August 2, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
By Joe Stumpe Bill Fry enlisted during World War II with the goal of becoming of pilot. He did that and a whole lot more. On July 20, the 95-year-old resident of Lakepoint Wichita was awarded the French Legion of Honor — France’s highest distinction — for his combat service nearly eight decades ago. In […]
| By Joe Stumpe
By Joe Stumpe It’s no secret that dining out is one of Wichita’s favorite forms of entertainment. A new book by the Wichita Eagle’s Denise Neil shows that the city has been restaurant crazy for a long time, maybe since its earliest days. “Classic Restaurants of Wichita” is set to be released by The History […]
| By Tammara Fogle
The Active Age An idea that’s been simmering in Susan Peters’ head for years is finally ready for consumption: a TV show based around family recipes. “The Family Dinner Table” debuted on PBS Kansas (formerly KPTS) last month. New episodes of the half-hour show will air at 2:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each […]
| By The Active Age
Sedgwick County’s use of local tax revenue for older residents is not keeping up with the growth of that population, a new analysis by Wichita State University shows. In fact, per capita spending from that source has fallen 27 percent over the past decade while the population over 60 grew by almost 33 percent. The […]
| By The Active Age
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett is warning older residents and their families to be on the watch for online romance scams after a Wichita area woman was conned out of $482,000. A romance scam, also known as an online dating scam, is when a person is tricked into believing they are in a romantic relationship with […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Children 1st seeks help Can you teach, garden or cook? Children 1st, a nonprofit serving low-income students and their families, is seeking a retiree with expertise in one or more of those areas to teach its food curriculum. Children 1st has an education garden and teaching kitchen. The position is volunteer but there is some […]
| By Tammara Fogle
By Sharon Van Horn I’m a lifelong resident of Wichita, and boy has our city changed over the last several years. I can remember when restaurant choices were few and far between, and if you wanted to order an alcoholic drink at a club you had to buy a membership, buy a bottle of liquor […]
| By Ted Blankenship
By Ted Blankenship I have read that ants are beneficial insects. Entomologists say that’s because they get rid of bits of food lying around the house and decaying organic matter outside. I’d like ants better if they were beneficent elsewhere. The ants that invade our house might be more welcome if they came in smaller […]
| By Tammara Fogle
“The Death Project: An Anthology for These Times,” edited by Gretchen Eick and Cora Poage (Blue Cedar Press, 2021, 196 pages) By Ted Ayres I have for some time admired historian and activist Gretchen Eick, rating her 2001 book, “Dissent in Wichita,” a classic. Eick worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for more than a […]
July 30, 2021 | By Mary Clarkin
By Mary Clarkin Micky Maddux encounters the homeless three to 10 times a day. She does not live or work in a shelter or sleep on a sidewalk. She’s the owner of an art gallery in Wichita’s Old Town Square. She’s cleaned their urine and feces off her gallery front in the morning, been accosted and […]
July 1, 2021 | By Debbi Elmore
As a young man, Swapan Kumar Chaudhuri dreamed of coming to the United States. “I was envious of Americans and all the opportunities here,” he said. Chaudhuri realized his ambition in his late 30s. Since his arrival from Canada in 1996, he has earned a master’s degree from Wichita State University, landed a job in […]
| By Joe Stumpe
“Laughing at Myself: My Education in Congress, on the Farm, and at the Movies” by Dan Glickman (University of Kansas Press, $34.95) Dan Glickman believes the lack of humor in the current political environment is no laughing matter. “I do think there’s a toxic partisanship — an excessively partisan atmosphere in politics […]
| By The Active Age
40 years ago Plans for Wichita’s first Senior Olympics, to be held in Linwood Park, were announced … A support group for families of people with Alzheimer’s was organized in Wichita … Bob Fletcher, 81, and Pat Van Dyne, 86, married six months after meeting at Hillhaven Nursing Home. 25 years ago Wanda Groves, 74, […]
| By The Active Age
After a year off, the Heartland Games track and field meet returned to Friends University on June 5. More than 50 athletes competed in events, including the shot put, discus throw, javelin and several foot races. The Heartland Games originated as a series of fundraising competitions to help support operations at all four senior centers […]
June 1, 2021 | By Debbi Elmore
An anti-hunger campaign started by a 6-year-old Wichita boy has turned into an intergenerational effort reaching into six other states. Called Paxton’s Blessing Boxes after Paxton Burns, who’s now 11, the red boxes are stocked with donated food and personal hygiene products that are free for anyone to take. The endeavor has grown to 93 […]
| By Amy Geiszler-Jones
Emerson McAdams took on many roles at what was known as McKinley Park in northeast Wichita. Often referred to simply as Mac, he cut the grass. He chaperoned dances. At the only city swimming pool open to black residents, he fished out snakes and threw them over a fence in the direction of a nearby […]
| By The Active Age
Congratulations to Roberta Morrison, winner of The Active Age outdoor photography contest. Morrison captured the Keeper of the Plains on May 3. She wins a $25 gift certificate to Nifty Nut House. Second place and a $15 gift certificate to Nifty goes to Tracie Klinke, who photographed the grave of her grandfather, Korean War vet […]
| By Ted Blankenship
Kansas is the source of some of the best music to be heard anywhere and has been for some time. Wichita, for example is home to Chamber Music at the Barn, now in its 25th season at Bob Scott’s Prairie Pines venue on north Maize Road, and the Wichita Jazz Festival now nearing its 50th […]
| By Joe Stumpe
NORTH NEWTON — It’s not every day someone comes up with a new genre of art, but then Glen Ediger is an inventor. Among other things. Ediger thought up the genre — which he calls environmental exposure — a few years before retiring as director of design for Vornado Air. He noticed that a piece […]
| By Joe Stumpe
First off, thanks to everyone who filled out and returned the community survey that was in last month’s issue. The survey was designed to give people a lot of latitude in what they chose to focus on. In fact, that was the point. For the most part, people who responded seem to like their communities, […]
May 20, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
Correction: A headline on an earlier version of this article said the McCormick School Museum is closed. Tours are still available by appointment on Wednesday and Sunday. To schedule one, call (316) 841-6198. The future of Wichita’s oldest school building, which houses McCormick School Museum, appears shaky. According to a memo that museum curator Paul […]
April 29, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
When Bobby Thompson thinks back to his parents’ restaurant in Junction City, he remembers more than just filling the ice machine or standing on a chair to reach the cash register. “Ninth Street was notorious,” Thompson said of the street his parents’ café, the Thompson Inn, was located on. In 1999, a film called “Ninth […]
| By The Active Age
Over the next few months, the Wichita Journalism Collaborative will explore the social acceptability of mental health care, access to treatment and the challenge of affordability. But to do our work well, we’ll need the help of readers like you. The Wichita Journalism Collaborative is a coalition of local newsrooms and community institutions that launched […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Cindy Entriken was helping her grandmother clean out the house she’d lived in for 55 years when she came across a “ratty pile of papers tied with dirty string.” “I said, ‘What is this?’ She said, ‘Those are the letters your great aunt wrote during the war.’ ” Nearly three decades later, Entriken has turned […]