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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Loren and Regena Lance – Mildred Store

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Peanut clusters. Coconut bon bons. Peanut brittle. Chocolate cream fudge. Those delicious old-fashioned candies used to be a hallmark of the Christmas season. They still are, at a remarkable store in rural Kansas. This store offers those candies and much, much more as a special holiday edition of Kansas Profile.

Loren and Regena Lance are the owners of the Mildred Store in Mildred, Kansas. Mildred is in Allen County. The post office in Mildred has closed, so the mailing address is the nearby town of Moran.

Mildred storeRegena grew up here at Mildred, and Loren grew up 30 miles south. He is a self-taught musician and farmer. He was trained as a diesel mechanic and now has played country music all over southeast Kansas. Regena is a teacher and administrator. After earning her master’s degree online, she is dean of instruction at Fort Scott Community College.

Lance and Regena live near the community of Mildred. Brown’s Grocery, owned by a man named Charles Brown, was a mainstay in the community for many years. His wife’s name, by the way, was Lucille – sounds like Peanuts.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Heidi and Charles Anderson – Livestock Photography

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Fresno, California. A California cattle ranch is preparing for a livestock sale, complete with taking pictures of the animals to be sold. Who do you suppose was taking these high quality photos? Would you believe, a professional photographer from half a continent away in Kansas?

Heidi and Charles Anderson are the owners of Legacy Livestock Imaging, the company which took those California photos. Heidi was a city girl and self-described Air Force brat. Her father served all over the nation, and she had visited 48 of the 50 states before she got out of high school. While her dad was serving at the Air Force base in Topeka, Heidi started at Washburn University.

Charles and Heidi Anderson
Charles and Heidi Anderson

“I thought I’d be gone in six months,” Heidi said. “Now it’s been 22 years.”

As a kid, Heidi came to appreciate photography. “We moved around so much that we valued capturing images of where we’d been,” she said. “It was how we learned to communicate.”

She earned degrees in finance and accounting, but she followed her interest into becoming a professional portrait photographer. For example, she photographed ballet companies as far away as Seattle and Atlanta.

One day at church in Topeka, she met a guy named Charles Anderson. Their interests could not seem to have been farther apart: City girl versus farm boy. She was a dancer and art photographer. His background? Cattle. But something clicked between them.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Morganville – Feves

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What can you and I do to promote world peace? That may sound like a question in the Miss America pageant, but today we’ll learn about a rural Kansas community which took specific action to help a war-torn community halfway around the globe. That initiative began more than a half-century ago, and the relationship is being renewed again.

Brent and Charlotte Rundell live at Morganville, Kansas. They met at K-State and he went to work for a grain business in Morganville. While eating at the Morganville Cafe, he noticed a wooden picture carving with the words Feves & Morganville inscribed on the bottom. Older friends in his Bible study explained that it came from the time when Morganville adopted a city in France.

The city of Feves, France sent this carving to Morganville, Kansas as a thank you for its help after World War II.
The city of Feves, France sent this carving to Morganville, Kansas as a thank you for its help after World War II.

After World War II, a Methodist minister in Morganville encouraged the town to reach out to those in need overseas. The citizens of Morganville decided to adopt a European community which had been severely damaged by the war. A local woman named Velma Carson took up the cause.

In 1948, a vote of the citizens was conducted. The community they chose was Feves, France.  There was no prior personal connection between the towns, but there was definitely a need.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Bob Fisher – World Record Holder

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Not one, not two, but fourteen world records. That is an amazing accomplishment by one man.  All of these records have to do with basketball free throws, and they were all set by a man from rural Kansas.

Basketball free throw record holder Bob Fisher of Centralia, Kansas appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Basketball free throw record holder Bob Fisher of Centralia, Kansas appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Bob Fisher is the man who set these world records. He grew up at Vermillion in northeast Kansas and moved to Centralia. After living in Dallas for six years, he moved back to Centralia where he and his wife Connie live today. Bob is a technician for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He also serves as a shooting coach for basketball players.

“Twenty-seven years ago I got the advice to become a true expert in something,” Bob said. He decided to become an expert in shooting a basketball.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Don White – Can-Coctions

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter
Don White's company Can-Coctions, based in Garnett, Kansas, makes Can-panions.
Don White’s company Can-Coctions, based in Garnett, Kansas, makes Can-panions.

Can rural Kansas survive? Can rural Kansas compete? Can rural Kansas grow? In order to do so, rural Kansas will need entrepreneurs and community leaders to find and implement creative ideas. In fact, it might even require a concoction of things.

Don White is owner of an innovative business in eastern Kansas. He grew up in the Kansas City area and became a specialist in creating dental devices. He builds dental bridges, crowns and dentures.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Brad Hamilton

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“God, family, America, and freedom.” Those are the priorities that rural entertainer Brad Hamilton believes in living, celebrating, and promoting. He also believes in public service, both in civic life and in the military.

Brad Hamilton of Hoyt, Kansas, is keeping cowboy and Western heritage alive through his music.
Brad Hamilton of Hoyt, Kansas, is keeping cowboy and Western heritage alive through his music.

Brad Hamilton is an educator and entertainer in northeast Kansas. His family came from Jewell County originally. Part of his ancestry is Native American Indian. Brad’s father played football, ran track, and was on the wrestling team at Kansas State. Brad’s dad went on to become the superintendent at Lovewell Reservoir.

Brad grew up with a love of music and of cowboy life. His grandfather had a farm and Brad rode whenever he could. “I grew up in the Roy Rogers era and those good guys were your heroes,” Brad said. He learned to spin guns and do rope tricks. His grandfather also loved the song “Wings of a Dove” and he asked Brad to sing along with it every chance he could.

Brad’s father served in the National Guard and then was transferred to Salina when Brad was nine.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Michael Daniel – Brooks Landscape

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What do you see when you scan the landscape? It could be a virtual scan, or it might be actual trees, grass, woody plants and flowers. Today we will learn about a rural Kansas company which is working daily to improve the landscape.

Brooks Landscape and Brookscape Gardens are in the rural community of Elyria in McPherson County, Kansas.
Brooks Landscape and Brookscape Gardens are in the rural community of Elyria in McPherson County, Kansas.

Michael Daniel is owner of Brooks Landscape LLC and its retail store, Brookscape Gardens.  Michael was born into a military family that traveled the country. When he was 12, his folks settled near Inman, Kansas. After service in the Navy, Michael took a position with the public utility in McPherson. At church, he met and ultimately married Arlene, who had grown up on a farm near Mullinville. She works at the refinery in McPherson and helps at the family business.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Walter Johnson and George Sweatt

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter
Legendary baseball players George Sweatt and Walter Johnson were both from Humboldt, Kansas.
Legendary baseball players George Sweatt and Walter Johnson were both from Humboldt, Kansas.

The World Series. It’s a great event for baseball fans. As the baseball season comes to its culmination, we are reminded of a time before racial integration when there were two World Series: One for major league baseball, and a second for what was called the National Negro League. Today we’ll learn about two young players who led their teams in each league.  Incredibly, those two players both came from the very same small town in rural Kansas. Thanks to Meredith Wiggins of the Kansas Humanities Council whose article served as our source and is used with permission in today’s Kansas Profile.

Walter “Big Train” Johnson was an icon in big league pitching a century ago, playing for 21 years with the Washingon Senators. He was the dominant power pitcher of his time, described as “one of the most celebrated and dominating players in baseball history.” Several of his pitching records still stand today, more than a century later.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Margaret Kraisinger – Western Cattle Trails

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

A National Park Service researcher is calling. He is working on a feasibility study which is considering the addition of the Western Cattle Trail to the National Park System. The person he is calling is a western author located in rural Kansas.

Gary and Margaret Kraisinger of Halstead, Kansas have written books on the cattle trails of the Old West.
Gary and Margaret Kraisinger of Halstead, Kansas have written books on the cattle trails of the Old West.

Last week in Kansas Profile, we met Margaret and Gary Kraisinger, owners of The Old Hardware Store in Halstead. Gary and Margaret are also published authors who have extensively researched the history of the west, specifically the historic Western Cattle Trail.

Gary was raised at Hays and met and married Margaret at Fort Hays State. They became teachers and took teaching positions at Dighton. Margaret taught high school business and English, and Gary taught Kansas history and math at the junior high level while doing graduate work in the summertime.

One day a local rancher approached them and said that he had something he wanted to show them. “One Sunday afternoon, we went out there and the rancher took us out into his pasture,” Margaret said. “We were driving across the pasture and then he turned his wheels sharply, and it was like a washboard. What is that, we asked. `Well, it’s not wagon ruts, but we think it is a cattle trail,’ he said.”

The interest of Gary and Margaret was piqued. Was there an old-time cattle trail that had passed through the region? Gary and Margaret agreed to look into it.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Margaret Kraisinger – The Old Hardware Store

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go to Japan, where a buyer has ordered an antique cabinet accessory. The authentic antique has now arrived. From where do you suppose it was shipped? Yes, it came from halfway around the world, from a remarkable business in rural Kansas.

theoldhardwarestoreMargaret and Gary Kraisinger are owners of The Old Hardware Store which provided this antique item for the Japanese buyer. Margaret was born in Garden City and grew up at Great Bend. “I grew up liking antiques and collecting antiques,” she said. Margaret went on to Fort Hays State where she got her education degree. She also met and married Gary Kraisinger.

She and Gary were teachers for a time in western Kansas where they developed a strong interest in history. Then Gary chose to go into a business career and joined a construction company. His business career ultimately took them to Wichita. When they had children, they looked for a small town school system. In 1979, they moved to Halstead where they raised three children. After 51 years of marriage, they now have eight grandchildren also.

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