September 30, 2021 | By Joe Stumpe
NEWTON — The new director of Harvey County’s Department on Aging shares more than just mutual respect with her predecessor. Lona Kelly, who will start Oct. 4, and Robert Carlton, who is retiring, both say it was their personal experience caring for family members that led them into the field of aging services. Carlton grew […]
| By Bob Rives
It was by default that our family visited Iceland in August. My wife and I, our children and their spouses had planned a trip to France to celebrate our 65th wedding anniversary. Covid stopped that as Europe closed its doors. By 2021, though, Iceland was welcoming visitors. Tourism is one of the country’s economic drivers […]
| By Tammara Fogle
VALLEY CENTER — A half-size replica of the Washington, D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be displayed here Oct. 21-25. There is no charge to visit The Moving Wall, which will be open 24 hours each day. The wall was displayed here in 2012, but local organizers felt it didn’t get the attention it deserved. This […]
August 31, 2021 | By Debbi Elmore
By Debbi Elmore A funny thing happened to the funny-sounding game called pickleball. Popularized by older players, pickleball has captured the attention of people of all ages while becoming the fast-growing sport in the United States. The pop-pop-pop of paddles whacking plastic balls around the Wichita area indicates the trend has definitely reached here. So […]
| By Tammara Fogle
The Active Age AARP is calling for mandatory vaccinations of Kansas nursing home staff and residents, citing a significant rise in COVID-19 cases among nursing home staff and residents. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has ordered that nursing homes require all employees to be vaccinated or lose federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. “The high COVID death […]
| By Bob Rives
By Bob Rives When Major League Baseball staged a game in the Iowa cornfield where “Field of Dreams” was filmed, it became one of the most-talked-about regular season contests in decades. Something similar plays out in Wichita when the city’s two vintage baseball teams square off at Old Cowtown Museum. Baseball is now rivaled in […]
August 2, 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 […]
| 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 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 14, 2021 | By The Active Age
Kansans can take their grandchildren to many attractions for free this summer thanks to a program called Sunflower Summer. Participating attractions include the Cosmosphere, Botanica, Exploration Place, Eisenhower Presidential Museum, Boot Hill Museum and dozens of other museums, state parks, historical sites, theaters and more. The program, sponsored by the Kansas Department of Education, provides […]
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 Bonnie Bing
Ask someone to name institutions of higher learning in Wichita and they’ll quickly come up with Wichita State University, Friends University and Newman University. There’s another four-year school with a shorter history but no lack of impact on the area and state: KU School of Medicine-Wichita. The medical school is 50 years old this year. […]
| By Joe Stumpe
The number of older residents served by the Kansas Food Bank is on the rise. A few years ago, about 7 percent of the people served by the food bank were seniors. Today, that figure is about twice as large. “We have many seniors who are living on limited incomes that can’t make ends meet,” […]
| By Tammara Fogle
ANDOVER — Some temporary residents of the Andover Court assisted living facility have proven extremely flighty, but other residents like them anyway. For the fourth year in a row this spring, a mallard duck flew into the facility’s inner courtyard, laid her eggs and hatched them. “We think it’s the same one, we don’t […]
| By Joe Stumpe
Here’s a two-pronged headscratcher: Why do Kansans have a hard time spelling “multiplication,” and why are we trying to in the first place? Researchers affiliated with AT&T looked into what words residents across the United States have been asking Google for help spelling. (No, they’re not spying on your laptop or phone. A website called […]
| By Diana Breit Wolfe
Recently I sent a couple of cards to my two great-grand nieces for their 14th birthdays. I kidded them about learning to drive, which made me think about my own experiences when I was 14 and so anxious to get a “learner’s permit.” It was 1957 and the family car was a pink ’57 Chevy […]
| By Jay Price
Early Wichita was full of colorful characters, few more so than Malachai R. “Charley” Cordeiro. A scout for the U.S. Army who opened a saloon in Wichita in 1869, Cordeiro became the defendant in one of the town’s first murder trials. When an intoxicated customer named O. H. Whitman demanded that Cordeiro open up his […]
| By Ted Blankenship
In more than 60 years of writing for newspapers and magazines, I have never been a sports writer. One reason is that I never participated in sports. I ran really hard but never got far. That’s because I was kind of fat. In the interest of truthfulness, I was really fat. Worse, I was short, […]
| By Tammara Fogle
Passageways, Inc. has announced plans to open a group home for homeless female veterans on Wichita’s west side, where it already operates a home for male veterans. The nonprofit recently received donations of $50,000 from Cargill and $20,000 from the Goebel Family Star Lumber Charitable Foundation for that purpose. “We’re looking for individuals that might […]
| By The Active Age
NEWTON — When temperatures creep up this summer, visitors to Grand Central senior center won’t sweat it. The center recently finished a $60,000 overhaul of its air conditioning system. “It’s definitely a great addition,” Grand Central board president Bob Driskill said. “We couldn’t use this facility if we didn’t have that air conditioning.” Driskill said […]
| By Tammara Fogle
70th wedding anniversary Harold and Nancy Brandenburg (above) will be married 70 years on July 9. Harold taught and coached at Mulvane, Wichita West, Wichita Southeast and Wichita Northwest. Nancy taught at Westwood Preschool. After retirement they enjoyed travel in the United States and overseas. They have four children — Janie Jacobs, Hal Brandenburg, Beth […]
| By Pat O’Connor
Article and photos by Pat O’Connor The East Mt. Vernon neighborhood runs from Harry to Pawnee and Oliver to Woodlawn. Many of its homes were built for working and middle-class families in the post-World War II housing boom. The natural setting at the edge of these neighborhoods colored the adventures. Karen Dobbin “I lived on […]