tim Marlar has been elected president of The Active Age’s board of directors. Marlar, of Newton, has served on the board since 2019. He takes over from Mary Corrigan, who remains on the board. Al Higdon and Tiya Tonn have joined the board. Higdon, a long-time Wichita resident, in 1971 co-founded Sullivan Higdon & Sink […]
| By Ted Ayers
“Courtesy Boy: A True Story of Addiction” by Mike Matson (Flint Hills Publishing, 2021, 348 pages) Mike Matson has decades of professional communication experience as a deejay, radio and TV newsman, press secretary to a governor and newspaper columnist. Thus, it is no surprise that he has written an entertaining and engaging book in “Courtesy Boy: […]
| By Richard York
Thank you so much for your story regarding Twin Lakes (November 2021). It brought back many memories for me. I am 72 years old. My parent’s home was at 2616 N. Amidon – a home that my dad built with used lumber and help from friends and family. Most of the home’s lumber came from railroad salvage wood […]
December 31, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
A pair of Wichita women seem to have unleashed a mini-stampede with a simple question: Anybody want to go for a hike? Cindy Coughenour and Jeri Brungardt, who started Women Hiking KS and Beyond two years ago, drew 17 women to the first hike they organized. In October, 106 showed up for a hike at […]
December 1, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
As someone afflicted with Alzheimer’s, David Welch was happy to see a drug called aducanumab conditionally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this summer. Now, he and many others are wondering when it will be available locally and how much it will cost patients to obtain, even though some medical experts say there’s […]
| By Bonnie Bing
If your children or grandchildren want to play in the mud, let them. After all, that’s how sculptor and teacher Babs Mellor started. At the age of six, she was thrilled that her father dug ditches for irrigation pipes. “There was all that wonderful ooey-gooey mud, really like clay, and I spent hours making things,” […]