December 1, 2024 | By The Active Age
Inspiring story Thank you for the front-page article about Neal Baaker. It was so encouraging to learn of his journey to the United States, trials, hard work and ultimate success as a businessman. I decided to visit his nursery which resulted in a phone call. While his Wichita Greenhouse is closed for the season, I […]
November 8, 2024 | By Trace Salzbrenner The Journal
Wichita is cutting back to ready for a budget shortfall in the coming years. To prepare, the City Council is sorting through spending items to determine what’s most essential. That will mean decreased funding for such things as Century II and the Wichita Ice Center, and moving money away from the program to pave dirt […]
October 30, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
With parents and grandparents who lived into their 90s, Roz Hutchinson should have a leg up on longevity. As she neared 70, her physical condition told a different story. “I had the genetics, but I didn’t have the lifestyle to do the same,” Hutchinson said. She does now. Since the beginning of 2023, Hutchinson has […]
| By Amy Geiszler-Jones
In a garage space in Old Town, about a dozen volunteers are rebuilding a rare World War I-era aircraft to memorialize Wichita’s only aviator to win a Medal of Honor. They range from childhood model plane builders and military history buffs to veterans of U.S. conflicts going back to the Korean War. Most were already […]
| By Amy Geiszler-Jones
Kim Campbell Morrissey spearheaded the 50-year reunion of Wichita Heights’ class of 1974 in five quick months. That’s because it wasn’t until this past spring that she discovered a reunion wasn’t in the works. “My thought was that it’s kind of a milestone that we should not let go by without celebrating,” said Morrissey, a […]
| By The Active Age
Share the Season is a holiday program that helps working families in Sedgwick County who are experiencing financial hardship due to a major life event or difficult circumstance. The funds raised through this program are used to fill the gaps left by other assistance programs. Since 2000, the Wichita community has contributed over $4.5 million […]
| By The Active Age
Since retiring as a federal judge 14 months ago, Ken Gale has more time than ever for one of his lifelong passions — music. Gale recently joined Jazz in the Heartland, a group that specializes in Dixieland jazz, as its banjo player. “They’re a great bunch of guys,” he said. “It’s great to have another […]
| By Joe Stumpe
It’s the birthright of every American to complain about politics and politicians. After all, that’s pretty much how our country got started in the first place. But the griping rings a little hollow when it comes from someone who doesn’t participate in the political process by voting. It’s kind of like a sports team forfeiting […]
| By Nancy Wheeler
November is a great month for eating and entertaining. Try these questions to see if you are a turkey expert or just a lame duck. The answers appear below. 1. What main dish consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck and then stuffed into a deboned turkey? 2. What Thanksgiving staple was […]
| By Ted Blankenship
Early in 1943, my family moved from Madison, Kan., to Eureka, some 25 miles to the south. We had been there about three weeks and I was out riding my bicycle. And there on the front lawn sunning herself was a pretty redhead. Somehow, I managed to get a conversation going, which eventually became long […]
| By Ted Ayres
“Like What You Do” by Dr. W. Walt Menninger and Todd Fertig (Flint Hills Publishing, 2024, 457 pages, $40.00) There are a few names associated with Kansas that have become recognizable on an international basis: Earp, Earhart, Landon and Eisenhower, to name a handful. Another such name is Menninger. Four generations of Menningers created and ran a world-renowned […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Nancy Wooten Blanchat was the youngest student attending a one-room schoolhouse near Stafford, Kan., when her teacher sent her outside while older pupils worked on their cursive handwriting. As Blanchat recalls, she was supposed to study shadows as some kind of science project. Instead, the unsupervised 5-year-old found herself being stared down by a giant […]
| By Diana Morton
Forum Theatre, at the Wilke Center, 1st United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. Dial M for Murder. A new version of the celebrated murder mystery that inspired Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Tony is convinced that his wife Margot has been cheating on him. Now it seems that the affair is over, but in his jealousy, Tony spins […]
October 1, 2024 | By Sherry Graham Howerton
John F. Kennedy was leading the nation when Neal Bakker immigrated to the United States more than six decades ago. Twenty-four years old and speaking little English, Bakker arrived in Kansas under the sponsorship of a fellow Dutchman, Wichitan John Borst, to work in Borst’s greenhouse, Livingston Rose Garden & Nursery. As Bakker evolved from […]
| By Joe Norris
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, there’s a beautiful town square park that you enter through one of two huge arches made of elk antlers. When huckleberries are in season, you can sit in the park and enjoy a huckleberry lemonade or one of several other tasty huckleberry concoctions. They’re crazy for huckleberries in that part of […]
| By Becky Funke
GODDARD — The Goddard Senior Center is on a roll. What had been a group of older residents getting together informally cut the ribbon on the new Goddard Senior Center last month, days after the Goddard City Council approved $46,000 in funding for it ($6,000 of which came from Sedgwick County). This month, the center […]
| By The Active Age
Three new members have joined the board of directors of The Active Age. Steve Criser is one of the founders and owners of CGP Group, LLC, a tax and accounting firm. A Wichita native, he graduated from East High and Wichita State University. Criser jokes that a job he held during college — drawing blood […]
| By The Active Age
Diabetes fair offers free testing Free testing for diabetes, flu vaccines, foot exams and more will be offered during the 8th annual Live Well with Diabetes Fair, held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Wichita State Metroplex, 5015 E. 29th St. N. Sponsored by the Great Plains Diabetes Center, the […]
| By Lynn Avants
“Wichita Blues: Music in the African American Community” by Patrick Joseph O’Connor (2024, University Press of Mississippi, 282 pages, $30 on Amazon) The traditions and history of the blues as a music form have been well-documented in some regions of the United States. The new book “Wichita Blues” does the same for the genre in […]
| By The Active Age
The Active Age is now available in audio form through NFB-Newsline, a service of the National Federation of the Blind and State Library of Kansas. NFB-Newsline is intended to help those who are visually impaired or have difficulty because of a physical impairment or reading disability. There is no charge for the service, but users […]
| By The League of Women Voters Wichita-Metro
Whether you’re 19 or 99, you are an important member of our democracy. Be sure to exercise your right to vote in the November 2024 election. Here’s how to plan ahead. Check your registration Go to KSvotes.org or call the Sedgwick County Election Office at (316) 660-7100 to see if you are registered and if your information […]
| 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. […]
| By Ted Blankenship
If you are a genuine Kansan, say born in Bazaar, you probably already know this. But if you’re a native of, say, Dallas or Minneapolis, you probably grew up mispronouncing the name of a native Kansas animal, the coyote. It’s co-yote, not co-yot-ee. The frustrating part of this is that people who put the “ee” […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Hunger-inducing. That’s one good description of a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza when it’s pulled out of the oven. The fact that it takes only a handful of inexpensive store-bought ingredients to put together makes it even more appetizing. Chicago-style Deep-dish Pizza Olive oil 1 bag (16 oz.) refrigerated pizza dough, brought to room temperature 1/2 […]
| By Nancy Wheeler
Paranormal events are phenomena whose existence cannot be explained by science. As Halloween approaches, let’s review our working knowledge of these reported occurrences. The answers appear below. 1. What name is given to the colorful spiritual energy that surrounds a person’s physical body and indicates a person’s emotional or physical well-being? 2. What term is […]