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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Tombaugh – Pluto

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Feb. 18, 1930. A young man is studying outer space at an observatory in Arizona. He is comparing telescopic, photographic images of the distant night sky. Suddenly a terrific thrill comes over him as he realizes that the image he has just seen provides the scientific evidence of a historic discovery: He has discovered a planet. It was a remarkable accomplishment for a young farm boy from Kansas.

Clyde Tombaugh is credited with discovering Pluto in 1930.

Clyde Tombaugh is the man who discovered Pluto. In his autobiography, Out of the Darkness, Tombaugh describes how it all began. He was born on a farm in Illinois. In 1922, his family moved to a wheat farm near Burdett, Kansas.

While studying geography in the sixth grade, Tombaugh thought: “What would the geography on other planets be like?” Clyde’s uncle Lee lived on a farm nearby. He was an amateur astronomer. Lee lent him a simple telescope and an astronomy book which Clyde found fascinating. Scientists like Galileo became his childhood heroes.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Doug McKinney – Career Exploration

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Our biggest export from rural Kansas isn’t wheat or corn – it’s our young people.” That statement describes one of our rural communities’ major dilemmas, which is the outmigration of youth. Today we’ll learn about an initiative in north central Kansas which is helping make young people aware of the opportunities they have locally without having to move away.

Doug McKinney is executive director of the North Central Regional Planning Commission which serves 12 counties in north central Kansas, plus providing other services beyond that region. The commission’s main office is centrally located in the region, in Beloit.

Doug explained that he and other community representatives were invited to a Kansas Department of Education forum in Topeka in December 2016. State Commissioner of Education Randy Watson invited school districts and others to come to this forum on the topic of summertime career exploration and leadership development. The one-day forum featured a school district in New York state that used summer programming to address several problems found in that school district.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Earl Roemer – Nu Life Market

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Food is necessary for life. For those with food allergies, the right kind of food is vital.  When someone with gluten intolerance or another food allergy finds a tasty food which is healthy for them, it can be like a new lease on life. Today we’ll meet a Kansas entrepreneur whose company is helping supply those needs with a Farm to Family food safety program.

Earl Roemer

Earl Roemer is founder and president of Nu Life Market in Scott City. Nu Life Market business development manager Rachel Klataske shared his story with me.

Earl’s family has farmed in the High Plains of Kansas for four generations. As do many western Kansas farmers, his family grew grain sorghum – also called milo – as a feed grain crop for livestock.

Earl became intrigued by grain sorghum’s potential as a human food source. “Earl is a scientist by training and a farmer by background,” Rachel said.

He started researching the potential use of grain sorghum as a human food crop.  According to one account, the early grain sorghum products “tasted like cardboard and the texture was like sand.” Now they are much improved. K-State food science professor Dr. Fadi Aramouni helped with research which significantly improved the quality and appeal of the product. K-State researchers even developed an award-winning recipe based on sorghum flour.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Steve and Jane Fry – Elk Falls Pottery

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go to the Pentagon. Here on a desk is a personalized mug from a pottery studio halfway across the country in rural Kansas. It’s the classic type of stoneware pottery that has been made for centuries.

Steve Fry

Steve and Jane Fry are owners of Elk Falls Pottery, the source of this personalized mug.  Jane grew up near Hesston and Steve came from Great Bend in Barton County. As a teenager, Steve and his friends rode motorcycles in a nearby area they called the clay pits, where a local brick company had mined for clay.

Steve was always interested in art. At Hesston College he took a sculpture class and then was introduced to pottery. The professor took the students on a field trip to a high quality clay deposit in Barton County.

The professor taught them the art of making pottery. “I fell in love with clay and the potter’s wheel,” Steve said. He also met Jane and fell in love with her. They were married after college Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Steve and Jane Fry – Elk Falls Pottery” →

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Millie Horlacher – Seasons of Salt

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go to Wyoming. A pastor is using a devotional book with the members of his congregation.  This particular book was written by an author from rural Kansas. The book is titled Seasons of Salt.

Seasons of Salt is a book of meditations by Kansan Millie Horlacher.

Last week we learned about Wayne and Millie Horlacher in Colby. Wayne is the retired owner of Horlacher Jewelers. Millie is an author.

Millie grew up on a farm in northeast Kansas, south of the rural community of Horton, population 1,776 people. Now, that’s rural. Millie was one of eight children raised on that farm. Her parents stressed education. All eight of those children went on to higher education after high school.  Four of them got master’s degrees.

Millie went to K-State and met Wayne when they were both playing in the K-State band. She and Wayne were married and, after his service in the military, came to Colby where Wayne joined his father’s jewelry store business. Millie and Wayne had four children.

Their faith is very important to Millie and Wayne. They continued their involvement in United Methodist churches and the community. Millie became a certified lay speaker for the United Methodist Church. She served as spiritual growth coordinator for the United Methodist Women at the local, district, and conference levels.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Wayne Horlacher – Horlacher Jewelers

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

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?

Millie and Wayne Horlacher

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.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: National Festival of Breads

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What better place is there than the Wheat State to host the National Festival of Breads?  Thanks to some visionary wheat farmers from years ago and a hard-working crew of volunteers and staff, a national festival which celebrates bread-baking is being held in Kansas.

June 17 is the 2017 final event for the National Festival of Breads, this year in Manhattan, Kansas.

Cindy Falk and Julene DeRouchey are co-directors of the National Festival of Breads.  Cindy is nutrition educator at the Kansas Wheat Commission and Julene is her assistant. Coincidentally, they are both Pottawatomie County farm girls who grew up presenting cooking demonstrations in 4-H. Julene grew up on a farm near Wamego and Cindy grew up on a farm south of Onaga, a rural community of 702 people. Now, that’s rural.

“The credit for the beginning of this should go to the Kansas Wheathearts, which was the women’s auxiliary of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers,” Cindy Falk said. In 1990, these women wanted to have a baking contest to promote wheat, the source of bread flour. Cindy, then a part-time staff person for the Kansas Wheat Commission, attended the initial planning meeting. The first year’s baking contest went so well that it became an ongoing event under the auspices of what is now Kansas Wheat. Cindy has been involved ever since.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Janis Whitham and Clay Whitham – Kentucky Derby

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

It’s the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. As the beautiful thoroughbreds race down the track in the historic run for the roses, owners and fans cheer from the stands. In 2017, one of those owners was from rural Kansas. In fact, her Derby horse bears the name of a rural Kansas town.

Janis Whitham (in blue) and family at the races.

Janis Whitham is the owner of this wonderful Kentucky Derby horse. Janis’s son Clay Whitham told us this remarkable story.

Janis grew up at Scott City. She met and married Frank Whitham who worked in farming, cattle feeding, and banking. The Whithams moved to Leoti and had five children.

In 1993, Frank Whitham was tragically killed in a private plane crash in western Kansas.  Janis continued the family’s interest in horses.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Kejr Family – Kansas Beach and Events

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Let’s go to the beach!” No, you won’t need sunscreen and a towel. This is not an ocean beach, but it is a wonderful place to relax. It can host a wedding or other special event in a beautiful, rustic setting.

The Kejr family near Salina has farmed in Kansas for more than a century. Joe and Geena Kejr, descendants of the original farmers, live on the family farm west of Salina.  Their daughter Michelle is marketing director for their newest enterprise, called Kansas Beach Hospitality and Events.

“I lived there my entire life, surrounded by these beautiful farm fields,” Michelle Kejr said.  Now her grandfather, father, uncle, brother and cousin are farming together.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Kristina Kaufman – Blythe Family Fitness

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Being fit: That should be a goal for everyone. Health and physical fitness should be important to every individual. Today we’ll learn about a family fitness center which is working hard to involve people of all ages and to make their rural community even more healthy and physically fit.

Kristina Kaufman of Blythe Family Fitness in Pratt.

Kristina Kaufman is executive director of Blythe Family Fitness in Pratt. She studied at McPherson College and met her husband through friends. He was a competitive bodybuilder and she gained interest in fitness and health through him. She later earned degrees in nutrition and business.

In 1996, Kristina and her husband opened a fitness center in Kingman. In 2004, they opened a second fitness center in downtown Pratt, upstairs from the Sears store, with approximately 15,000 square feet of space. Ultimately, Kristina and her husband were recruited to combine their business with the Blythe Family Fitness center as it began, and to manage and operate it as they do today.

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