Naming Names

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: NAMING NAMES Once upon a time in Kansas, there were towns called Milo, Mimosa and Moonlight. Those towns have faded into history now, but they are three of the 4,281 post offices established in Kansas between 1828 and 1961. In a book called “Kansas Post …

Family Stories

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: FAMILY STORIES Clouds hung low over Highway 50 as I drove westbound toward Chase County one October morning. Leaves were beginning their brilliant farewell. A few days earlier, Ila Mae Whitlock who lives near Elmdale, had called, saying that she had stumbled across a few …

Royals Rebound

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ROYALS REBOUND The Kansas City Royals are having a good season. I don’t watch baseball, but the team has been playing well enough that even I have paid attention. During the past two decades, I’ve observed a pattern. Each April as a new season begins, …

Shadow on the Hill

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ‘SHADOW ON THE HILL’ On a sunny Saturday in May, 1925, Decoration Day, Florence Knoblock was found brutally murdered on the kitchen floor of her farmhouse near Burlington. Florence was married to John Knoblock and was the mother of a 4 year-old boy named Roger. …