January 31, 2026 | By Joe Stumpe
Allen Goodwin remembers the thrill of piloting a Lear Jet Model 23 made in Wichita during the 1960s. “Those of us who flew 23s for a living — it was a beautiful piece of engineering,” said Goodwin, a former test pilot for Learjet. “You either wanted to fly this one or a G2 (Gulfstream II). They […]
December 30, 2025 | By Joe Stumpe
Two Sedgwick County residents in their 60s learned recently that online dating can be expensive — when the other party is a scammer. After meeting the victims separately through a legitimate online dating platform, this fraudster began texting them and eventually persuaded them to send money in the form of cashier’s checks to various banks […]
December 1, 2025 | By Joe Norris
ROSE HILL — In “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” movie, nobody loves Christmas more than Clark Griswold. When he throws the switch on his gleefully over-decorated house, it fries the city’s electric grid. In Rose Hill, Kansas, nobody loves Christmas more than Michael Russell. He calls his place The Griswold House of Rose Hill. But that […]
October 30, 2025 | By Joe Stumpe
Joe Walsh has come home before, but never quite like this. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — born at Wesley Hospital (now Wesley Medical Center) on Nov. 20, 1947 — is bringing his annual VetsAid concert to Intrust Bank Arena on Saturday, Nov. 15. Money raised by the event will be distributed to […]
September 30, 2025 | By Joe Stumpe
Before making one of the most important walks of her life, Elizabeth Wilson Winterbone wanted to make sure she was physically up to the challenge. Toned up and trimmed down, she’s ready now. Winterbone is the daughter of Ben and Helen Wilson, who died in the Oct. 2, 1970 crash of a plane carrying Wichita […]
August 29, 2025 | By y Joe Stumpe
Dennis Suitor jumped out of an airplane the day after his 80th birthday and hasn’t quite come down yet. “I tell you, I’ve had a pretty exciting life — I’ve done a lot of things — but that’s about the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” Suitor said a few days after his Aug. 2 […]
August 1, 2025 | By Jennifer Lister
At any given swimming party on any given summer day, there’s a good chance that someone is staying afloat thanks to “Miss Kim.” Kim Morrissey, a 69-year-old Wichita retiree who has been teaching swimming lessons in Wichita for four decades, estimates that she’s taught at least 5,000 people to swim, some from different generations of […]
July 1, 2025 | By By Bonnie Bing
Eight decades into her love affair with ballet, Ruth White still performs every move with her students. Warming up a class recently, she sat on the floor and extended her legs in a wide V. “Back straight, now lean forward,” she said, stretching until her own forehead touched the floor. It’s no wonder the petite […]
May 30, 2025 | By Joe Stumpe
Ariel Rodriguez remembers the day in 2021 that Gene and Yolanda Camarena attended the auction for the former Nomar Theater building in Wichita’s North End. At the time, the Empower nonprofit organization was only a few weeks old, without a real home of its own. Rodriguez is its executive director, while the Camarenas both sit […]
May 1, 2025 | By Beth Bower
Turn on a spigot. Open a bottle of water. Brush your teeth with the water running. For Wichitans, there’s water even in a drought. For the people of rural Tanzania, there are no water assurances. They have streams and wells, but they are full of contaminants such as toxins, bacteria and human waste. And yet, […]
March 31, 2025 | By Kierra Koeber
On a chilly day in January, students in the Children 1st program meet at the St. Anne Catholic Church pastoral center in south Wichita to fill backpacks intended for the homeless with food, hygiene supplies and hand-crafted messages of hope. As the middle-schoolers find their seats, Children 1st executive director Kathleen Webb talks about some […]
March 1, 2025 | By Joe Norris
It was April 24, 1924. In Germany, Hitler had just begun the first month of a 5-year prison term for the treasonous Beer Hall Putsch. In Wichita, people were paying a quarter to see the new Buster Keaton movie. And in Lucas, Kansas, S.P. Dinsmoor was exchanging wedding vows with his second wife, Emilie. The […]
January 29, 2025 | By Joe Stumpe
The first history Gerald Norwood got interested in was his own family’s, and who could blame him? Norwood’s grandfather, Henry, spent his childhood enslaved on plantations in North Carolina and southwest Arkansas. Following the Civil War, Henry and his older brother made their way on foot about 130 miles north in Arkansas, settling near Fort […]
December 30, 2024 | By Sherry Graham Howerton
If souls ministered to translated into dollars earned, pastors Homer and Lois Smuck’s lives might be very different right now. The retired couple spent more than 40 years in ministry, serving hundreds of congregants across four states in predominantly rural communities and small churches. Making ends meet while raising three children was tough, and financial […]
December 1, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
After a lull of a decade, Wichita is once again participating in AARP’s age-friendly community program. It’s unclear what, if any, changes residents can expect to see as a result, but supporters are hopeful. “For me, our community should be the best place to live, work and raise a family,” Mayor Lily Wu said. “When […]
October 30, 2024 | 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 […]
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 […]
August 30, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
DERBY — Jodee Dalton has seen a few younger students shed tears as her Derby school bus pulls up in the morning. Her pep talk goes something like this: “You’re on here with your friends. I know it’s early, and it’s hard to go. We’re buddies.” Most of the time, it’s the students who keep […]
July 31, 2024 | By Carl Williams
Working in Wichita’s aircraft industry during the 1960s, Herb Schnoetzinger met many other immigrants from around the world. Whatever the cultural and language barriers, they often shared a love of the world’s most popular sport — soccer (actually, “football” to most of the world). It was through those new friends that Schnoetzinger, a native of […]
July 1, 2024 | By The Active Age
Dorothy Kaiser made a decision with lasting benefits when she married for the second time in 1970, and it wasn’t her choice of husbands (although he worked out, too). “I decided I did not want to be a golf widow,” said Kaiser, who married an avid golfer. “I just made up my mind I would […]
May 31, 2024 | By The Active Age
Peggy Smith isn’t sure how many quilts she’s made over the years. She stopped counting at 100. Multiplied by the time each required, that’s the equivalent of years of full-time work. Smith considers it time well spent. “It’s something I taught my daughter to do,” Smith, of Haysville, said. “I’m getting ready to teach my […]
May 1, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
You know your family’s been around Wichita awhile when it has a street named for it. Or in Don Martinson’s case, three of them. There’s Martinson Street, which runs through Delano and south Wichita. It was named by Martinson’s grandfather, who developed much of Delano in the late 1880s. A little farther west are Charles […]
April 1, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
Saved by concerned citizens from possible demolition, Century II is starting to look like its old self again. Make that its new self. Restoration work on the downtown landmark’s iconic blue dome is nearly done, with completion expected by the end of summer. Nearly gone is the pale turquiose shade that’s loomed over the convention […]
February 27, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
As lovers of all things old, Larry and Cathy Mong were thrilled with the home they bought for $50,000 in Wichita 23 years ago: a 1906 Victorian in south central Wichita, less than a mile from the heart of downtown. The neighborhood was a little rough, but the Mongs had seen similar neighborhoods in the […]
February 1, 2024 | By Joe Stumpe
For years, Denise Johnston’s life followed a familiar pattern. Come spring, she and her husband, Rusty, would start preparing for women’s senior softball tournaments. A roster would be assembled, practices held and the team would travel to tournaments from California to Florida. Denise played and Rusty coached. Their team was known as the P’Nut Batters, […]