March 1, 2019 | By Joe Stumpe
Courtesy Photo Cecil Riney and Lisa Hittle, a former colleague at Friends University. I’ve made my share of mistakes as a journalist but hadn’t caused any actual physical harm until last month when I prematurely killed off Cecil Riney, surely one of the best-known folks in Wichita. I put “late” in front of […]
| By Joe Stumpe
“Rosy cheeks!” “I want to see this little baby better!” “I’m telling you, she’s going to be a drummer!” When some young children come to make music for residents of the Caritas Nursing Center, they definitely find a receptive audience. In fact, most of the residents – who are Catholic Sisters of the Adorers of […]
January 30, 2019 | 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 and Faye Thornton It took time after they met – and some good-natured pushing from friends – for Rick and […]
| 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 farm girl and there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do on a farm.” She might keep a walker handy these days, but Hall […]
| 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 something creative with others. “The jazz band gave me a place where I fit and belonged,” Hittle, a saxophonist and Friends University professor, […]
| By Ilham Saad
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 be ordered at cookingwithinspiration.com and is also available in some local stores. I was born in the village of Hadath […]
| 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, on angels – have pushed Strattman’s work into something more conceptual. His current show, “Clusters of Related Ideas,” also at CityArts, represents a […]
| 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 back to Kansas by clicking the heels of her new red slippers. Another night and Maestro Daniel Hege is conducting the orchestra dressed […]
| By 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 Lawrence-based nonprofit formed in 1975, compiled the list after reviewing the past three health safety inspections for all 344 nursing facilities, long-term […]
| 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. That’s all I knew.” But there was one thing Verda didn’t know about the Wagners: They had adopted her from a white […]
January 3, 2019 | 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 easy,” Bing remembers. “I discovered I liked running. And I’m pretty good at it.” Even so, he adds: “I thought people who […]
| By The Active Age
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. 21st Street. Cities are always evolving, but lately changes in Wichita seem to be happening at an accelerated pace. New riverfront […]
| By Beth Bower
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 companion cookbook featuring pie recipes from restaurants across Kansas, plus winners and runners-up in the station’s pie contest. “This project was […]
| 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 will be a smiling gray-haired lady in a sequined jacket Doris Buss, 90 years old this month. She’s been playing in Wichita and […]
| 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 fourth. Although her stories about animals are told by one – Brownlee the Storytelling Lizard – they sometimes have a foot in […]
| 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 to sell their home of 29 years, getting rid of some of their possessions and moving to a senior living community. “I’d […]
| 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 metals and they fought back with similar tariffs. They should have just quit buying toilet paper from us. Don’t snicker. Combined, the three […]
| By Lela Eitel
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 in 2000 – with a white sack full of candy, naturally. This little story is about a white sack and its […]
November 28, 2018 | 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 has happened with the Wichita group, which is thought to be the oldest club of its kind in the United States. At […]
| 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 passed in 1965 because of Congressional concerns about community social services for senior citizens. This was the first of President […]
| By The Active Age
The 2018 election could lead to improvements in health care, the legalization of medical marijuana and other changes sought by seniors at the state and local level. Democratic Gov.-Elect Laura Kelly favors expanding Medicaid coverage to some 150,000 state residents. It’s estimated that about 20 percent are between the ages of 50 and 64, too […]
| By The Active Age
The active age won awards for general excellence and four other categories of work in the 2018 North American Mature Newspaper Publishers Association competition. Competing in Division C, for newspapers with circulations between 50,000 and 100,000, the active age also won for coverage of topical issues, personal essay, feature writing and its annual 55+ Resource […]
| By Amy Geiszler-Jones
In the early 1930s, children suddenly began asking Santa for a new kind of Christmas gift: space toys, popularized by the first science fiction radio show and fueled by marketing gimmicks. Later, the real-life international space race added to the demand for toy rockets, ray guns, robots and more. A special “Toys of the Future” […]
| By Nancy Carver Singleton
Helen Collins of Halstead was volunteering at the Halstead Heritage Museum & Depot one afternoon when each of the three couples who visited wanted to meet “The Harvey Girl.” They were in luck. Collins was a Harvey Girl in the 1950s and has given about 40 presentations about the experience. “I love talking about the […]