With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 10, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the sixth inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
A beloved schoolteacher in her time, Minnie Jane King sets the example of how to lead a rich rewarding life by giving back to one’s family, community, and profession, a life more than worthy of inclusion into the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
Minnie Jane King was the daughter of Thomas W. and Elizabeth Goodwin King, and was born March 27, 1891 in Delta, Ohio. She came to Kansas when a young girl with her parents, who settled south of Portis on a farm in Bethany Township which her father purchased as a timber claim, the place known dear to her all her life as home.
Minnie attended the Portis schools, graduating from high school with the class of 1912, and entered the teaching profession. She taught at the following Osborne County schools:
Summit School, District #41, 1913-1915
Fairview School, District #21, 1915-1916
Portis School, District #19, 1916-1954
Portis School, District #19, 1956-1957
During these years Minnie also advanced her education by college attendance at Hays and Emporia, Kansas and at Boulder, Colorado.
Minnie gave her best to the teaching profession, serving in the classroom a total of 42 years. Men and women who much later were engaged in various activities of livelihood over a wide area still remembered with pride of having been one of Minnie’s pupils. She enjoyed orderliness and neatness, and parents and friends sensed a feeling of quiet repose when they visited her classroom.
Minnie was a devoted member of the Portis Methodist Church, having been superintendent of the primary department for many years. The activities of the church profited greatly from her work and interest, where again she exhibited her sterling qualities of loyalty, promptness, sincerity and thoroughness. In 1957 Minnie was presented the coveted Women’s Society of Christian Service pin in recognition of her many years of faithful service to the church and Sunday School. She had also devoted much time and research to compiling a history of the Methodist Church of Portis.
Minnie’s life was centered around the activities of the King farmhome south of Portis. Minnie lived here with her brother Thomas and his wife Alberta, a fellow teacher. In the community, in the church, in civic activities Minnie had been active and energetic. She was a lifetime member of the National Education Association; a member of the Auxiliaries of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars; the Daughters of the American Revolution; a charter member of Gamma Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an international teachers’ society; and of numerous local organizations, including the Portis Alumni Association of which she was president, and for whom she started compiling a history of.
Minnie retired the first time in May 1954. Later that summer she married William L. Farnsworth on August 31, 1954 in Portis. Unfortunately, the marriage did not go well, and sometime after April 1955 Minnie and Will Farnsworth separated and then divorced. Minnie went back and taught one more school year at Portis before she truly ended her teaching career.
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Retiring Portis Teacher Honored by City, Pupils
“PORTIS—Minnie J. King is retiring at the end of the current school term, but to her it’s just a change of work.
She was been a teacher for the past [42] years. She taught three years in rural school at Summit and Fairview, and has been a grade teacher here for [39] years.
She was honored recently at a special community meeting. A program, given by former pupils and associates, was one of School day memories in song, readings, and skits. Miss King was given a plaque by the 1957 Portis school staff, a PTA memory book with the entire list of her 741 pupils printed in gold, along with names of school officials, and an electric clock by the community. Telegrams and a large packet of letters were received from pupils and friends, and presented at the meeting.
Other guests at the meeting included Miss King’s brother and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas King, Portis; her sisters, Mrs. Edna Forrest, Wichita, and Mrs. Sarabelle Kaup, Manhattan, and Bessie Perry-Nichols, Harlan, a teacher on the faculty with Miss King during her first year at Portis.
She plans to travel, visit and work in her flower garden.
‘When the school bell rings next September, I will relive the happy memories of past years of service in this great profession,’ she said.” – Salina Journal, May 7, 1957.
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In 1957 Minnie, “Pat” [Alberta] and Tom [King] completed together their beautiful new home on the King farm south of Portis. There the three of them enjoyed sharing their hospitality with their many friends in the community. Their happy time there together, however, was sadly to be all too brief.
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“Two elderly women were killed on Wednesday of last week in a highway collision on US-81, five miles south of McPherson.
The dead: Mrs. Alberta J. King, 67, and her sister-in-law, Miss Minnie King, 66, both of Portis, State Trooper Bernia Hill said.
Mrs. King’s car went out of control and spun into the path of an oncoming semi-trailer truck, then was struck from behind by a car driven by 22-year-old Richard Fox of Wichita. Both women were thrown from their car.
Fox and his sister Nina and truck driver Jacob Yutzy, 35, of Kolona, Iowa, escaped injury.
All hearts were filled with sadness in the community last week when news came of the sudden tragic death in an automobile accident of two dearly beloved and well-known Portis ladies, Minnie J. King and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Alberta King. The ladies were enroute home from Wichita when the tragedy occurred. Of these two beloved teachers it can be said that they encouraged, inspired and stimulated those about them.”— Downs News, February 6, 1958.
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Minnie Jane King unexpectedly passed away on January 29, 1958 in McPherson County, Kansas. A sorrowing community came together to mourn as she was laid to rest in the Fairview Cemetery, southwest of Portis in Bethany Township. The Osborne County Hall of Fame will continue to honor her memory.
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Sources:
Downs News and Times, Downs, Kansas, September 9, 1954, page 4; February 6, 1958, page 1.
Osborne County Farmer Journal, Osborne, Kansas, February 6, 1958, page 8.
Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas, May 7, 1957, page 9.
With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 9, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the fifth inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
Eugene Franklin Jemison was the son of George Franklin and Emma Mae (Scott) Jemison. He was born on May 16, 1916, in Alton, Osborne County, Kansas. When Eugene was five years old his family moved onto the old Jemison homestead located four miles east of Osborne, Kansas in Penn Township. His father and two uncles were balladeers and had toured the Midwest playing and singing ballads in the late 19th Century. Eugene learned his music playing the family organ. He had an art easel set up in the same room with the organ, and whenever he tired of playing, he turned to drawing and painting. His first drawings growing up were of old buildings, farms and rivers near his home. Eugene then learned to sketch relatives and friends. He attended Baker School, District #12, and graduated from Osborne High School in 1934.
From June 1934 through September 1937 Eugene worked for the Blair Theatre in Osborne. He entered KMMJ Radio’s “Home Talent Broadcast” in April 1937, singing an old ballad that won him the first prize of $20.00, beating out 81 other aspiring performers from 50 towns in the four-day broadcast. That September Eugene entered Washburn College, but his college life was interrupted by his induction into the armed forces in December 1940 during World War II. Listed as being 6 feet tall and having blue eyes and blond hair, the 154-pound Eugene served as the director of the Special Service School of Art in U.S. Air, Ground, and Service Forces from 1942 through 1946 in California and Texas. While in the service he painted a 320-foot historical mural called “The Dream of Flight” in California. Eugene was discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant in January 1946.
After his service Eugene returned to Washburn, where he studied ballad, music, voice and guitar. He graduated Washburn College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in May 1946. In the fall of 1946 Eugene enrolled in the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City and the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design. He also studied with John Jacob Niles at the University of Kansas City. Eugene graduated from the Art Institute in 1948 with a Masters of Fine Arts degree and began teaching at the school. That same year he held his first one-man art show at the Institute.
On September 8, 1950, Eugene married Louise Burton at Fort Scott, Kansas, and they had a daughter, Jeannie.
From 1959 to 1964 Eugene was department chairman of the Institute’s Graphic Arts Department, Photography and Printmaking. In 1949 Eugene graduated from the Mexico City Institute of Art, and during the next two years he studied at Hunter College in New York City. He received a Doctor of Fine Arts Education degree from Columbia University Teachers College in 1952 and then taught a course at Columbia University called “Folk and Primitive Music” in 1952-1954.
In 1954 Eugene recorded for Folkways Records an album of ballads entitled “Solomon Valley Ballads.” Eugene’s songs about the life of Kansas settlers in the Solomon Valley included adaptations of ballads brought to the prairie from back East, as well as locally-composed songs about the plight of the Plains tribes. His unaffected style conveyed the trials and joys of frontier life with honest grace.
Cover for the album Solomon Valley Ballads, by Eugene Franklin Jemison (1954).
From 1958 on Eugene earned a national reputation as a scholar and accomplished singer in the field of folklore and folk music. In 1965-1968 Eugene lived in New York City to be nearer the burgeoning folk scene. It was around this time that he married Soja Imbery. In 1969 he became a professor of art at Lake Superior State College (LSSC) in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, and was a teacher there for seventeen years. For twelve years he was an artist-lecturer with the arts program sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and the Danforth Foundation and visited about twenty colleges a year giving lectures and performances concerning folk music. In all Eugene conducted over 300 art workshops from coast to coast, and was a member of both the Museum of Modern Art Education Committee and the New York Art Students League. He further studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology (1962-1963), the New School for Social Research in New York City (1950-1951), and in 1965 researched in England, Wales, the Netherlands, and Scotland.
In the field of fine arts Eugene is nationally known for a drawing technique he developed and called “Imaginative Processes of Graphic Visualization,” as well as “Objective Realism through Psychic Automatism.” Eugene retired in 1986 as full-time head of the School of Art at LSSC. He then spent two more years at LSSC, teaching painting and drawing classes part-time and helped to plan a new Fine Arts building. Eugene’s paintings, drawings and prints have been exhibited in museums and college/university galleries throughout the entire country.
Once I Courted a Handsome Wench, print illustration by Franklin Eugene Jemison.
Illustration for the song “The Ocean Burial,” From the album Solomon Valley Ballads liner notes, by Eugene Franklin Jemison (1954).
Eugene Franklin Jemison, “Hard Working Couple.” This work was recently donated by the Jemison family to the Osborne County Genealogical & Historical Society and can be seen at the Carnegie Research Library in Osborne, Kansas.
Eugene Franklin Jemison, “Strike Two” – baseball-themed abstract.
In 1988 Eugene moved to Florida and entered permanent retirement. He died on January 17, 2000, at Port Charlotte, Florida, and was laid to rest in the Osborne Cemetery at Osborne, Kansas. As a lifetime educator in the arts Eugene Franklin Jemison has few peers in the annals of Osborne County, and he rightfully takes an honored place in the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
Eugene and Sonja Jemison enjoying retirement. Image courtesy of saultareaartscouncil.org
Osborne Cemetery, Osborne, Kansas.
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Sources:
Clay Center Sun, Clay Center, Nebraska, April 22, 1937, page 1.
Evening News, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, November 12, 1966, page 6; August 13, 1969, page 22.
Herald and Review, Decatur, Illinois, March 2, 1958, page 23; March 7, 1958, page 3.
Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri, November 7, 1947, page 43; September 16, 1948, page 21; March 19, 1954, page 13.
Longview Daily News, Longview, Washington, March 12, 1965, page 7.
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas, June 5, 1941, page 2; June 12, 1941, page 4; April 22, 1954, page 13.
San Antonio Express, San Antonio, Texas, January 5, 1946, page 1A.
Star-Gazette, Elmira, New York, March 4, 1962, page 11.
1934 Osborne High School “Swan Song” yearbook, page 15.
With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 8, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the fourth inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
Charles Crampton newspaper advertisement, The Truth Teller, Osborne, Kansas, October 31, 1879, Page One.
Charles William Crampton was born on June 11, 1830, Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut. When he was but two years of age he moved with his parents to Troy, New York. Charles married Mary J. Harris on September 11, 1850, and together they raised three children: Stephen Palmer, Charles H., and Jessie A. When he turned twenty-one years old Charles started in the hat, cap and fur business. He also worked as an engineer and a clerk through the 1860s.
During the winter of 1869-1870 the Manning Colony was formed in the Troy-Albany, New York region, and Charles signed up his family as members. In April 1870 the colony headed west, and on May 31st of that year began claiming lands along the South Fork Solomon River near the mouth of Covert Creek and on west in what would become Penn and Tilden Townships of Osborne County, Kansas. Charles took up a homestead located in the southern half of Section 25, Township 7 South, Range 13 West, and to go to Junction City, Kansas, at the time the nearest land office at which to file his homestead papers. He then spent the next two years concentrating on farming.
Charles was an important figure in early Osborne County administration. In 1872 he was elected the second ever Osborne County Clerk, serving a total of six one-year terms through 1877. In 1873 Charles was appointed Osborne County Register of Deeds to fill a vacancy, serving one year. In 1878-1879 he was appointed Osborne County Clerk of the District Court to fill yet another vacancy, and served one two-year term. Charles became a commissioned notary public in 1875.
Letting his children oversee the farm, Charles moved into Osborne and worked through this time as a salesman for the agricultural firm of Hays & Wilson until the fall of 1881. On June 9, 1882, he was appointed postmaster of Osborne City, Kansas, serving until 1886. In July 1887 Charles bought an interest in the Osborne County Farmer newspaper, spending his time working in the financial side of the business. He sold out his interest in the paper in January 1890 and bought a local hardware store, which he was operating when he suddenly died on October 19, 1896, at his home in Osborne. All commercial enterprises in the town closed down for the duration of his funeral, as a large crowd of family, friends, and citizens escorted Charles William Crampton to his final resting place in the Osborne Cemetery.
Newspaper Advertisement, Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas, July 14, 1887, Page 6.
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Sources:
History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas, edited and compiled by L. Wallace Duncan, Charles F. Scott, Iola, Kansas: Iola Register, Printers and Binders (1901), page 771.
William G. Cutler’s History of Kansas, Part 3 (1883).
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas – October 22, 1896, page 1.
US Draft Registration Record June 1863, Rensselaar and Washington Counties, New York, #58.
With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 7, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the third inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
Homer Lynn Clark was born on December 26, 1909 to Jesse M. and Sadie E. (MacGibbon) Clark in Osborne, Kansas. He was the youngest of seven children. In April 19010 the family moved to a farm located five miles northwest of Osborne in Tilden Township. Homer attended Valley View School, District #29. He then graduated Osborne High School. He continued to help his father run the family farm following school.
Music was a joy to Homer. For years he directed the Osborne Municipal Band and was himself a drummer. In July 1934 Homer was elected President of the North Central Kansas Band Association, an organization that he helped to form and participated in for several years. Homer also taught twirling classes, with many of his students going on to compete in state meets.
By February 1939 Homer had taken a job working at the Peter Pan store in Osborne in addition to his farming activities. Around 1950 he began to collect antiques and stored them on the farm. With his granddad as an auctioneer, Homer began to learn the auctioneering trade. He soon picked up some consignment sales and by December 1956 Clark’s Auction Service was being advertised far and wide. For nearly thirty years Homer’s rambling antique store at Second and Main in Osborne was the headquarters for Clark’s Auction Service.
Homer’s business philosophy was firmly rooted in the motto on the hand-painted sign in his store window: “Buy, Sell, or Trade Anything of Value.” Name it, and Homer usually had it. Despite the seemingly obvious confusion to the place, Homer could always lay his hand on the article specified by the customer. His mind and memory were far advanced of any modern computer. It was always great entertainment to watch Homer and a customer haggle over the price of a particular item. You got the feeling that Homer never took a loss on anything that left his store.
Homer collected everything – especially iron banks – and his inventory spilled over in his two large store buildings, with barely room to walk in the aisles. Homer’s legendary store drew hundreds of collectors each year from as far away as New York and California to come and see for themselves what treasures they could discover.
In additional to the store and the auction trade Homer continued to work the family farm northwest of Osborne where he had spent most of his life. This changed in 1966 when the Clark family sold the farm and Homer moved into Osborne.
In the early 1980s Homer’s health began to fail, and in January of 1982 he knew he had to give up the auctioneering business. He then hired others to run his antique store. When Homer died in Osborne on June 24, 1982, and afterwards was laid to rest in the Osborne Cemetery, it was acknowledged as the end to an era of success in the business climate not only of Osborne but indeed the entire region.
“The Main Street scene won’t be quite the same following the death last week of Homer Clark,” eulogized the Osborne County Farmer in its July 1, 1982 issue.
The coda to Homer’s long career in antiques came when Main Street in downtown Osborne was closed to traffic to accommodate the crowds filling the street while attending the two-day sale of Clark’s Auction, held on October 9 and 10, 1982. Hundreds of bidders came from across the entire country. Nothing quite like it had been seen before nor since. It was a Hall of Fame moment in total character for the newest member of the Osborne County Hall of Fame, Homer Lynn Clark.
A scene from the two-day auction of Clark Auction Service held on October 9-10, 1982. Image taken by the Osborne County Farmer newspaper and courtesy the Osborne County Genealogical & Historical Society, Osborne, Kansas.
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Sources:
Osborne County Genealogical & Historical Society, Osborne, Kansas.
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas – July 14, 1934, page 1; May 21, 1936, page 1; February 9, 1939, page 7; October 20, 1966, page 4; July 1, 1982, page 9; July 1, 1982, page 11; October 14, 1982, page 1.
Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas – October 3, 1982, page 11.
With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 6, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the second inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
Harriet D. Chace, the youngest of six children, was born on February 16, 1888 in Alton, Osborne County, Kansas to a Pennsylvania father and an Irish mother, William L. and Anna A. (Maguire) Chace.
Harriet grew up in Alton. She attended the county normal institute and received her teaching certificate. Harriet’s first term of teaching was in 1906-1907 in the rural one-room Fair Play School, District #73, located in Grant Township north of Alton.
In the fall of 1907 Harriet started teaching in the grade school in Alton. She would become a familiar sight and a fond memory to the hundreds of students who filled her classroom over the next 35 years – a full generation of young minds educated by this one dedicated teacher, who also taught many of the next generation as well.
During this time life was often not easy for Harriet. She cared for both of her physically frail parents for many years until their final illnesses, her mother passing in 1922 and then her father and a brother both dying only a few months apart in 1924. Harriet was a member of the Alton Evangelical United Brethren Church, whose membership provided a great comfort for her during these years.
Harriet Chace with the 1st and 2nd grade classes at Alton Grade School, 1941-1942 school year. Image courtesy of Deanna Roach.
In July 1942 Harriet resigned her position with the Alton school system and settled down in Alton in apparent retirement. In the fall of 1945, however, she accepted the teaching position for a year at at the rural one-room Potterville School, District #49, located in Winfield Township, Osborne County, 25 miles southeast of Alton. Harriet did not work the next year but in 1947-1948 she taught at the rural one-room Riverside School, District #R-18, located in Penn Township, Osborne County, fifteen miles southeast of Alton. This would be her last year in the classroom after a career of 38 years.
Harriet filled her retirement years with community and church activities, and time with her nieces and nephews and their families. She passed away at the hospital in Smith Center, Kansas on February 25, 1967, and was buried in the family lot in the Sumner Cemetery near Alton.
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Sources:
Deanna Roach, Alton, Kansas.
Alton Empire, Alton, Kansas – November 29, 1884, page 4; November 16, 1922, page 1; June 12, 1924, page 1; October 2, 1924, page 1.
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas – March 2, 1967, page 10.
Carnegie Research Library, Osborne, Kansas – Osborne County teaching records.
With the year 2021 being the 150th anniversary of the formal organization of Osborne County, Kansas, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is celebrating this milestone achievement by inducting not one but two sets of inductees in this very special year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
And so on this date, May 5, 2021, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the first inductee of the OCHF Spring Class of 2021.
Elizabeth “Beth” Berkowitz and her husband Ralph Berkowitz. Image courtesy of Bennett Hammer.
Elizabeth “Beth” (Hodgson) Nadi Carpenter Berkowitz was born on October 2, 1917, in Downs, Osborne County Kansas. Beth’s father was Osborne County Hall of Fame member Dr. Jarvis E. Hodgson, and her mother was Ida (Somers) Hodgson.
Beth Hodgson at age 11 in Downs, Kansas.Image courtesy of Bennett Hammer.
Beth grew up in Downs and graduated Downs High School in 1935. She then graduated in 1938 from the University of Missouri with a degree in Journalism that she earned in just three years, instead of taking the usual four to do so.
After her graduation from college Beth moved to Istanbul, Turkey and started a job as the news correspondent for the newspaper London News Chronicle. At the time the 21-year-old Beth was the youngest news correspondent in the entire Middle East. She lived in Istanbul from 1938 to 1941, becoming the Middle East foreign correspondent for the following British and American news organizations, newspapers and magazines, covering Turkey, Persia, Syria, and other Near East Territories:
1) the Associated Press
2) British News
3) The Daily Herald
4) London Express
5) London News Chronicle
6) U.S. Newsweek magazine
7) British United Press
8) French newspapers
9) Several London magazines
In December 1940 Beth was working on a story for the London News Chronicle and United Press International when she was suddenly expelled from Turkey. The incident made international news. She first went to Greece and from there was transferred by her employers to Bulgaria, where she then contacted family and friends as to what exactly happened.
The story of Beth Hodgson’s expulsion, as published in the Osborne County Farmer newspaper, Osborne, Kansas, December 12, 1940, Page One.
The apparent reason for her expulsion, it turned out, was that she had started a romance with the editor-in-chief of the largest newspaper in Turkey, and this liaison had made someone in the Turkish government very nervous. The incident was smoothed over and on May 26, 1941, Beth Hodgson married Dogan Nadi Abalıoğlu (1913-1969), editor/publisher of Cumhuriyet (“The Republic”, pronounced Djumhuriet), at the Beyoglu Municipal Marriage Bureau in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dogan Nadi Abalıoğlu.
Marriage certificate for Beth Hodgson and Dogan Nadi.
Beth Nadi’s marriage as the wife of a Turkish citizen offered her some protection in her work as a news correspondent while World War II raged on everywhere. Until the war’s end in 1945 she was perhaps the most important news source for Western news organizations in the Middle East. That year Beth came home to Downs to visit her parents and friends for the first time in seven years. Later her talent for fiction writing was recognized when her story “The Haunting Years” was published in the March 1948 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
Beth’s marriage had fallen apart by July 1951, and that year she spent some time in France, Spain, Portugal and the Isle of Capri as the correspondent for several French newspapers and British magazines. In 1952 Beth married a second time, to Scott Carpenter, and the following year the Carpenters were living in New York City where Beth found work as a television scriptwriter.
Beth and Scott Carpenter divorced in 1956 and Beth moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she continued her work as a journalist and also published some fiction writing. On June 17, 1965, she married Ralph Berkowitz (1911-2011), a noted painter, composer, classical pianist, and then the director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, who throughout his long and busy career collaborated with some of the 20th Century’s most notable musicians. Their marriage would last 32 years.
Beth at home with her canine friends. Image courtesy Bennett Hammer.
On November 12, 1997, Beth Berkowitz died in Albuquerque. Her remains were cremated.
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In February 1998 Beth had a last surprise gift to her hometown of Downs:
Downs News and Downs Times, Downs, Kansas, February 19, 1998, Page One:
Downs Public Library receives bequest of $50,000 from will of Beth Berkowitz
The Downs Carnegie Library is the recipient of a generous bequest from the will of Beth Hodgson Berkowitz. Mrs. Berkowitz is a former Downs resident. She was the daughter of Dr. Jarvis Edward and Ida Mae Hodgson. Dr. Hodgson was a longtime Downs physician and Mrs. Hodgson served as postmaster for a number of years. The bequest is for $50,000 which, as stipulated in the will, must be invested and the principal amount never used. The will also states how the interest funds are to be used. Forty percent of all interest money will be used to purchase books for the library. The remaining sixty percent may be spent at the discretion of the Library Board of Trustees. The library is very fortunate to have such a generous bequest. The library and its patrons will benefit for years to come from Mrs. Berkowitz’s goodwill.
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Sources:
Bennett Hammer, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico – May 23, 1965, page 16; June 4, 1972, page 20; November 14, 1997, Page 51; September 1, 2011 page 19.
Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona – March 22, 1949, page 11.
Downs News and Downs Times, Downs, Kansas – December 5, 1940, page 1; December 12, 1940, page 1; January 16, 1941, page 1; June 12, 1941, page 1; July 12, 1943, page 5; September 20, 1945, page 1; July 26, 1951, page 1; December 24, 1952, page 1; June 16, 1955, page 4; December 20, 1956, page 1; March 6, 1969 page 1; November 2, 1997, page 3; February 19, 1998, page 1; March 5, 1998, page 2.
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas – December 12, 1940, page 1.
American Consular Service, Istanbul, Turkey, 1941 Hodgson-Nadi marriage certificate #133
1945 United States Citizens departing Passengers and Crew Lists Haifa to New York
1948 United States Citizens departing Passengers and Crew Lists New York to Naples
1950 United States Citizens departing Passengers and Crew Lists New York to Naples
(On this date, December 23, 2020, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the seventh and final inductee of the OCHF Class of 2020.)
Kevin Saunders is an American Paralympian, author, and is considered to be one of the Top 100 motivational speakers in the world. He is the first person with a disability ever appointed to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Through sheer will and a motivation to achieve Kevin rose from a catastrophic personal experience to live a full life of athletic success, strong moral values, and inspirational leadership by example.
Born on December 8, 1955 in Smith Center, Kansas, Kevin was the last of the three sons of Donald H. and Freda (Schoen) Saunders. He attended school in Downs, Kansas. Kevin and his brothers loved sports of all kinds from a very early age.
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Story by Kevin Saunders:
My first-grade teacher, Mrs. Wiese, had a big paddle with sixteen holes in it and was a real strict lady with weathered skin and deep wrinkles. But what I remember best about this class was “the train”. It had a picture of everyone looking out the windows. The student’s grades determined what position they were at in the train. If you were in the caboose, you were down to the bottom. Of course, no one wanted to be in the caboose. I wasn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar back then, but I at least managed to stay out of the caboose—most of the time.
We also had a chameleon in that class. It changed color to adapt to its environment. Funny, I still think about that chameleon, as if it had something to with my own later need in life to adapt.
It was in the first grade was that I first met Jack Myers. The Myers’ family farm was two and a half miles east of our farm. The two of us would remain life-long best friends. But after the first grade, whenever possible, teachers put Jack and I in separate classes. We raised too much hell while we were together.
In second grade I remember, apparently for the first time, the sight of “big kids” throwing the football around next to the school gym.
They could throw it so far—or so it seemed at the time. That made an impression on me. I wanted to do that, to throw that football so far until it looked like it disappeared in the Kansas sky. I liked the pads and the uniforms. I liked the idea of belonging to a team. When I saw the big guys playing football, that’s what I wanted to do.
Jack Myers claims that even as early as the second or third grade that I enjoyed the limelight and was telling tall tales (like the time I shot a buffalo on the farm) even back then.
My third and fourth grade classes were combined. My music teacher was Margie Colburn, who later married Bob Schoen and became the Schoen family historian. It was during that year that my friends Dan and Dave Renken, and Don Koops and myself followed a time-honored tradition among Kansas farm boys and got involved in 4-H. I took part in the club’s usual activities like growing vegetables or raising animals for competition, but found that these things did not satisfy my restless, animated personality.
By this time, the family farm was running itself to such a degree that Donald Saunders could get more involved in his son’s extra-curricular activities, including 4-H. He often accompanied me on various 4-H trips. But even then, my free-spirited nature must have driven me to distraction.
When we went on 4-H tours and shows, I just wanted to keep running around. Even so, I was successful in 4-H. I was good with animals and had the grand champion bull three years out of four. One year I had both the grand champion and the reserve champion. Freda said that Donald, my father, was inordinately supportive of my 4-H efforts, and would stay up at the fair with me while he showed his steers, perhaps because he wanted me to stay and run the family farm.
Kevin with his Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion steers.
I believe that it was during Mrs. Ivy Woodward’s class in the fourth grade that I first became obsessed with team sports. I remember Jack Myers running and being faster than the rest of the boys. We all played tetherball a lot at recess. Some kids played with those big trucks and different toys like that. Not me—I couldn’t stand not to feel the wind at my face. Recess always was the most important part of the day for me.
In the fifth grade, I began to play Little League baseball, but it was never a passion with me like football and track, partly because Duane had excelled at the sport.
I found that I didn’t like the expectations people had developed about me through their comparison of me to my brother. I wanted to do my own thing— be in my own limelight, not in the shadow of my brother’s—and therefore focused my energies on football and track.
I finally got to play organized football as a seventh grader at Downs Junior High. Still whippet-thin and undersized, I was the team’s center.
We got our butts kicked when we were seventh graders. I remember guys pulverizing me, just great big guys. I was still just a little bitty guy when I was a seventh grader. All I remember about that team was these big monster guys hammering me into the ground, game after game.
But for some reason, I loved it!
I went through my growth spurt between seventh and eighth grade. I began both place-kicking and punting for the football team, as well as playing tight end. I also participated in basketball and track.
The ninth grade was my first year in high school and I was a little dog in the Big Kennel. My school had the second-ranked football team, in class 2-A, in the state my freshman year. The team had a lot of tough boys, but I really enjoyed it, liked getting right in the middle and scrapping with the toughest of them. I even got to play some on varsity and the kickoff team as the kicker, as I could kick the ball into or near the end zone. It was a good year for me, learning what it takes to be a champion. Even then, I realized that you’ve got to be tough, you’ve got to be able to endure whatever it takes to be a champion.
Kevin Saunders (left) was the kicker & punter for the Downs Dragons football team all four years of high school. His best punt was for 76 yards and his best field goal was 46 yards.
I also participated in basketball as a starter and track. In track, I was a member of the team and won the freshman mile relay, and had a fifty-eight second quarter mile as a freshman, which was impressive for my age group. Even in the biggest track meets with over 30 schools we never lost in the mile relay. It always helped to have an anchor runner like my friend Jack Myers who could run a 52-second quarter to finish for the win. I started to put on weight in my freshman year (up to 160-170 pounds) and grew close to six feet tall.
One memory in particular of my sophomore year stands out in Jack Myers’ memory. While Jack was on his way to a track scholarship, I was just a little over average as an athlete, except in the discus. One raw April evening, the Downs track team traveled to a popular high school invitational track meet, held annually in Lincoln, Kansas.
“About ten minutes before the 440-yard dash — probably the hardest quarter of a mile in sport because you don’t know if it is a sprint or a long-distance run — they ask Kevin to run it for Downs,” Jack recalls. “Kevin doesn’t have track shoes, he doesn’t have spikes, all he has are soccer shoes, but he says, ‘Sure, why not?’”
“When it starts, I’m sitting right in the middle of the field, and Kevin takes off like it is a 100-yard dash. He’s ahead of some pretty good runners. That’s the way he’s always been. If he runs it, he’s going to go for it. At the 220-yard mark, he’s still leading it, still running all out. At the 330-mark, he’s still leading it, still running full throttle. Then, it was like a big monkey jumped on his back. He just died. But he gave it everything he had.”
“Of course, Kevin didn’t know how to run that race, but that wasn’t going to stop him. He hadn’t trained for it, he didn’t have the stamina. But he said he’d do it and he gave it all he had, which is what he’s always done. And I really admired him for that. He wasn’t that fast of a runner, but he always gave it all he had.”
Jack has a host of similar Kevin Saunders stories, mostly illustrating my intrepid and determined spirit.
By my sophomore, junior and senior years, I was moved from end on offense and defense as a sophomore to playing full back and defensive end as a junior and finally quarterback and defensive end on the football team as a senior. I was on the varsity on our basketball team my sophomore, junior and senior years. My friend Jack Myers always said jokingly that I always seemed to score the most points when we played a team that would write up the game in their paper in a bigger town! Ha! The Saunders family scrapbook is filled with articles from all four years of high school.
Donald Saunders, however, had mixed emotions about his sons’ athletic pursuits. Duane played baseball at Kansas State and Gerald ran track at Emporia State. My father never did support athletics.
He let my brothers play athletics, but he told them they ought to be working.
I got up early each morning on the farm, drove the tractor around and around, fed the cattle, herded cattle here, herded cattle there, fed the chickens, fixed the fence, etc. — only then could I play sports.
When I graduated, I had a few scholarship offers to play sports in college, so I ended up taking a few. As in high school, I played all kinds of sports in college from soccer, football, track & field and rugby through all four years – two years of Junior College Community College, and then my last two years at Kansas State University where I joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and played rugby (like football with no pads). I graduated in 1978.
I then took a job as a Federal Inspector for the USDA and was based in Corpus Christi, Texas.
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Kevin Saunders was just like any other young man from the Kansas countryside. Fresh out of college and starting a family – his son Steven was born in 1981 – he worked long hours as a Federal grain elevator inspector. Touring facilities day after day in the heat, he knew the job wouldn’t be easy – but he didn’t know it would nearly take his life.
But then, on a busy afternoon – April 7, 1981 – like any other, Kevin heard the sound he would never forget . . . it sounded like an earthquake.
The government building that Kevin and his supervisor Albert Trip were in was rattling and shaking; things were falling off the walls. Kevin glanced out the window and saw chunks of concrete the size of a vehicle, some weighting more than a ton, being blown hundreds of feet through the air. And it was all coming right at him.
The experts said that there were twelve explosions that ripped through the grain elevator at 1,500 feet per second. So, as Kevin saw those two-foot thick concrete walls of the grain elevator being blown apart like paper coming right at him and his supervisor, in a split second the earthquake-like rattling grew with so much intensity that the cracking and popping grew so loud he thought it was going to split his head wide open.
At the same instant Kevin caught a glimpse of his supervisor Albert Trip out of the corner of his eye and all the blood had drained out of his face and he had turned pale white and he had this look of absolute terror on his face. Kevin’s supervisor didn’t utter a word; his eyes his eyes said it all: “We’re not going to make it!” And before Kevin could even take another breathe, the biggest and final explosion blew out where Kevin and his supervisor were. That last and most powerful explosion completely destroyed the government building he and his supervisor Albert Trip were in – there was nothing left of that government building but the concrete foundation.
Kevin saw his supervisor Albert Trip hit the floor just before the wall of that government building blew out in Kevin’s face and Albert was one of those lives that were needlessly that day in the worst explosions in Texas history. Kevin was knocked out when the wall blew out in his face and he was blown through the roof of the building. He was thrown over a two-story building over 300 feet through the air onto a concrete parking lot. Kevin hit the concrete parking lot hard, first with the back of his head, and then his shoulder blades hit and were shattered in pieces.
The above picture was taken from across the ship channel over ¾ of a mile away by a person who heard what was happening and grabbed the box camera of the dash of his truck. You can see how the this explosion came out at a 45% angle and the silos of the largest most modern grain elevator at the time had silos that were fourteen stories high and the flame that looks like a blow torch is coming out of the building looks like it is probably well over fourteen stories and you can see the ring of smoke at above the fire blast that looks like it is about twice as tall of the white silo to the left. We don’t know exactly how high that explosion went as the guy who took the picture just had one click on and old box type camera so it was probably even higher at its peak. If it wasn’t the last blast that blew the wall out in Kevin’s face, killed his supervisor Albert Trip and completely destroyed the government building Kevin was in, it looks like it was pretty close.
The force of the blast blew his legs over his torso and broke his ribs, collapsed his lungs and severed his spinal cord at chest level. When the paramedics found Kevin lying in a pool of blood with blood and cerebral spinal fluid oozing out of his nose, ears, and mouth, and his body broken over at the chest like people bend at the waist, and after the paramedics took his vital signs they black-flagged him because they didn’t think he would survive the ambulance ride back to the ICU unit at Memorial Medical Center.
Kevin was unconscious and would have died in that parking lot, as no ambulances or stretchers were available while rescue personnel scrambled to get the injured to hospitals. However, a paramedic who didn’t want to leave him recruited a fire and rescue guy, and together they found a door lying in the debris, which they used as a makeshift stretcher and carried him to safety. Kevin knows that he owes them his life.
After a month in a coma, Kevin finally woke up in the hospital. He was in excruciating pain, facedown in a hospital bed with massive internal and external injuries. His doctors told him there had been an explosion, and while he was injured, ten of his co-workers were dead. The explosion and landing severed his spine at chest level. The doctors thought these injuries would kill him, but somehow he survived. However, he would be paralyzed for life. Kevin’s faith in God helped him to hang on when others may have given up.
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Two years after his injury, Kevin Saunders was persuaded to enter his first wheelchair race, the Peachtree Road Race 10K in Atlanta, Georgia. Lacking the proper equipment and training – he attempted to complete the course in a hospital wheelchair unsuitable for racing – he was disqualified from the event for failing to maintain pace with other competitors. Despite the early setback, however, he continued to enter competitions, finding success at the regional, and then national levels.
In 1984 Saunders won the bronze medal in the National Wheelchair Athletic Association’s Track and Field competition. He would go on to win hundreds of medals in both domestic and international competitions, including:
Gold medal, 1986 (pentathlon) World Track Competition, Adelaide, Australia.
Bronze medal, 1988 Paralympics, Seoul, South Korea.
Gold medal (pentathlon), 1990 Pan American Games, Caracas, Venezuela.
Gold medal (pentathlon) and set a world record, 1991 Track and Field Championships, Stoke Mandeville, England.
Gold medal (pentathlon) and set a world record, 1992 Paralympics trials, for Barcelona, Spain.
1996 qualified for (pentathlon) the Paralympics and competed in 1996 Paralympics Trials, Atlanta, Georgia.
In 1985 Kevin donated a new track to Downs High School and the Waconda Unified School District #272. When Kevin had attended Downs High School and had been on the track team there, He trained on nothing more than a dirt track. He was convinced that the new track would help the student athletes improve and become more competitive, and just four years later the Downs High School track team went on to win their school’s first State track & field championship.
At the dedication of Saunders Track at Downs High School in 1985.
In 1989 Kevin worked alongside Tom Cruise and Oliver Stone as a principal actor during the filming of the Academy Award-winning film Born on the Fourth of July. He has also been featured in over 50 television commercials promoting fitness, education, and wellness.
After winning the World Track & Field Championships in England in 1989, Kevin was declared “The World’s Greatest All-Around Wheelchair Athlete”. At the 1992 Paralympic Trials in Salt Lake City, Saunders broke the pentathlon world record.
Kevin became a motivational speaker and consultant shortly after the Paralympic portion of his athletic career. He is considered to be one of the top 100 motivational speakers in the world.
In 1991 Kevin was appointed to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. He remains the only person to serve two consecutive terms under different administrations, first under George H. W. Bush, and later reappointed by President Bill Clinton.
Kevin Saunders meeting at the White House with President George H. W. Bush, Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, and Kansas Senator Bob Dole.
In 1991 Kevin spent time at his alma mater, Kansas State University, researching improved wheelchair performance with the school’s engineering departments. Mutual friends introduced him to football Head Coach Bill Snyder, who was impressed by Kevin’s story and asked him to serve as a motivational coach to the team. Kevin remained in that role with the team from 1991 through 2005, during which time the team went from being one of the worst football programs in the country to one of the most consistent winners, including a run of 11 straight bowl games. The change in the program was later dubbed “the greatest turnaround in college football history.”
In 1993 Coach Bill Snyder created the Kevin Saunders Never Give Up Award for the Kansas State football team. The award was given to the player who displayed the most courage, determination, dedication, and perseverance in the pursuit of team goals. Many of the award winners have gone on to NFL careers.
In 1993 Kevin was chosen as the Outstanding Alumnus and given the award from Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kansas. In 1995, he was recognized as Distinguished Alumnus from Kansas State University, College of Agriculture. Kevin was recognized in 1995 among Kansas State’s 30 most famous alumni. Kevin had attended Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas where he earned and an Associate’s Degree in Kinesiology and acting, and in 2000 he was nominated by Del Mar College and received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in Washington, D.C., which oversees the 1,500-member community colleges across America.
Kevin being interviewed by ESPN Sports.
Kevin in his handcycle at Paris, France.
Kevin and his wife Dora at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Germany.
Kevin and his wife Dora at the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany.
Kevin was inducted in 2016 into the Paralympics Hall of Fame.
Saunders is also the author of five books:
There’s Always a Way, published in 1993
CENTAUR, the first comic book featuring a wheelchair hero, published in 1997
Mission Possible, published in 2003
Conversations in Health & Fitness, published in 2004
Blueprint for Success, published in 2008
One of the highlights of Kevin’s life occurred on February 17, 1996, when he married Dora Ortiz in Nueces County, Texas.
Aside from his athletic victories, Saunders has received more than 100 commendations, proclamations, and awards for his work to improve health and fitness and education, including the Torch of Freedom Award given to the year’s Outstanding Sports Figure, and the Distinguished Service Award presented by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Each time [I encounter him] I’m more impressed with his perseverance and courage. [But] what fuels my admiration [about Kevin] is the knowledge that the most frightening moments of my life – and I was shot down twice in World War II – are not equal to what Kevin experiences on a regular basis.” – President George H. W. Bush.
“You have inspired me with your positive attitude and determination. You continue to raise the bar for everyone, to show people of all ages that you can turn dreams into reality. Thank you for teaching the rest of us what it means to be a real winner in life!” – From a letter written to Kevin by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Kevin and Dora Saunders currently live in Downs, Kansas.
“May the thought of taking it easy, never enter your mind.” – Kevin Saunders.
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Truth be told, Kevin was apprised of his Hall of Fame honor three years ago. We humbly apologize to him and his loved ones for why it did not publicly occur until now, but this is truly the moment at last. It is a distinct honor in according such an individual with a place in the Osborne County Hall of Fame. Welcome to the Hall, Kevin Vaughn Saunders. We are all richer for the life you’ve led.
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The Following Is A Detailed List of Kevin Saunder’s Athletic Achievements, 1983-2014:
To Present: Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalist. Over 700 races run and track and field competitions in U.S. and around the world.
1986 to 1992 – Kevin was considered to be either the Best All-Around Wheelchair Athlete in the World or World’s Greatest Wheelchair Athlete.
1986 to 1992 – Kevin amassed over 10 World Records and several Paralympic Records in the Pentathlon and other events.
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1983
Kevin ran his first wheelchair race (in his old hospital chair), the Peachtree 10K Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia. He got pulled from the race course before he got to the finish line.
1984
Wheelchair Basketball – Chosen to All Star 1st Team, Texas Lone Star Conference.
Finished 3rd in the National Wheelchair Athletic Association (NWAA) in the Pentathlon.
1985
Wheelchair Basketball – Chosen to All Star 1st Team, and also as the Outstanding Athlete, Lone Star Basketball Conference.
Silver Medal in Pan American Games – in the Pentathlon, where he won silver in the Discus, bronze in the 200-Meter Race, and gold in the Javelin.
1986
Gold Medalist in the Wheelchair Pentathlon, at the World Track and Field Championships in
Adelaide, Australia. Kevin set a World Record point total, which lead to Kevin being named the “World’s Greatest All-Around Wheelchair Athlete.”
1987
Presented “Outstanding Athlete of the Games” award at the Wheelchair Track & Field Championships. Kevin won the silver medal for lifting over 300 lbs. in the weight lifting competition; he weighed in at just under 155 lbs. Kevin also always won medals in the World Games in swimming as well as all the other events he competed in.
At the World Games in Rome, Italy Kevin won the following: the gold medal in the Pentathlon; silver in the 200-Meter Race; silver in the 400-Meter Race in swimming; Silver in Air Guns Pistol and Rifle and in the field events and relays.
At the National Games in Pennsylvania, Kevin won every race he entered: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, and 1500 meters. Kevin also won the Pentathlon, the Javelin, Discus, and Silver in the Shot Put. Kevin also won the gold medal in the Pistol shooting and silver in Air Rifles. He then then finished gold, silver and bronze in the different swimming events. Kevin also won the silver medal in Weight Lifting Bench Press with a lift of well over 300 lbs. while weighing in less than 155 lbs.
1988
At the Paralympics Trials in Edinburgh, Scotland Kevin won multiple gold medals.
Kevin won the bronze medal in the Pentathlon at the World Paralympics Games in Seoul, South Korea. He was awarded the Austrian Crystal Sculpture, that only a few people in the world have the ability to make, for being named the “Outstanding Athlete” award of the World Games.
1989
Won the gold medal as the winner in the Capitol 10,000 10K Race in Austin, Texas, one of the largest 10 K’s in the world.
World Wheelchair Games, Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain Gold and world record Pentathlon, Silver discus.
1990
Kevin was the gold medalist in the Wheelchair Pentathlon at the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. In doing so he set new World and Paralympic records in the event.
Gold medalist in the Wheelchair Pentathlon in World Record time at the World Track and Field Championships in Essen, Netherlands.
1991
Kevin won multiple gold medals and was awarded a plaque for the “Outstanding Athlete Award” at the National Wheelchair Games. He won the most events of all the competitors.
He won the gold medal at the Wheelchair Pentathlon in the “Victory Games” Paralympics Trials in Long Island, New York.
He won the gold medal in the Wheelchair Pentathlon at the World Track and Field Championships in Stoke Mandeville, England, with a World Record point total. In the event Kevin won the silver in the 200-meter dash, the gold in the 1500-meter race, the gold in the discus, the gold in the Javelin, and the silver in the shot put.
At the World Paralympic Games in Assen, Netherlands, Kevin set the World and Paralympic record in the Pentathlon, as he won silver in the discus, silver in the 200-meter race, and bronze in the 400-meter race.
1992
Gold medalist in the Pentathlon in the Paralympic Trials in Salt Lake City, Utah, setting the World, National, and Paralympic records, and was the featured athlete of the Games by Fox Sports in Salt Lake City.
Gold medalist in the Wheelchair Pentathlon at the Paralympics Games in Barcelona, Spain.
1993
Presented the Torch of Freedom Award, given to the year’s “OUTSTANDING SPORTS FIGURE OR TEAM WITH A DISABILITY.”
1994
Gold medal winner in the Woodlands Marathon at Woodlands, Texas.
1995
Top 10 finish in the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia.
1996
Kevin was a gold medalist at the Paralympics Trials in Staunton, Virginia, and qualified for the World Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.
1997
Top 10 finish in the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia.
1998
Earned gold medals by winning 5-mile and 2-mile races.
1999
Earned gold by winning the Corpus Christi Marathon in Corpus Christi, Texas.
2000
Earned gold by winning the Midwest 10K Championships.
2001
Earned gold medals by winning 5-mile and 2-mile races.
2002
Earned gold by winning the Corpus Christi 10K in Corpus Christi, Texas.
2003
Earned gold medals by winning 5-mile and 2-mile races.
2004
Pushed over 2,500 miles across America on the USA Health & Fitness Tour.
2005
Earned gold medals by winning 5-mile and 2-mile races.
2006
Pushed through portions of five countries in Europe promoting Health and Fitness as an international Ambassador for Fitness & Health appointed by President George W. Bush.
2007
Earned gold medals by winning 5-mile and 2-mile races.
2008
Earned gold medal by winning Chevron Aramco USATF Half Marathon in Houston, Texas.
Earned gold medal by winning Conoco Phillips Rodeo Run 5K in Houston, Texas.
2009
Earned gold medal by winning the Conoco Phillips Rodeo Race 5K in Houston, Texas.
Earned silver medal by winning Chevron Aramco Half Marathon in Houston, Texas.
2010
Earned gold medal by winning Chevron Aramco USATF Half Marathon in Houston, Texas.
Earned gold medal by winning Conoco Phillips Rodeo Race 5K in Houston, Texas.
2014
Earned gold medal by winning Chevron Aramco USATF Half Marathon in Houston, Texas.
Earned gold medal by winning Miracle Match Half Marathon in Houston, Texas.
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SOURCES:
Kevin Saunders, Downs, Kansas.
Corpus Christi Caller Times, Corpus Christi, Texas, April 8, 1981, Page One.
(On this date, December 20, 2020, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the sixth inductee of the OCHF Class of 2020.)
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Always a top scholar and athlete, Vickie Lynn Dugan’s perseverance from her involvement in one of the landmark legal decisions of modern American history through to a decorated Hall of Fame teaching/coaching career have earned her both honor and respect and an overdue place in the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
Vickie was born in Osborne, Kansas, in February 1952, the second of the three daughters of Cleo Max Dugan and Cathryn Irene (McDaneld) Dugan. She attended school in Osborne and in the spring of 1970 graduated as the salutatorian of her senior class from Osborne High School. That fall she enrolled at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, and was instantly a starter on the women’s volleyball and softball teams.
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Two softball pictures.
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Franch Horn Quartet, Osborne High School, 1967. From left: Judy Dugan, Carrie McDonald, Vickie Dugan, Carol Lewis. Received a “I” rating at State Music Festival.
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“Vickie Dugan, junior at Fort Hays State College, has been selected as an Outstanding College Athlete of America for 1973.
“Nominated by her college, she is one of a select group of students to receive this national award. Vickie is now being considered, with fellow award winners, for the Outstanding College Athletes Hall of Fame award. Athletes chosen by the Board of Advisors will be honored at an awards presentation to be held at the permanent Hall of Fame in Los Angeles.
“As an Outstanding College Athlete, Vickie’s complete biography will be featured in the 1973 edition of Outstanding College Athletes of America.” – Osborne County Farmer newspaper, Osborne, Kansas, May 3, 1973.
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“Five Fort Hays State College women received special honors at the recent Woman’s Athletic Banquet. Among those five was Vickie Dugan of Osborne.
“Miss Dugan was one of three Senior Scholar Athletes. Those receiving the award had to have a 3.5 cumulative grade point average for four years and lettered in at least one varsity spot this year. Other Senior Scholar Athletes were Kathy Clouston, Ness City and Chris Keller, Great Bend.
“Miss Dugan has lettered four years in volleyball and softball. She was one of the leading servers in this year’s volleyball conference championship and state third place.
“A 1970 Osborne High graduate, Vickie was salutatorian of her class and a member of the KMEA band. While at FHSU she has been active in Women’s Recreation Association, Alpha Lambda Delta. Phi Kappa Phi, Sophomore Women’s Honorary and the Brass Choir. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cleo Dugan of Osborne.
“All nominations and selections were made by the women’s athletic coaching staff.” – Osborne County Farmer, May 15, 1975.
Alpha Lamda Delta senior certificate receivers, 1974, Fort Hays State University. From left: Cynthia Hartman, Jeannine Ross, Beverly McClellan, Linda Kneller, Vickie Dugan, Verlaine Hays, Frances Casey, Deanna Molby, Barbara Otte, Barbara Cooper.
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Fort Hays State University Volleyball team image.
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1974 Fort Hays State University womens softball team. Third from left: Vickie Dugan.
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Vicki was selected as an Outstanding College Athlete of America in both 1973 and 1974. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and earned a B.S. in Health and Physical Education and a B.A. in music from Fort Hays State University.
In 1977 Vickie’s coaching career took off with her selection as the head softball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1977. In 1978 and 1979 she served as an assistant coach at Utah State University, where she received a Masters degree in education/physical education. Vickie then became an instructor at Western Nevada Community College, and for six years she worked as an activities director for National Camps for the Blind in Utah. She also worked as the Fitness and Recreation Director for the Churchill County Parks and Recreation Department in Fallon, Nevada. From 1983 to 1987 Vickie was the head softball coach at Churchill County High School at Fallon.
In 1988 Vickie was hired as the head coach of the softball team at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, Oregon, a member of the Pacific-10 Conference, which at the time was considered to be the toughest conference in the nation for softball. In 1994 she became the second-longest serving softball coach in Oregon State University softball history with her sixth season at the helm.
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Osborne native at Oregon State
Vickie Dugan became the longest acting coach in Oregon State University softball history when her sixth season at the helm began with this year’s team. She ranks third on the all-time win list with 48.
During her tenure, Dugan has continued to keep the Beavers competitive in the demanding Pacific-10 Conference. Last year, the Beavers won an OSU-high six Pac-10 games and finished fifth in front of conference newcomers Washington and Stanford. Oregon State has improved in each of Dugan’s last four seasons . . . .” – Osborne County Farmer, May 5, 1994.
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Three images of Vickie while head softball coach at Oregon State University.
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In September 1994. Vickie was informed by Oregon State University that her contract as softball coach was not being renewed, and it was announced that she was being replaced as coach by Kirk Walker, a then-assistant coach with the UCLA softball team.
For three years Vickie could not get a job coaching or teaching. But she used those years to prepare for the then unthinkable: in 1997 she sued Oregon State University and former Athletic Director Baughman for gender discrimination.
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Former OSU softball coach alleges discrimination
EUGENE (AP) – A former Oregon State University softball coach says she was paid less than her male counterparts and eventually was replaced by a male coach after she complained to federal civil rights investigators and fought a move to eliminate the women’s softball program.
“We are not really here about a softball field,” Eugene attorney Martha Walters told a U.S. District Court jury in opening statements Tuesday. “It’s the level playing field that we are here about.”
But Oregon State lawyers responded that Vickie Dugan was simply not up to the job.
They said that former athletic director Dutch Baughman, who is named in the lawsuit, went out of his way to help Dugan succeed.
“This is a story of remarkable patience toward really poor performance,” said Assistant Attorney General John McCulloch, who is representing the university and Baughman.
Dugan’s suit alleges that Oregon State officials violated federal laws that prohibit gender discrimination in employment and require substantially equal pay for equal work by men and women.
In addition, Dugan claims officials violated her constitutional right to free speech by punishing her after speaking out about issues related to alleged gender discrimination in the athletic department.
Dugan was hired in 1988 as a temporary half-time women’s softball coach for $9,750 a year, according to court documents and testimony. She was filling in for the former softball coach, who was on leave.
Dugan’s contract was subsequently renewed in 1989 after the former coach decided not to return, and her contract was renewed again in 1990, the year Baughman was hired.
Prior to that, Dugan had complained to Oregon State athletic officials about what she thought was inequitable pay. Internal Oregon State memos from 1988 and 1989 show that some university officials shared those concerns, Dugan’s lawyers argued.
In a July 1988 memo, the university’s vice president for academic affairs questioned athletic department officials about salary discrepancies between men and women, noting that the men’s soccer coach was earning $32,000 a year, compared with the $19,400 that Dugan would have made had she been full time.
In the spring of 1991, federal civil rights investigators were looking to see if the college’s athletic programs were in violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in education.
Dugan cooperated with investigators, discussing what she said was inadequate funding, inadequate scholarships and a lack of adequate assistant coaches.
Also that spring, Dugan said Baughman told her he planned to discontinue the women’s softball program. Dugan rallied support inside and outside the university.
In testimony Tuesday, Dugan said it was at this time that Baughman reminded her that she was an “interim” coach. – Albany Democrat-Herald, Albany, Oregon, October 22, 1997.
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Up to this time lawsuits such as this had been filed many times before across the entire country, and each time the plaintiffs had lost their case. So Vickie knew that she was fighting an uphill battle with little chance of success. Still, she carried on.
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Former coach testifies at OSU trial
EUGENE – A sex discrimination lawsuit against Oregon State University entered its fifth day Monday with testimony from a former gymnastics coach who said she also lost her job after complaining about problems in the university’s athletics program.
Former softball coach Vickie Dugan is suing OSU and former athletic director Dutch Baughman. Dugan claims OSU athletic officials discriminated against her because she is a woman, then retaliated when she, spoke up about inequalities between the school’s men’s and women’s sports programs.
Jill Hicks, an assistant under head gymnastics coach Jim Turpin for more than 10 years, told a U.S. District Court jury she was concerned about the gymnasts’ safety during the 1996-97 season when Turpin was battling illness.
When Hicks took the matter to Baughman, he told her he would discuss the concerns with Turpin. Turpin’s illness eventually led to his retirement, and OSU conducted a national search to replace him.
Although Hicks applied, she was not selected. The next thing she knew, Hicks said, she also was out of a job when she read in the newspaper that, she had been replaced.
However, in college athletics it is not unusual for new head coaches to hire new assistants.
Hicks was one of several witnesses over the last week who testified to unfair treatment at OSU. Other testimony has been given by former players as well as coaches at other Pacific-10 Conference schools.
OSU’s attorneys did not ask any questions of Hicks on Monday, and have yet to present their side of the case.
According to court documents, Dugan, softball coach from 1988 to 1994, was hired part-time at an initial salary of $9,750. Her contract was renewed until 1991, when Baughman told Dugan he intended to drop softball.
Dugan said she fought to keep the program, and Baughman changed course when she rallied support from outside groups.
Dugan then noted that her salary was lower than those of other coaches in similar positions. She also said her funding did not provide for adequate uniforms, assistant coaches and scholarships to be competitive in the Pac-10, among the strongest conferences in the nation.
Dugan was one of three finalists in 1993; after Baughman opened her job of head coach to applicants. She was not selected. However, she filed a grievance with the university, which determined she had been treated unfairly in the hiring process.
Dugan was then given a one-year, full-time contract and a salary increase to $12,000. That year, however, Dugan said athletic department officials threatened to file a report with the NCAA alleging that she violated various rules.
After she responded, Dugan said, OSU did not file the report but in 1994 conducted another search for a softball coach. This time, she was not granted an interview. Former UCLA assistant coach Kirk Walker, the first choice of the search committee in 1993, was selected again in 1994 and then hired.
Dugan’s win-loss record was 64-201 overall and 9-112 in the Pac-10. Walker is 53-110 overall and 13-67 in the Pac-10 in three seasons. OSU won 29 games this past season, the third-most in the program s 23-year history.
Dugan is seeking lost wages and other unspecified damages.
The trial continues today. OSU is expected to present its case later this week. – Corvallis Gazette-Times, Corvallis, Oregon, October 28, 1997.
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After weeks of testimony the case was handed to the jury, which after due deliberation rendered its verdict in the civil case. Their decision rocked the entire country and made national headlines, as the reverberations were deeply felt throughout the collegiate world and the nation in general.
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Ex-Softball Coach Wins Case
Jury awards $1.3 million for sex discrimination
EUGENE – Vickie Dugan called it a grand slam.
As much as $1.3 million could be headed her way after a jury ruled in her favor Wednesday in a sex discrimination lawsuit. Dugan, a former Oregon State University softball coach, sued OSU and former Athletic Director Dutch Baughman in the civil case heard in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
Dugan claimed officials discriminated against her by paying her less than male coaches in similar positions. She also said officials treated her unfairly after she spoke up about inequities between the university’s men’s and women’s sports programs.
Pacing the floor in her attorneys’ office in Eugene, a jubilant Dugan wanted to make one thing clear about the lawsuit that had consumed three years of her life and could have left her in debt for the rest of it.
“It’s for those people behind me,” she said. “I want to give them a shot.”
Dugan said that she filed the lawsuit for the more than 3 million school-age girls who play sports and may want to be coaches someday. Their chances of achieving such a dream have become slimmer over the past 20 years, she said. Less than 50 percent of coaches who lead women’s sports are females, compared to 90 percent two decades ago.
“Someone has to start standing in the gap,” Dugan said. “It wasn’t easy to stand in the courtroom knowing the record I had – I knew everything would be scrutinized.”
Three Pac-10 coaches testified at the trial that Dugan had done a respectable job, considering the program’s limited resources.
OSU’s attorneys maintained throughout the 16-day trial that Dugan was not up to the job. They pointed out her record was 64-201 overall and 9-112 in the Pacific-10 Conference considered the best softball conference in the nation during her tenure from 1988 to 1994.
“We were disappointed in the decision,” said Bob Bruce, OSU’s director of communications and marketing. “The issue we believe was inadequate performance, not discrimination.”
Bruce said the university will review the decision with attorneys before deciding whether to appeal.
Baughman, now the executive director of the Division I-A Athletic Director’s Association, was not in court Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
The all-woman jury awarded Dugan $329,000 in economic damages and $750,000 in compensatory damages because it determined she was deprived of rights under the Equal Pay Act. She also was awarded $13,000 in lost salary under the act. The jury also ruled that Baughman must pay Dugan $185,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
Because Oregon government is self-insured, Bruce said, any damages awarded to Dugan would come out of the state’s risk management pool, not the university budget. He was unsure whether Baughman’s part would be covered by insurance.
Assistant Attorney General John McCulloch said the damages could still be disputed because there may be some duplication of the amounts awarded.
Both sides worried about the composition of the jury, comprised of eight women.
“It’s ironic and might have been unfortunate that it happened in a case all about gender,” McCulloch said.
Dugan’s attorneys also were concerned about the all-woman jury. They feared the women might feel pressure to compensate for the lack of men and let that affect their decision.
The case may be one of the largest tried in Oregon and drew attention from the American Association of University Women, which donated more than $15,000 for Dugan’s legal expenses.
Dugan was succeeded in 1994 by then-UCLA assistant coach Kirk Walker, who was recommended twice to fill her shoes after two national coaching searches.
She has spent the last three years with attorneys preparing for the case, which included more than 700 exhibits most of them memos and documents from OSU.
Although Dugan said she hadn’t given much thought to her future, she said she wants to continue coaching and teaching. – Corvallis Gazette-Times, November 13, 1997.
Vickie celebrating her win with her lawyers, Suzanne Chani (left) and Martha Walters (right).
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Oregon State University did appeal the verdict, and in July 1998 U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan lowered the damages to $623,000. But the State of Oregon, which represented the university during the trial, agreed in an out of court settlement in January 1999 to also pay Dugan’s legal bills of more than $460,000.
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The fall of 1997 also saw Vickie land a new coaching job. Porterville is a two-year public college located in Porterville, California. At the time Vickie was hired, the women’s softball team was not doing well. They needed a teacher and head coach to not only lead them to success on the field but also in the classroom. It was a situation that Vickie thrived in. She turned the team around both athletically and academically, and through 2019 Vickie had taught and coached for 22 successful years at the college, winning more than 368 games as the Pirates’ head coach.
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PORTERVILLE – (January 18, 2019 press release)
“The Porterville College Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of longtime PC softball coach Vickie Dugan as the 2019 Hall of Fame inductee for Athletics.
“Dugan will receive the Foundation’s highest honor at the Porterville College Foundation Hall of Fame Ceremony on Friday, February 1st, in the college gymnasium.
“For 22 years, Dugan and her players have celebrated success on and off the PC softball field. Dugan has won more than 368 games as the Pirates’ coach and seen her players excel at PC and beyond. Just last season, PC third-baseman Chelsea Ramos was named to the 2018 National Fastpitch Coaches Association California Junior College All-American Team, making her the first PC athlete ever to be honored as an All-American. Only 19 other players from across California received All-American honors.
“Off the field, Dugan is just as committed to her players’ success. That commitment is reflected in student outcomes such as graduation, transfer and program-completion rates.
“Under Dugan’s leadership, the PC softball team has been nationally recognized for team grade-point average. The 2009-10 and 2015-16 teams were recognized by the NFCA as All-Academic Teams. The 2009-10 team had a cumulative GPA of 3.289 – 11th in the nation.
“Over 80 percent of Dugan’s players have transferred to four-year institutions. A map riddled with pushpins indicating where all of her players have transferred hangs in her office. The pins can be found in nearly every state, from Hawaii to Maine. She’s known for being a student advocate who actively seeks out recruitment, scholarship and educational-advancement opportunities for her players.
“Dugan is also committed to the larger success of the college. She is currently the division chair of PC’s Kinesiology Department and serves on various campus committees as well. She’s also served as the division chair of the Physical Education Department.” – http://www.portervillepirates.com.
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Coach Dugan with her Porterville softball team.
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Vickie’s Porterville College Foundation Hall of Fame plaque and award.
Three favorite pastimes of Vickie Dugan: Skiing, camping, and backpacking.
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In the spring of 2020 Vickie entered her 23rd season as the Porterville College softball coach. Professor Dugan currently teaches physical education and health classes, and continues to make a true impact on the world as a role model for many. It is our humble honor to welcome this native daughter as part of the 2020 Class of the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
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SOURCES:
Vickie Dugan, Springville, California.
Albany Democrat-Herald, Albany, Oregon, September 15, 1994, Page 19; October 22, 1997, Page 16.
Corvallis Gazette-Times, Corvallis, Oregon, March 14, 1993, Pages 11 & 13; October 28, 1997, Pages 1 & 3; November 8, 1997, Page 1; November 13, 1997, Pages 1 & 8.
Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1997, Pages 39 & 44.
Osborne County Farmer, Osborne, Kansas, May 3, 1973, Page 19; May 15, 1975, Page 1; April 20, 1989, Page 4; May 5, 1994, page 13.
(On this date, December 17, 2020, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the fifth inductees of the OCHF Class of 2020.)
Elton and Joyce Koops. Image courtesy of the Downs News & Times newspaper.
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Notable couples who complement and empower each other their entire married lives have often shared over the years the spotlight that is the Osborne County Hall of Fame. Husband and wife Elton and Joyce Koops – long time teachers, community leaders, one a sports hero, the other a storytelling legend – have easily earned their turn to shine. Here is their story.
Our story’s heroine, Joyce Wiersma, was born July 26, 1931, at Hull, Sioux County, Iowa. Joyce was one of five sons and two daughters born to Johannes and Gertrude (Reinders) Wiersma. She attended elementary school in Lincoln, Iowa. Joyce graduated in 1949 from Western Christian High School in Hull, Iowa and later from Northwestern Junior College in Orange City Iowa.
Our story’s hero, Elton Lee Koops, was born in Jewell County, Kansas May 3, 1933, the second of the three sons of farmers Renzo and Gezinna “Sinnie” (Ramaker) Koops. Elton, or “Al” as he was often called, attended Maple Grove School, District #35, in northeastern Ross Township, Osborne County, Kansas, and then enrolled in Downs High School in Down, Kansas. Elton was a star high school athlete. In 1949 he won the Kansas state shotput championship in track and field with a throw of 48’ 6”, a distance that stood as the state record for ten years. Elton was also a starter at tackle/fullback on the Dragons football team and at center for the basketball team. During his junior year in high school the undefeated Downs Dragons won the 1949 Class B Kansas state football championship, and Elton was named to the All-State first team by the Topeka Daily Capital newspaper, the only junior in the state so honored. Elton was also named to the basketball All-State first team after he helped the Dragons win the 1949-1950 Class B Kansas State basketball championship with a 28-0 record, the first time in state history that any school won both the state football and basketball titles in the same school calendar year. In Elton’s final three years of high school the Dragons basketball team compiled an overall record of 72-5.
Advertisement from the Downs News & Downs Times newspaper of September 28, 1950. Elton Koops played fullback on the Downs Dragons high school football team.
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In the fall of 1951 Elton enrolled at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and graduated from Calvin there in 1955. Elton was a standout on the school’s track team.
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Thinks Koops May Break Shot Put Record
“‘Calvin’s track coach Dave Tunk is looking forward to a fairly successful season even though high-point-making graduates Al Berkkompas, Ed Monsma and Ken Thomasma will be sorely missed by the squad as they enter conference track competition. Returning, however, as the core of the team, are veterans Pet Duyst, Gary DeBoer, Elton Koops and Morrie Tubergen. Turbergen is expected to crack the college’s half-mile record. Big Elton Koops should put the shot put close to the record. The squad opens the season April 14 in a triangular meet with Kalamazoo and Olivet.’ – School Record, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Big Elton Koops mentioned above is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Renzo Koops, and is a graduate of Downs High School.” – The Downs News and The Downs Times, March 25, 1954.
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After his college graduation Elton was drafted into the U.S. Navy, where he served aboard the USS Saipan, with the rank of TD3 (Training Devices Man Third Class).
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Letter from Elton Koops
April 16, 1956
“Dear Mr. McKay:
Since I’ve been in the Navy now nearly five months, I think it’s high time I write you a few lines in regard to my whereabouts and what I’m doing.
First of all, I was drafted in to the Navy on December 5, 1955, for a term of two years. After being inducted at Detroit, Michigan, I was sent to Great Lakes, Illinois, for nine weeks of Recruit Training, then was ordered to report aboard the Air Craft Carrier U.S.S. Saipan (CVL-48), located at Pensacola, Florida. After reporting aboard I was assigned to the Executive Department of the ship.
My duties here are varied and numerous. One task I undertake is correspondence. I order courses and administer tests for the crew members, better known as United States Armed Forces tests and courses. These tests, if passed, make possible the acquirement of their high school diplomas.
I am also in charge of a Training Room which has a movie projector and a supply of nearly 500 films. This room is used primarily for educating the ship’s crew through films and lectures.
The purpose of the ship being down here is to train Naval Cadets. Each Cadet has to make six carrier landings before he can graduate from Pre-Flight. Our ship never gets more than 50 miles from the coast and is in port every night.
The weather down here is beautiful and quite different from that of Kansas, but I still consider Downs my home town. I enjoy my work but am already looking forward to the time when I will receive my discharge; there’s nothing like being a good old civilian.
Elton Koops, A.A.”
– The Downs News and The Downs Times, May 3, 1956, Page 6.
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“Elton Koops has received his discharge from active service in the Navy and is now at the home of his brother Gerald and family for a number of weeks, helping Gerald with his farm work. Elton visited his brother Gary, who is stationed in an Army Base in North Carolina. Their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Renzo Koops, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, also spent a couple of days with Gary at the same time and Elton drove back to Grand Rapids before coming on out here.” – The Downs News and The Downs Times, October 10, 1957.
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Senior Joyce Wiersma, from her Calvin College yearbook.
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Joyce attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, graduating in 1957. There she got to know one Elton Koops, and the couple were married on August 14, 1958, in Orange City, Iowa. They would become the parents of four children – Katherine, Steven, Paul, and James. The Koops settled in Grand Rapids and both began teaching in the Grand Rapids school district in the fall of 1958.
Joyce worked as a teacher in Grand Rapids for 25 years, specializing in reading education for illiterate adults and English as a second language for immigrants new to America. She became an accomplished professional storyteller.
Elton Koops with some of his student charges, May 1959.
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Elton’s nearly 40-year teaching and counseling career began at Huff School, continued at Northeast Junior High, and culminated at Creston High School, where he served as a guidance counselor until his retirement.
In 1992 Elton and Joyce decided to move from Grand Rapids back to Elton’s hometown of Downs, Kansas. Elton taught in the local school system and was a member of the Downs Lions Club. He later served on the Downs City Council. Joyce taught school and was appointed to the Downs City Library Board in 1993. Both were active members in the Dispatch Christian Reformed Church and the Downs Historical Society.
Joyce loved the art of storytelling and was instrumental in establishing the Meadowlark State Storytelling Festival, later called the Kansas Storytelling Festival, in Downs in 1993.
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Storytelling festival to come to Downs
“DOWNS – When she found out Kansas did not have a state storytelling festival, Joyce Koops saw no reason when Downs couldn’t hold one.
‘Holding the Kansas Storytelling Festival here will do so much for Downs and make it the kind of place people will want to move to,’ Koops told the Downs City Council Monday night.
A member of the National Association of Professional Storytellers, Koops said she got the idea to hold the festival in Downs when she found out Kansas doesn’t have one.
According to Koops, the statewide annual event will be held in April. Four storytelling events will be going on concurrently, but there will be free time to browse and have tours.
Authors will also be brought in for autograph sessions and for those attending to meet and visit with.
‘We also want to feature a sort of Art in the Park, where artists can exhibit, and musicians can have a concert,’ said Mary Rotman. ‘We want to put them together and give them a forum to exhibit their talents.’
To finance the festival, a local group wants to apply for a grant from the Kansas City Arts Council, and that’s where the city comes in, explained Rotman.
The grant application has to be submitted by a non-profit organization such as a city. The request would be for $1,000 with the match coming from fund raising, ticket sales and volunteer labor.
‘We’ll take care of all of the paperwork and finances,’ said Barbara Stevens. ‘All we need is for you to sign the grant application.’
After discussion, the council voted unanimously to assist with the grant application.
It is hoped the storytelling festival will be a kick-off activity to start an arts council in Downs, said Rotman. Organizers envision using a local art council to encompass such things as a theater group, art gallery and musical performances.” – Osborne County Farmer, November 4, 1993.
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Enthusiastic response to Storytelling weekend in spite of moving inside due to wet weather
“Cold, wet weather could not dampen the enthusiasm and fun of the first annual Kansas Meadowlark Storytelling Festival held in Downs the past weekend.
While the record freezing weather had to affect attendance considerably there were still large crowds at most events, with an estimated 500 in attendance. The necessity to move portions of the storytelling events off the main street probably caused some confusion and hurt attendance at those events.
Most in attendance did not even know what a storytelling performer did and had never been to one before. They were not disappointed.
The Senior Center was packed for the Tall Tales of Terry Koops, Mike Nyhoff, Irvin Burmeister and Dan Buser at 11 o’clock.
Kay Negash, the featured storyteller, seemed to mesmerize the audience with her tales of Baby Doe Tabor and Aunt Clara Brown and received a long, enthusiastic response and a standing ovation.
‘You could hear a pin drop during this,’ said Doug Brush of the Swedish Homesteading stories of Tom Holmquist of Salina as listeners sat enthralled by these events.
A full house at the Senior Center heard Von Rothenberger tell about the new data, including whole unprinted chapters, [that] he has unearthed in his quest to elaborate on the book ‘Sod and Stubble’ about the Henry Ise family, who homesteaded three miles from Downs in the late 1800s.
There was an unbelievable amount of local talent rendered by the Community Band, the Carl Warner guitar and singing group, Darrell Geist, Bernita Smith, Carol Cordel, Oak Creek Boys and Sherry Stroh groups.
The food stands seemed to be having good sales in spite of being in rather cramped quarters, having had to move into Memorial Hall due to the weather and grateful to be there. Everything from cotton candy to pork burgers was available.
The popular hour-long bus tours drew a half load for the noon hour, then a full load for the next three trips with a few passengers turned down. It was hoped they made the later tour.
Dispatch was a highlight of this tour, where the group disembarked for traditional Dutch treats of Olie Boelen and Banket at the Dutch Reformed Church there. They heard [the] history of the former post office and main street, now a ghost town, as Norma Miller explained.
Organizers Barb Stevens and Joyce Koops were pleased with the weekend. If things went this well in this bad weather, think about what a great Spring weekend could do for it in future years.” – Downs News and Times, May 5, 1994.
Joyce Koop performing at the Kansas Meadowlark Storytelling Festival in Downs, Kansas. Image courtesy of the Downs News & Times newspaper.
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After a lifetime of public service and creative accomplishments, Joyce Koops passed away at the age of 83 on August 28, 2014, in Downs. Just over two years later Elton Koops would follow her to the Lord on December 26, 2016. They were both laid to rest in the Dispatch Cemetery in Lincoln Township, Smith County, Kansas.
Elton and Joyce Koops left their mark as respected members of the community and they will forever be missed. The Osborne County Hall of Fame is honored to keep their memory alive.
Elton and Joyce Koops rest together in eternal peace and bliss in the Dispatch Cemetery, located in the Dutch community of Dispatch in Lincoln Township, southeast Smith County, Kansas.
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SOURCES:
Steven Koops, Monument, Colorado.
The Downs News and The Downs Times, March 20, 1950, Page 4; September 28, 1950, Page 7; March 25, 1954, Page 1; May 3, 1956, Page 6; September 11, 1958, Page 2; May 5, 1994, Page 1.
Manhattan Mercury, November 27, 1949, Page 5.
Osborne County Farmer, December 8, 1949, Page 1; November 4, 1993, Page 15.
(On this date, December 2, 2020, the Osborne County Hall of Fame is pleased to present for the first time anywhere the fourth inductee of the OCHF Class of 2020.)
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Longtime teacher/coach Jim Neihouse is considered to be one of the greatest long distance runners in Kansas high school history; he did pretty well in the sport in college, too. Among the many accolades accorded him in his lifetime he can now add being selected to the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
James Edward Neihouse was born May 2, 1949 in Salina, Kansas, the twelfth child of eleven sisters and one brother born to John Bernard Neihouse and Inez Ella Foulke. Jim grew up in Salina and attended Sacred Heart High School.
Jim played four years of basketball for the Knights. He led Sacred Heart in scoring with 361 points for the season, with an average of nearly 20 points a contest, and paced the rebounding with 259. He hit 43 percent of his field attempts and 62 percent of his free throws. In 1967 he was named to the Topeka Daily Capital newspaper’s Class A All-State High School Basketball Team.
In the fall of 1966 Jim became the Class A boys cross country state champion. That winter he was the indoor state champion in both the 440-yard (quarter mile) and 880-yard (half mile) runs, helping the Sacred Heart Knights boys track and field team to win the Kansas state indoor track championship. In the spring of 1967 the high school senior placed first in both the 880-yard run (in a time of 1:55.1 minutes) and the mile run (in a time of 4:13.7 minutes), both of which were Class A state records.
Jim graduated from Sacred Heart High in 1967 and enrolled that fall at the University of Kansas, where he competed in indoor and outdoor track. In 1969 Jim ran a 1:50.4 opening 880 on the distance medley team (which included KU legend Jim Ryun) that set a world record of 9:33 flat at the 1969 Kansas Relays. Jim also ran the 880-yard second leg of the two-mile race in 1:50 flat at the 1970 NCAA Indoor Championships. That race set a world record for an 11-lap track with a time of 7:25.7 and helped the Jayhawks clinch their second straight national title by 1.5 points over Villanova. Jim was named a track All-American in 1970.
Jim Neihouse, sophomore year, University of Kansas.
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Jim’s best outdoor 880-run effort was a time of 1:49 in 1970 against UCLA. He was the 1971 880 indoor champ in Big Eight in 1:52.2 and has the 4th best 880-run of 1:51.1 in KU history. In Jim’s four years at the University of Kansas the men’s track and field team won both the Big Eight Conference indoor and outdoor championships every year.
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KU Distance Medley Relay World Record Team, 1969. From left: Jim Ryun, Thorn Bigley, Randy Julian, Jim Neihouse.
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KU Indoor 2-Mile Relay World Record Team and KU NCAA Champions, 1970. From left: Dennis Stewart, Jim Neihouse, Roger Kathol, Brian McElroy.
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Jim Neihouse to Tipton job
“TIPTON – Jim Neihouse of Salina and Stephen Adams of Minot, N.D., will be coaches for the 1972-73 school year at the high school, according to the Rev. Donald McCarthy, principal.
“Neihouse will be athletic director and head coach in basketball and track. Adams will be head coach in football and assistant in the other 2 sports.
“Neihouse, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Neihouse, 203 N. Columbia, is a graduate Sacred Heart high school and the University Kansas. He was an outstanding runner at both schools; in addition, he played 4 years of basketball for the Knights. He will teach biology, health, physical education, and religion at Tipton.
“Adams is a graduate at Sts. Peter & Paul High School, Seneca, and St. Mary’s of the Plains, Dodge City. He participated in football and track at both schools. He now lives in Minot. He will teach social studies.
“Neihouse and Adams succeed Joseph Hammerschmidt, Dennis Conaghan and Terry Robl at Tipton. Hammerschmidt be a regional insurance representative for the Knights of Columbus in Northwest Kansas, Conaghan will teach and coach at a Kansas City, Kansas, school, and Robl will do likewise at Ellsworth high school.” – Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas, June 11, 1972.
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Jim spent two years at Tipton as the biology and physical education teacher and coached football, boys’ basketball and boys’ and girls’ track. In the spring of 1973 the Tipton High School girls team won the Class 1A state track championship.
The Tipton High School 1A State Track Championship Team, Spring 1973. BACK, FROM LEFT : Coach Steve Adams, Brenda Cordel, Joan Pfeiffer, Carmel May, Marie Eilert, Coach Jim Neihouse. CNETER, FROM LEFT: Center: Mary Lynn Schroeder, Lisa Hake, Diane Arnoldy, Carla Streit, Eileen Hake, Ruth Streit. FRONT, FROM LEFT: Managers Barb Adam, Nancy Arnoldy, Jeanne Hake, Paula Moritz.
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On December 27, 1973, Jim Neihouse married Karla Robinson in the St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church at Tipton, Kansas. Together they raised two children, Paula and Aaron, and later welcomed four treasured grandchildren into the family.
In the fall of 1974 the Neihouse family moved to Stockton, Kansas, where Jim taught physical education and driver education and coached cross country, boys’ basketball and boys’ track. After two years in Stockton Jim was hired in August 1976 at Downs, Kansas, where he taught earth science, biology, and physical education. In time Jim would also serve as the school’s football coach, volleyball coach, boys’ basketball coach, cross country coach, and boys’ and girls’ track coach.
In 1989 Jim’s Downs boys’ track team won the Class 1A State Track championship.
Downs High School 1A State Track Championship Team, Spring 1989. FROM LEFT: Jesse Schreuder, Doug Cordill, Mike Becker, Tony Gradig, Lance Weeks, Coach Jim Neihouse.
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In all Jim coached cross country for 29 years and track for 35 years at Downs, where he coached eight individual state champions in track and many state placers in track and cross country.
Jim retired from classroom teaching in 2005 and after a year took a job as a paraprofessional for USD 272 until his retirement in 2016, after forty years employed by the district. He retired from coaching in 2015.
In 2000 James Edward Neihouse was named one of Salina’s Top 50 athletes of all time by the Salina Journal newspaper. He is a member of the University of Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame and a 2010 inductee into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame. It is an honor to welcome Jim with his many accomplishments into the Osborne County Hall of Fame.
University of Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame.
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SOURCES:
Jim Neihouse, Downs, Kansas.
Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas, March 19, 1967, Page 14; April 17, 1970, page 8; May 19, 1971, Page 1; May 19, 1971, page 17; June 11, 1972, Page 24; December 2, 1973, Page 12; January 1, 2000, Page 15.
The Osborne County Hall of Fame 