Let’s go to Alaska, where a gentleman is presenting his wife with a gorgeous one-carat diamond ring. Where do you suppose that ring came from? Would you believe, way down in rural Kansas?
Wayne Horlacher is the retired owner of Horlacher Jewelers in Colby, Kansas. His son Jeff, the current owner, sold this beautiful ring to a friend in Alaska. Wayne and his wife Millie, an author, have served their community for years.
Wayne’s father’s family operated the Colby Mill and Elevator where they produced Pride of the Plains flour until the hard times of the 1920s. Wayne’s father then went to watchmaking school in St. Louis and came back to Colby where he worked for a local jeweler and then bought his business. In 1927, Wayne’s father opened Horlacher Jewelers.
“He made it through the years of the Depression when people didn’t have any money. Sometimes he would take chickens or beef as payment,” Wayne said. “When I was a kid, he showed me how to clean clocks at his shop.” Wayne went to K-State where he graduated in business administration with minors in accounting and economics. He also played baritone in the marching band, where he met a cute girl who also played baritone. Millie came from a farm in northeast Kansas.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Wayne Horlacher – Horlacher Jewelers”
