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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Dale Jones – TCT

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

How far is it from rural Kansas to New York? To Los Angeles? Atlanta? London? Those cities may be half a continent or half a globe away, but thanks to the advances of modern telecommunications, they are virtually within just the touch of a button. Today we’ll meet a rural telecommunications company which is leading the way in bridging those distances for its members.

Dale Jones is CEO of TCT.
Dale Jones is CEO of TCT.

Dale Jones is CEO of Tri-County Telephone, now known as TCT. Dale grew up in far western Kansas near Oakley. He studied telecommunications at the Northwest Area Vocational Technical School, got started in the telecom business and worked his way up through the ranks. In 1999, he became CEO at TCT, a member-owned telecommunications cooperative.

TCT, like many rural telephone companies, began as a group of farmers and rural residents who banded together to bring in telephone service. The original three counties of TCT are Dickinson, Morris, and Marion. TCT’s service area reaches over into Geary and Lyon counties as well. TCT was a founding company of Kansas Cellular and is one of the owners of Nex-Tech Wireless.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Jill Mason – Confetti & Cashmere

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go to Los Angeles, for the VIP after-party for the Emmy Awards. It’s a big event, and lots of celebrities are showing up. Who do you suppose was a key planner for this event? Would you believe, a young woman from rural Kansas?

After a successful career in California, Jill Mason brought her event planning and style back to her native Kansas. She has opened Confetti & Cashmere in Manhattan.
After a successful career in California, Jill Mason brought her event planning and style back to her native Kansas. She has opened Confetti & Cashmere in Manhattan.

Jill Mason is the owner of Confetti & Cashmere Party Boutique in Manhattan, Kansas. Jill grew up on a farm in Dickinson County. As a high school student, she rode a bus 30 miles to Chapman, where she was active in FFA and other school and community activities.

Jill went on to K-State where she majored in hotel and restaurant management and minored in business administration. She also worked in foodservice for Chartwells and volunteered at Big Lakes Development Center. “I think these experiences helped me to become a better manager, to be more well-rounded and work with lots of different people,” Jill said.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: KANSAS! Magazine

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What is the magazine of the year? In 2014, the publication that was selected as magazine of the year in its circulation class is a magazine which celebrates the people and places of the great state of Kansas. In addition to this award, we are also celebrating the fact that 2015 marked 70 years of the publication now known as KANSAS! Special thanks to writer Julie Tollefson whose article in KANSAS! Magazine shared the history of this beautiful publication.

The award-winning KANSAS! Magazine marked its 70th year in 2015, sharing news about the people and places of Kansas.
The award-winning KANSAS! Magazine marked its 70th year in 2015, sharing news about the people and places of Kansas.

Andrea Etzel is the editor of KANSAS! Magazine. Andrea is the latest in the series of about a dozen editors who have guided the publication throughout its seven decades.

The publication began rather modestly. In November 1945, the Kansas Industrial Development Commission (predecessor of the Kansas Department of Commerce) launched a little eight-page newsletter called To The Stars. It was a rather Plain Jane newsletter in black-and-white.

The inaugural issue stated:  “To The Stars is a new publication which we hope will be of help to Kansans, particularly to those interested in making Kansas the most outstanding state in the Middlewest. We want it to be informative. We will pass along all ideas and developments which have merit. We will, from time to time, have information that will be of benefit to every community in the state. We believe To The Stars will serve a real purpose in Kansas life.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Yvette and Monte Ysidro – Stearman Bar and Grill

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go out for lunch. There are lots of options. Some are sit-down restaurants. Some have drive-up windows. How about a fly-in restaurant? Today we’ll learn about a remarkable fly-in restaurant in rural Kansas where customers can literally fly or drive in for a meal.

Stearman Bar and Grill, located at Stearman Field in Benton, Kansas, is named for aviation pioneer Lloyd Stearman.
Stearman Bar and Grill, located at Stearman Field in Benton, Kansas, is named for aviation pioneer Lloyd Stearman.

In recent weeks we have learned about aviation pioneers such as Clyde Cessna, Walter and Olive Ann Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. Today we’ll visit a modern-day restaurant which bears Stearman’s name. Yvette Ysidro and her husband Monte are the owners of the Stearman Bar and Grill at Stearman Field, a private airport near Benton northeast of Wichita.

The original owners of this airport were private pilots Dwayne and Julie Clemens. They built a hangar here, including a place where people could drink coffee and get a sandwich out of the fridge. As it became more popular, it evolved into a café called Stearman Bar and Grill.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Lloyd Stearman

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What aircraft was the most widely used model for training airplane pilots during World War II?  Would you believe, an airplane named for one of the early pioneers of the aviation industry who came from rural Kansas?

Lloyd Stearman, a native Kansan, designed the most widely used planes to train U.S. pilots during World War II.
Lloyd Stearman, a native Kansan, designed the most widely used planes to train U.S. pilots during World War II.

In recent weeks we’ve learned about Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech, two of the three men who founded an airplane business in Wichita in 1924. Today we’ll learn about the third of those three:  Lloyd Stearman, whose plane, the Stearman Kaydet, was the primary trainer for World War II pilots.

Lloyd Stearman was born in the rural Kiowa County town of Wellsford, Kansas in 1898.  Wellsford had been a thriving community but faded away through the decades until it legally disincorporated. Other than the southeast Kansas town of Treece, which disbanded itself due to pollution problems in 2012, Wellsford was the last Kansas town to eliminate its legally incorporated status which it did in 1975. As of the town’s last official census in 1970, Wellsford had an official population of 9 people. Now, that’s rural.

Lloyd Stearman was born at Wellsford and went to school in Harper. While in grade school, he saw his first airplane, piloted by Clyde Cessna.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Walter and Olive Ann Beech

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Cessna. Beechcraft. Stearman. These are some of the classic names of airplanes and aviation companies. Those names belong to men who were pioneers of the aviation industry. Today, we will learn about another of the industry’s best leaders. But this aviation business pioneer wasn’t a man – it was a woman.

Last week we learned about aviation industry leader Clyde Cessna. In 1925, Cessna and another man named Lloyd Stearman created an airplane company along with a young test pilot named Walter Beech.

Olive Ann Beech and her husband Walter Beech founded Beech Aircraft Company.
Olive Ann Beech and her husband Walter Beech founded Beech Aircraft Company.

Walter Beech came from a farm in Tennessee. He built a glider at the age of 14 and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I. In 1921, he came to work for an airplane company in Wichita. Four years later he joined Lloyd Stearman and Cessna to form Travel Air Manufacturing Company. Here he met a woman named Olive Ann Mellor.

Olive Ann came from Waverly in eastern Kansas. She attended business school in Wichita and then was bookkeeper for a company in Augusta before becoming bookkeeper and then office manager for Travel Air Manufacturing. She and Walter Beech were married in 1930.

In the following year, Travel Air was purchased by the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Company.  Walter Beech became president of Curtiss-Wright, but he didn’t like the fact that those duties kept him in New York, away from the production of airplanes.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Cessna

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

The world’s most popular airplanes. That’s one description of the planes built by the Cessna Aircraft Company, maker of more light aircraft than any company in the world. It was all started by a rural Kansas farm boy. And he’s the subject of today’s Kansas Profile.

Clyde Cessna was born in Iowa. When he was one year old, his family moved to Kansas and lived on a farm near the rural community of Rago in Kingman County. Rago is unincorporated.  It’s located east of the town of Spivey, population 79 people. Now, that’s rural.

Clyde Cessna grew up in the rural community of Rago (Kingman County) Kansas.
Clyde Cessna grew up in the rural community of Rago (Kingman County) Kansas.

As a farmboy, Clyde learned to be a good mechanic and handyman. He helped area farmers with their equipment and then branched out into working on automobiles. He became an auto mechanic and then a car salesman in Enid, Oklahoma.

One day in 1910, he went to Oklahoma City and saw what was called an “air circus”: An exhibition by a group of touring stunt pilots. He was so intrigued by the airplanes that he quit his job and moved to New York to take a job in aircraft construction.

He learned the craft of airplane manufacturing and then moved back to Oklahoma to build his own planes. Cessna crashed on his first flight attempt but made his first successful flight in 1911, eight years after the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. With that flight, he became the first person to build and fly a powered aircraft in the heartland of America, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Dean Wade

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What is more All-American than growing up and playing ball in small town Kansas? Today we’ll meet a young man who experienced such an upbringing. He came from rural Kansas and is making an impact in big-time college basketball.

Kansas State University basketball player, Dean Wade, of St. John, Kansas, was named a Parade All-American.
Kansas State University basketball player, Dean Wade, of St. John, Kansas, was named a Parade All-American.

Dean Wade is a freshman forward for the Kansas State basketball team. He had what might be considered an All-American upbringing, growing up in a small central Kansas town.

Dean is the son of Jay and Trish Wade. Jay and Trish are originally from small town Kansas also.  Jay grew up at Haviland. Trish’s dad was in the Navy so they moved around a lot. Trish came to Haviland when she was in the sixth grade.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Jerry Hall – Extension Districts

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

How do institutions serving rural America deal with change? In the face of changing demands and demographics, how do those institutions respond? Some will choose to do nothing, to hunker down and try to ride out the status quo. Others faced with declining resources will decide they must close offices and mandate consolidation. But perhaps there is a third way: To encourage voluntary collaboration while improving program quality. Today in Kansas Profile, we’ll learn about a rural Kansas leader who has firsthand experience in facing those alternatives.

Wildcat Extension DistrictJerry Hall is an agribusinessman and extension volunteer in southeast Kansas. He was raised near the rural community of Elk City, population 311 people. Now, that’s rural.

Jerry was active in 4-H and FFA. After receiving an ag scholarship, he went to Coffeyville Community College and on to K-State where he met his wife Stephanie. He got a hog feeding job in southeast Kansas and now manages a feed mill for Springer Family Foods in Montgomery County.

Stephanie and Jerry have a daughter named Jerica. Jerica was also active in 4-H, serving as club president, county council president, and on a national livestock skill-a-thon team among many other activities. “The best part (for her) was mentoring other kids,” Jerry said. “In her last year at the state fair, a lamb which she had sold to another family ranked higher than she did in the class, but she was happy for the other kid.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Martin and Cheryl Rude – Treehouse

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

The decision to stay at this bed and breakfast left me up a tree….and I mean that literally. Today we will meet an innovative couple in rural Kansas whose bed and breakfast now includes a treehouse for lodging.

Cheryl and Martin Rude are the owners of Barns @ Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast in Cowley County, Kansas. One of their "rooms" is the Treehouse.
Cheryl and Martin Rude are the owners of Barns @ Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast in Cowley County, Kansas. One of their “rooms” is the Treehouse.

Martin and Cheryl Rude are the owners of this special b and b called the Barns at Timber Creek, which we have previously profiled. Martin and Cheryl are faculty members at Southwestern College in Winfield.

Martin grew up at Wichita and spent time at his grandparent’s farm near the rural community of Rose Hill, population 3,525 people. Now, that’s rural.

Martin played in a Christian band which toured for 10 years. He met and married Cheryl who was serving as youth director of a church in Wichita. After more work for the church in Texas, they moved to Winfield to take faculty positions at Southwestern College.

Cheryl worked in leadership education and Martin worked in student services, but his interest in music again came to the forefront. He started working on the musical elements of church life and today is director of worship outreach at the college. “Our students study worship, leadership, music theory, and their individual emphasis,” Martin said. “All of our projects are linked to community.”

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