by RICK DANLEY // March 21, 2016 In the fall of 1911, President Taft was presented with a case of bottled water from the Iola Booster Club. Attached to each bottle was a label: “This bottle contains Neosho river water, nothing else. … We use this water on our streets, lawns, tables. We drink it, … Continue reading The Neosho
by RICK DANLEY // July 15, 2016 In 2003, Shauna Berntsen entered Allen Community College on a softball scholarship. Not long after Valentine’s Day of that year, her enrollment was annulled and the 19-year-old was deployed to Iraq. She had completed basic training the previous year, but had hoped to postpone active duty service until … Continue reading Shauna
by RICK DANLEY // October 6, 2016 The Addams Family is so firmly wedged in the popular imagination that, during the 2004 presidential election, the then-editor of the New York Times referred to John Kerry as having an “Addams Family face.” It was an unkind statement, and yet everybody knew what he meant. (In case … Continue reading ‘The Addams Family’
by RICK DANLEY // August 16, 2016 Just as we recently lost the last of the living World War I vets, time will remove, perhaps in the turn of another generation, the last of the women who taught in one-room schools. But for an hour last Thursday, three of the most charming such specimens from … Continue reading One-Room Schools
by RICK DANLEY // December 3, 2015 Allen Community College’s excellently cast staging of Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy “The Cripple of Inishmaan” is able to wring from the fast-paced script the same quotient of wit and deep feeling that made the play a hit when it first arrived on the London stage in 1996. The … Continue reading ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’
by RICK DANLEY // February 17, 2015 NEOSHO FALLS — Sitting at a long table beneath the fluorescent lights of the Senior Center in Neosho Falls, Thelma Bedenbender, 84, searches for something amid a pile of papers. While she does that, the Rev. Russell Anderson, the soft-spoken, genial pastor of the town’s United Methodist Church, … Continue reading God in Neosho Falls
by RICK DANLEY // June 1, 2015 One evening, years ago, when Thelma Cook was still working as a club manager and bartender at the Holiday Park Motel in Chanute, a man from Georgia walked into the club, eyed the oil paintings on the wall and decided to purchase the lot. But he had to … Continue reading The Marvelous Art of Thelma Cook
by RICK DANLEY // March 30, 2015 Soon Iola will be as known for the trails that encircle the town as it is for the historically large courthouse square at its center. An aerial view of the county — showing the Prairie Spirit Trail dropping in from the north, the Southwind coming up from Humboldt … Continue reading The Trail Capital of Kansas
by RICK DANLEY // April 22, 2015 CHANUTE — Having heard that Gov. Sam Brownback would be addressing a group of business leaders Tuesday morning at a reception hall in downtown Chanute, four participants from the local Circles Out of Poverty program assembled outside the building’s entrance to protest the substance of recent legislation. Their … Continue reading On Brownback
by RICK DANLEY // April 13, 2015 As long as there’s been a Walmart in Iola, Bob Jones has worn its uniform. Most days you’ll find the 60-year-old produce specialist …. This article first appeared in The Iola Register on April 13, 2015. Continue reading Keeping up with Bob Jones
RG danley 