Dawes County Journal

That old football spirit comes back to life!

2012-02-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

by Larry Miller

Former Chadron State Eagle Danny Woodhead’s passion for football and – to steal a linefrom the U.S. Army – “trying to be all you can be,” has been an inspiration formany. Your’s truly included.

As a one-time high school athlete now collecting Social Security and nursing my poor, worn-out flat feet, I must confessthat the pursuit of other interests – including working at a career inbroadcasting – pulled me away from my early love of sports for most of my adult life.

Even as recently as a 50^thhigh school class reunion last year, I wrote this about what I learned at Chadron HighSchool: “…that there’s more tolife than sports…that teamwork is just as important in the rest of life as itis on the field or on the court…that growing up in a small town was a prettygood thing….”

Not that my bride and I haven’t followed sports. You can’t grow up in Nebraska withoutbeing at least a closet fan of theNebraska Cornhuskers. InOklahoma, we learned to love the OSU Cowboys (usually in the shadow of the OU Sooners!) We particularly enjoyedbasketball games in Gallagher Hall, and many years later would follow our BlackHills State University “Yellowjackets” exploits at the Donald Young Center inSpearfish.

But the truth is, until our grand nephew, Chance Galey,started playing for the Chadron State Eagles back in 2005, I was not abig football fan. But as we beganwatching the Eagles play more often, we started getting caught up in the gameagain.

And then, there was Danny Woodhead.

Woodhead and Chance played together on some terrific Eagleteams. And while Chance collectedseveral honors for his performance as starting center for three years, it wasDanny Woodhead who made an indelible impact upon the record books at Chadron –and in the NCAA. He set a rushing record (at that time) within either Division I or II of the NCAA and was the recipient of two Harlon Hill trophies, the Division II equivalent of the Heisman trophy. And there's a litany of records he established in his college career while also winning academic awards on his way to earning a degree in math education.

Like so many other CSC alums, we followed Danny’s career ashe first went to the New York Jets. Despite an injury and some bouncing aroundbetween the Jets and their practice squad, Danny Woodhead persevered. Finally, he was released by the Jets,and some of us wondered if perhaps Danny may have finally come to the end ofhis journey in professional football.

Obviously, we didn’t fully appreciate the commitment thatthis young man had and continues to exhibit as one of the most unlikely successstories in the NFL.

Danny’s skills appeared to fit nicely with Bill Belichick’sstrategy at New England, and none of has looked back since! Despite the Patriot’s loss in the SuperBowl, Danny Woodhead again displayed the kind of commitment and dedication hehas to the game, and to his teammates. And that fact certainly has not gone unnoticed by Patriots fans and, increasingly, national media.

Even back at Chadron State, we watched Danny and the Eaglesplay with “heart,” and we have little doubt that he’ll continue to inspire usall.

While he’s not a “star” in the same sense as Tom Brady,Danny’s hard work is paying off. His pay was bumped up to about $700,000 (still a far cry from Brady’s$13.2 million, and even wide receiver Wes Welker’s $4.1 million) and now endorsementopportunities are blossoming. Last summer, Danny was tapped for a two-year deal to be the athletepromoting the Sketchers fitness footwear collection.

That sort of thing comes with the “turf,” but only for thosewho’ve achieved remarkable success. We thought it was telling that Sketcher’s president Michael Greenberg astutely observed that “Dannyathleticism and dedication are truly inspiring.”

I’ll bet those could have been the very words that veteranChadron writer Con Marshall might have used in assessing a younger DannyWoodhead shortly after he took to the field for the Chadron State Eagles in2004.

I’m a believer that such “heart” comes largely fromnurturing parents and family members, as well as early friends and mentors. Danny’sparents, Mark and Annette Woodhead of North Platte, should take a bow.

And now, for the first time in decades – maybe ever – I canhardly wait for next football season!

Chadron native made most of life after being disabled

2012-01-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

By CON MARSHALL

A Chadron native who made the most of her life after being disabled in an automobile accident a few months after she had graduated from high school died last week at her home in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Janet Kohler, 69, died on Monday, Dec. 26, just two weeks after it was determined that she had cancer.

CHS Class of 1960

She was born and raised in Chadron and graduated from Chadron High School in May 1960. That summer, she and a classmate, Lois Poppe, worked as aides at the Crawford hospital. They were returning from work on Sunday, Aug. 7, 1960 when Poppe lost control of the nearly new Ford Falcon she was driving about 10 miles west of Chadron on “old” Highway 20.

The car began to whip, crossed the centerline, went into the left ditch and rolled end over end several times, according to the news story in the Chadron Record. Poppe died before the ambulance reached the Chadron hospital, and Kohler was paralyzed from the waist down.

Both women had been busy high school students. Poppe was a percussionist for the band and the piano accompanist for the choir and the all-school musical, “Carousel,” that had been presented in the spring of 1960. She and her younger sister, Laurel, had acted out “The Lord’s Prayer” in sign language at the community’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant the last week of July.

Kohler played the flute in the band and was “the life of the party” type who had a keen sense of humor.

Her sister-in-law, Sherry Weymouth Kohler of Troy, Ill., called Janet, “A great gal with loads of personality. She had a wonderful way of putting everyone at ease with her disability. She always made us proud to be a part of her family.”

Her older brother, Bill Kohler of Chadron, said, “She made the best of her predicament and was upbeat clear to the end. She was always real independent.”

She had talked to both of her brothers by telephone just a day or two before her death.

After a year of rehabilitation following the accident, Kohler attended Chadron State College in 1961-62. The handicap did not slow her down. She joined the Chadron State Players, a drama group, was a member of the Anokasan (annual) staff and belonged to Zeta Alpha, a social sorority.

However, because it was much more handicap accessible, she transferred to the University of Missouri the next year and earned both a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and a master’s degree in social work there.

Her first job after she earned the master’s degree was at the Butterfield Boys Ranch at Marshall, Mo.

Kohler spent most of the rest of her professional life working for the California Mental Health Department. Her positions included director of patients’ rights, regional director of mental health programs and southern California director of forensics.

She received several honors for her work. Among them was a commendation resolution passed by the California senate for her service to the state. She also earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California, helping her attain the administrative jobs that she held.

After retiring in the mid-1980s, Kohler was a volunteer for the Assistance League of Huntington Beach and also helped Latino youths through the El Viento Foundation.

A Chadron High classmate, Guyla Harrison Armstrong, now of Allen, Tex., remained in close contact with Kohler the last 50-plus years, and visited her in California last summer.

“We became best friends when we were 12 years old and both of us were seventh graders,” Guyla remembers. “I enjoyed her and appreciated her friendship a lot. She had a hard life because of her disability, but she never complained and kept the sense of humor that she had when we were kids.”

The friendship became especially close in the mid-1980s after Armstrong and her family moved from Kearney to Fullerton, Calif., where she taught in colleges.

“One of our daughters was an outstanding swimmer and her coach lived in Huntington Beach,” Armstrong said. “It was about a 20- to 25-minute trip from our house. Nearly every day for several years, I drove her to the pool where she practiced and then visited Janet. That was after she had retired and was living in her nice condominium that is about a half mile from the ocean.

“Later on, we met often for lunch in a little restaurant halfway between our homes. We always had a lot of fun. She always had a car and had no problems driving in the traffic.”

Armstrong and family members recall that Kohler’s father, Bill, who owned an automobile dealership in Chadron, rigged up the hand controls for the first car that she drove after the accident.

Janet Kohler is show with one of

her dogs a few years ago. They

were named Willie and Gracie after

her parents, Bill and Grace Kohler.

Armstrong said Kohler confided to her that doctors, after examining her spinal injury, marveled that she was not a quadriplegic.

“I think it was God’s doing that she was not completely paralyzed,” Armstrong said. “Janet was the perfect social worker. She had that kind of a heart and helped so many people.”

One of them is Eric Isaker. They met in 1997, through one of the agencies where she was a volunteer. He was in his 20s and had fallen on hard times. He had a low-paying job and had lost his place to live. She had an extra room in her condo and invited him to move in and help take care of her.

“I planned to stay just a year until I got back on my feet,” said Isaker, who is now a veterinary technician. “But we got along so well that I never moved out. She was really good to me and I tried to help her all I could.”

Kohler reportedly left her possessions to Isaker.

Although it wasn’t always easy, Kohler loved to travel. She and her brother Jim went to Hawaii once and Isaker and her returned several times in recent years, he said.

Jim and Sherry Kohler also took her with them on two trips to Europe. They recall that in 1988 the three of them were leaving a hotel in Paris when a man recognized her.

“He told us he’d know that smile and red hair anywhere,” Sherry related. “She had taught him while he was in a prison relief program in California. He thanked her several times for the help she’d given him.”

Sherry also noted that after the obituary appeared in the Orange County Register last week, two special comments were posted online by others she had befriended.

One noted they had met through the Huntington Beach Assistance Program and thanked her for helping make the El Viento program succeed. “You’ll also be greatly missed by the gals at bunco,” it added.

The other said, “You always had a kind word and an encouraging smile. The world has one less caring soul today.”

Thanks to good friend Con Marshall for sharing this story

A short but memorable history: Kline Campus Center

2011-12-22T22:40:00.002-07:00

There've been numerous physical improvements atChadron State College over the past year or so.

Among them was the remarkable remodeling of the oldest buildingon campus, the Administration Building – coupled withthe expansion and remodeling of Sparks Hall, what we used to call the oldFaculty Dorm. Particularly impressive has been the work atSparks, whichnow houses the office of President Janie Park as well as the CSC Foundation. The contractors did a fantastic job modelingthe addition after the architecture of the original structure.

And while not everyone seems enamored with it, I reallylike the new entrance to the campus at 10^th and Main Street.

But this piece is about something else. It’s a belated acknowledgement of the old Kline Campus Center, which was demolished last May. I say “acknowledgement,” since ‘tribute’would be a bit too much for a building that has had structural problems almost from its beginning.

I spent considerable time in the Kline Center, first as astudent after it was built in 1961 – and later during a short stint on thestaff at CSC. So I have some happymemories of the facility; but in the final analysis, the structure was somethingof a disappointment.

I’ve certainly not dissected all the reasons for the structuralfailure of the building. In fact, I’vesimply chalked it up as illustrative of much shoddy construction work done inthe mid and late 1900’s across the country. At CSC, it was not just Kline– but probably Brooks Hall, too. Ofcourse, structural rehabilitation and other repairs could help salvage somebuildings not quite up to standards, but – in the end – the Kline Campus Center was just too fargone.

Kline Campus Center - circa 1984

The quality of workmanship of those and many other structures of thatera pales when compared to the durable and stately construction of suchbuildings as the Administration Building, Crites Hall,and Edna Work Hall. All of those rocksolid structures, built early in the 20th century, remain functioning and vital buildings on the CSC campus as we begin 2012.

Nonetheless, Kline Campus Centerwas a new and shining star when it came on the scene. Its sleek modern design seemed consistentwith America’sentry into the space age. Astronauts had flown in space, and – within the next decade or so – man would walk on the moon.

As a native Chadron student still living at home, I missedmuch of the social life in which dorm residents engaged. That included meals, Cokes, bowling, andrelated socializing at the Kline Center.

Returning from the Navy and attending Chadron Stateas a married student, my time at Kline was even less.

It wasn’t until 1976, when I joined the CSC staff asDirector of Information that I became more intimately involved with activitiesat the Kline Center. While our information office was in the AdministrationBuilding, the photographic darkroomwas on the upper level on the south side of the Campus Center. I spent many hours there spooling film into 35mm canisters and printing pictures. It was longbefore digital photography and personal computers, so developing film wasfraught with lots of challenges. That included figuring out how to remove the smell of photographic chemicals from my hands and learning to co-exist with discolored fingernails -- turned yellow by exposure to photo fixer.

April 2011 - The Kline Campus Center is no more.

Perhaps the most pleasant memories of Kline Campus Center involvedgatherings with other staff and faculty for coffee in something of a facultylounge on the second floor. It was thereI became better acquainted with the likes of Don Deselms, LaVern Fitzgibbon,Ross Armstrong, Harry Holmberg, Reta King, Tom Detwiler, Gerald Christofferson,Tom Bartels, and many others. AndPresident Ed Nelson would also frequently join the gathering. It was a welcome respite in the work day, andit served to help foster a bond amongst the group – something that seemsincreasingly difficult for college and university folks these days.

For most people, memories of Kline Campus Center are entwined withtheir student years. When the building was leveled last April, Cathy Donohue wrote a nice feature storycapturing a bit of the nostalgia that still rings true for many alums of CSC. She called it Remembering Kline. The photos used here are courtesy of CSC.

A father's fight

2011-11-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

One of the best stories we've heard this holiday season is one broadcast by Des Moines television station WHO-TV.It was told by Erin Kiernan, evening news anchor at the NBC affiliate, and it was a very personal story. It shared the trials and tribulations of Erin's dad, a native and long-time resident of Chadron, Larry Moody.

About a year ago, Larry's family was told to prepare for his death. He had suffered a ruptured brain aneurism, and the prognosis was not good. But family, friends, and much faith brought Larry back from the brink of death. It was not an easy journey, but Larry and his wife Cheryl (Haskell) persevered.Larry's multi-month bout with his debilitating condition came just a few years after he had retired from Nebraska Public Power and the Army National Guard in Chadron. He and Cheryl moved to Chandler, Arizona in 2007. He had given up smoking and when his Class of 1960 gathered for a reunion last year, he included "walking, cardio and weight training" among his interests and hobbies.

For the many childhood friends who grew up with Larry Moody and knew his parents -- Kenny and Wanda Moody -- and sisters Nancy and Rebecca and brother Lynn, it was no surprise that they all grew up with a great sense of humor. But it was Larry who inherited that robust and infectious laugh from his dad. How wonderful that his family will enjoy it again this holiday season and, hopefully, many more! What a heartwarming story this is, for Larry and his family -- and for all of us.

Thanks to Larry and Chery'ls talented daughter, Erin Kiernan, for compiling this remarkable story, which she calls:

Video: A Father's Fight

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

‘MRS. NEWSY’ remembered by many in Chadron

Chadron’s Golden Age Courier-Vol. 25; Issue 11

November 2011-Dawes County, Nebraska

(From Chadron Record 3/19/91 - By Goldie Dawkins, Record Reporter)

In the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, every kid in town knew her as Mrs. Newsy, and she knew each and everyone of them by their first names. Most of the young people came to the Newsy Nook to buy candy, gum, popcorn, pop, ice cream, novelties, and the very popular comic books. In the almost twenty-five years she worked there she saw children grow up and go to college and even marry and become parents, and bring their children in to see her.

The children were a very big part of the business of the little store that was located north of the Post Office, and a couple doors south of the theater but she also knew many of their parents and grandparents who came to buy magazines and cigarettes, tobacco and newspapers.

She was a tiny dark haired woman born Dorothy Maude Jackman in Southampton, England. She was so very tiny when she was born that the family called her Dolly. As she grew to a teenager, her friends called her Phyllis for some reason that she never could explain. In 1918, she met and married Roy H. Wagner, a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy who was from the Sand Hills of Nebraska.

Phyllis Wagner

She liked to tell about their wedding; about the black horses that pulled the coach they rode in and the white ribbons decorating the horses. The small amount of sugar Roy was able to get from the Navy just for their wedding reception was a highlight at a time when sugar was very scarce.

Following World War I, Roy had to return to the United States on his ship but she followed on the next one and he met her in New York. They had the long train trip from New York to Comstock, Nebraska where his parents lived on a farm. Phyllis was shocked at the distance they had to travel because in England it didn’t take more than a day to go any place in the country.

Living in a three room farm home with his parents for a short while was a new experience for her. She had lived in a large home in England where almost everything had been done for her. They soon moved to Chadron and Roy returned to work on the railroad where he had been before the interruption by the War. They rented a light-house-keeping room above the variety store owned by Mrs. Cockrel, where MarBow Archery and Music store is now, and that is where their daughter, Goldie was born.

When Goldie was five weeks old they had to move to Hot Springs, SD, where Roy was sent by the C & NW Railroad. They lived there two years and liked it very much. They had two bad experiences while they were there. One night there was a terrible lightning and thunder storm. Phyllis was very frightened and sat in their apartment over a drug store holding Goldie all night because Roy was out of town. She said, “The lightning was non-stop. It lighted up the room bright enough to read a newspaper.” The rain came down like the bottom had dropped out of everything. The next day they learned that the railroad track had been washed out and the big wall along River Street had been washed out. If you look over the side of the present wall you can still see part of that wall lying along the bank.

The other bad experience came because there was an epidemic of Scarlet Fever and they attended a funeral of a friend who died. Shortly after that, Phyllis became very seriously ill with the disease and she, Roy and Goldie were quarantined in their apartment. A neighbor brought food to the door for them. After that crisis they returned to Chadron and lived in an apartment above the Hoke Grocery store for a while.

Roy bought a small home in the one hundred block of Morehead that had been the town’s original jail. He fixed it up and they were very comfortable there. They then bought a home at 520 Shelton Street which he painted and fixed up. They moved there and rented the small house to some other people. The Depression came along and Roy was laid off of his job. He took several different jobs and Phyllis went to work for the Blaine Hotel as a chambermaid in an effort to make ends meet in those hard times. The Donahues owned the hotel and Al and Ward Dandridge, better known as Ganz, worked for them.

Phyllis discovered she could make beautiful light angel food cakes. She entered one in the Dawes County Fair and won first prize and when the word was out that she made such lovely cakes there became a big demand for them so she made and sold them for one dollar. She bought a cake decorating set with all the proper nozzles to make flowers and this made her business even better. She won first prize at the fair for her cake decorating so many times, that other women complained they could not compete with her and she stopped entering them. Now it can be told that Roy often did the decorating. He enjoyed it and was good at it.

Roy leased the Standard Oil Station on the corner of First and Main Streets, across the street from Barney Lecher’s station. He also drove the tank wagon to call on farmers to sell fuel to them. Roy was getting a little more work and of course Phyllis was staying home. Goldie was in school at the Prep and all was going better.

The veterans of World War I were trying to get a bonus that had been promised to them by the government and with the Depression times they could all use it. They lost their home on Shelton Street and also the little one on Morehead. Many people were in the same boat. They then rented a home at 437 Chapin Street and later bought it.

Goldie eventually graduated from the Prep and married Leo Dawkins that same summer. That was the year the bonus was paid to the veterans. Roy and Phyllis bought a new Willy automobile. They were selling for something like $500.

They had gotten through the Depression without the help of the bonus and they were needing a different car so why not buy a new one? Goldie’s husband went to work for the Federal Government as an electronic technician, later being drafted into the army in World War II, doing the same work. They did a lot of traveling, eventually living in San Francisco, CA.

Mean time, back in Chadron, Jack was going to school at the Prep, Roy was getting steady work on the C & NW Railroad and Phyllis was working for Mrs. Finney at the Newsy Nook. When Mrs. Finney retired, Phyllis stayed on to manage the shop which was sold to new owners.

The Newsy Nook had the World-Herald Agency and there were a lot of carriers who delivered it to the homes of Chadron. Phyllis had to meet the train every morning to pick up the papers that came in from Omaha. The carriers came to the station platform to pick theirs up. She counted out each route.

She enjoyed her work at the Newsy Nook. She loved the children, large and small that came in there -- even the ones that gave her a hard time. She very patiently waited on the kids that took a long time deciding how to spend their few pennies. If some of the big boys picked on the smaller children or any of the children started pushing and cutting up in the shop, this tiny little woman picked up a broom and chased them out. He brown eyes snapped and she wore a big smile while she was doing this, but the boys respected her authority and those same boys might be bringing her a small gift or compliment the next day. The kids all called her Mrs. Newsy. She watched the magazines that came in to be sure there was never any put on the rack that would be unsuitable for children to read.

After Roy died in 1958, her time spent in the Newsy Nook became even more important to her. Her son, Jack, married Dorothy Petersen from Hay Springs and they have her three grandsons: Mike, Ron, and Dave Wagner. It was one of the saddest days of her life when she had to retire from her work at the Newsy Nook.

Phyllis “Mrs. Newsy” Wagner died at the age of eighty, the day after Thanksgiving in 1974.

2011-11-19T10:33:00.001-07:00

Things happened fast for 1943 Chadron High graduate

By CON MARSHALL

High school was a fun time for Mason McNutt. He was the right end on the Chadron Cardinals football team. While he scored just one touchdown in his career—on a pass from quarterback Bill Bell in a game his junior year against Sheridan, Wyo.,—he drop kicked the extra points. He also was on the basketball team with lifelong friends such as Dave Anthony, Bevin Bump, Kenny Cavendar, Bob Folsom, Gilbert Hill and Arden Stec.

Mason McNutt, USMC - February 1946

In addition, he ran the mile for the track team, played the bass horn in the band and dated one of the prettiest girls in his class, Pauline Pascoe—his wife for the past 65 years.

There was no question what Mason was going to do when he graduated in May 1943. He joined the Marines.

A few days after commencement, he rode the train to Fort Crook (now Offutt Air Force Base) near Omaha to take his physical. Because he was just 17 years old, he took along a letter from his mother authorizing him to enlist.

“My brother Jack, who was two years older, had enlisted the Marines in the fall of 1942 at the Alliance Air Base. I had to follow him,” Mason recalls nearly 70 years later. “By the end of August the same year that I had graduated, I was off to San Diego for boot camp. In less than a year after we had discussed the battle for Guadalcanal in Miss Reno’s history class, I was there. Things happened pretty fast.”

That included the haircuts. He recalls with a grin that 63 members of the 661^st platoon had their hair buzzed off by six barbers in six minutes his first day at boot camp.

When boot camp ended, he signed up to become a truck driver, but was sent to Camp Elliott north of San Diego to learn how to fire .30 caliber water-cooled machine guns. By Dec. 23, Mason, his buddies and plenty of machine guns were aboard an aircraft carrier bound for Pearl Harbor, where two years earlier hell had broken loose when the Japanese bombed the Naval shipyards there.

But, as fate would have it, McNutt fired a machine gun only a few times early in his two years of active duty. While bobbing on ships in the Pacific and being a part of the American forces that pushed the Japanese off the islands and then secured them one-by-one, it was learned that the young Nebraskan was an excellent typist and he was transformed into a records-keeper.

“I had taken typing as a sophomore in high school and it paid off,” McNutt relates. “When I was in the Pacific I took a test and typed 70 words a minute. The classification specialist said that was 30 words a minute more than anyone else he had tested (could type). I never touched a machine gun after 1944."

“I had a L.C. Smith Secretariat model typewriter with a 14-inch carriage. Every morning I had to prepare a mistake-free report called a ‘muster roll’ after getting reports from three or sometimes four companies. It also was my job to keep records on those who were missing in action or killed. I became a clerk-typist, or as some called it, an office clown.”

Call it what you may, but by the end of the war, McNutt was an acting sergeant major, the top-ranked enlisted man in his battalion. That meant at age 20 he was giving orders to graying men who had been attached to the Marine Corps for 20 to 25 years.

“Some of them didn’t like it, but I guess we got along all right,” the long-time Chadron businessman and civic leader remembers. “By then we knew we were about to head home and there was no use starting another war.”

The Marines in McNutt’s regiment had been through plenty by the end of the war, including what has been called the bloodiest battle of them all. That was the battle for Okinawa, a long, narrow strip of land about 350 miles south of the Japanese mainland.

U.S. forces wanted it because of its proximity to Japan. Bombers could easily make the round trip to drop their payloads on Japanese targets from there and it would serve as the base for the land invasion of Japan that was being planned.

The problem was, more than 100,000 Japanese troops were extremely well entrenched on Okinawa.

The move toward Okinawa began in early 1945 when the 2^nd Marine Battalion, 22^nd Regiment, 6^th Division formed and trained on Guadalcanal, which had been captured during heavy fighting in late 1942 and early 1943.

“We were training on Guadalcanal the same time other forces were invading Iwo Jima and the famous picture of the troops raising the flag was taken,” McNutt relates. “We landed at the north end of Okinawa on April 1, which was both April Fool’s Day and Easter Sunday. What kind of a coincidence was that? Our battalion didn’t meet any resistance initially because the Japanese thought we were going to land on the other side of the island.

"During the next 28 days, the Marines made their way to the south end of the island, which is about 65 miles long, to relieve Army troops near Sugar Loaf Hill.

A picture of Sugar Loaf Hill that McNutt possesses shows a rather nondescript hill. Some 2,000 Japanese had dug caves deep into it, were equipped with machine guns, mortars, grenades and satchel charges, and were not about to leave their fortress without taking a heavy toll on American forces.

“We attacked Sugar Loaf on May 8 and that’s when things turned nasty,” McNutt notes. “Our battalion, made up of 980 men, experienced 120 percent casualties. That’s because many of the replacements also were either wounded or killed. It was horrible. It all happened in just four or five days before all the Japanese were either killed or captured.”

The replacements were definitely rushed into battle. McNutt relates that most of them were given a haircut and taught how to march, but bypassed the real rigors of boot camp before they boarded a ship and crossed the Pacific. They learned how to fire a gun during the voyage and once they reached Okinawa platoon sergeants “trained them on the run, showing them how to dig fox holes and things like that,” McNutt says.

While the battle for Sugar Loaf Hill was one of the worst on Okinawa, there were many others during the 100 days before the Japanese were defeated.

According to an article in the September-October 2010 issue of “The History Channel Magazine,” more people were killed in the Battle of Okinawa than died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 12,000 Americans were killed or missing. At least 107,000 Japanese soldiers were killed and it’s estimated that more than 100,000 Okinawan citizens also died. The latter count included many children who were thrown over rocky cliffs by their mothers. The women, who had been told horror stories by the Japanese about how they would be treated by the Americans, then plunged to their own deaths

The article also states that more than 26,000 U.S. troops were eventually removed from the battlefield because of combat stress.

McNutt recalls that while was he trying to keep track of the American casualties, one of the names he recorded in May was that of Mickey Mittan, a Chadron High classmate. Mittan had left school in January 1943 to join the Navy and was a corpsman on Okinawa when he was killed.

After the fighting ended in June of 1945, the 6^th Marine Division remained on Okinawa another month for garrison duty and then moved to Guam. They were regrouping for the long-awaited invasion of Japan when President Truman ordered the atomic bombs dropped in early August.

“I’m sure Harry’s decision saved a lot of our lives,” McNutt says. “I saw the invasion plan. Three divisions were going to go on one side of Tokyo Bay and three more on the other side. The Japanese would have been waiting. They had civilians and even the kids trained to throw grenades.”

By mid-summer 1945, McNutt had enough points to be discharged, but no replacements were available and he had to stay put. In October, after the fighting had stopped, he was part of a detachment that went from Guam to Tsingtao, China, a huge port city located across Tokyo Bay from Japan. Now known as Qingdao, it became the headquarters for the Navy’s Western fleet and was where the Japanese surrender was accepted.

“We had a parade there every Saturday morning,” McNutt says. “The city had been under Japanese rule since 1938 and the people were happy to be Chinese again.”

Finally, on Jan. 10, 1946, McNutt and the others in his battalion set sail aboard the USS Bolivar for San Diego. They arrived on Jan. 29, he was discharged a few days later and returned to Chadron.

Soon after arriving home, McNutt went to work for Sam Prey at the Chevrolet garage where he had worked during the summers when he was in high school. He and Pauline were married in August.

At Prey Chevrolet, McNutt went from being a mechanic, to being the shop foreman and then the parts manager. He was there until October 1953, when he went to work for Harold Clark at Metal Products.

Metal Products was originally known as Pascoe Tinning and Heating, and was founded by Pauline’s father, Willis Pascoe, in 1920. Clark purchased it in 1945 and the McNutts bought it from Clark in 1961. They ran it until 1985, when they sold it to their long-time employee, Wayne Lembke.

In 2005, Lembke sold Metal Products to Scott Diehl, who built a new shop and showroom on the west side of town in 2007. McNutt notes that the firm has been selling Lennox Furnaces for 81 years.

Mason and Pauline McNutt were sweethearts in
the Class of 1943 at Chadron High School and
have been married now for more than 65 years.

McNutt was one of the 30 charter members of the Lions Club in Chadron in 1950. He served as the district secretary in 1971-72 and is the club’s only surviving charter member. He also has been a member of the Chadron Planning Committee and the Chadron Housing Authority and was treasurer of the Chadron Community Hospital board several years.

He and Pauline have been members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church for more than 46 years. They have two sons. Mike is the superintendent of the Campbell County Parks and Recreation in Gillette. Bill lives in Bassett, drives a semi tractor-trailer for Panhandle Co-op in Ainsworth and occasionally delivers feed to ranchers in northwest Nebraska.

Mason’s younger brother, Jim, also joined the corps shortly after graduating from Chadron High in 1945.

Mason knows he’s been fortunate, both during the war and since. He’s proud that he was a Marine and notes that he was a part of a courageous outfit. Maj. Henry Courtney received the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading an assault on Sugar Loaf and McNutt’s battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation twice and a Navy Unit Commendation.

“I always tell people that we were in the top 20 percent of the Navy, and I’m sure that’s true.”

______________

NOTE: Many thanks to good friend Con Marshall for providing this story and photographs about the McNutts. Con has been kind enough to share other stories that we've posted in the past. Hopefully, we'll be able to add more in the future.

The most dapper man on Main Street...

2011-08-31T17:31:00.001-06:00

The old adage says a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, it's not likely to take a thousand words to convey this message, but even that number would pale in the presence of a nice crisp photograph of the late Greydon Nichols -- long-time Chadron attorney.

As we rummaged through a collection of old photographs in the Chadron State College archives, we came across this photo of young Nichols.

And while he's appropriately attired in the photograph -- likely taken around 1913 or 1914 -- it doesn't begin to convey the elegance of his superb sartorial persona in the 1940's and '50s. He was perhaps the most dapper man in town.

First, a disclaimer. we really knew nothing then about Greydon Nichols, except that he was an attorney -- and that he was a very fashionable fellow. He was our own Adolph Monjou. Briskly charging down the sidewalk on his way to an upstairs office on the west side of second and Main. Always bedecked with a hat and wearing a finely pressed suit adorned with a handkerchief in the pocket, we seem recall that he often carried a cane, sort of like a Gene Kelley prop in a Hollywood musical.

Only now, more than a half century later, have we learned a bit more about this fellow.

This is an orchestra comprised largely of students from the
Campus Laboratory School at the Chadron Normal, ca 1913.
Normal music instructor Roy Peterson is in front at left;
young musician Greydon Nichols is seated behind him.
(Photo courtesy of CSC)

First, and this was a surprise for us, he was a local boy (but he seemed so.....so...cosmopolitan!). Born in Chadron in June of 1898, the son of Morgan and Nellie Nichols, the family lived in "Highland" precinct and later in Ward One. His great grandfather apparently was a prominent attorney in New York City. His grandfather came to Nebraska and homesteaded near Albion in Boone County, and later in Dawes County. How it was that Greydon's father was born in Wisconsin we don't know, but he found his way to Chadron in the late 1800's and became a prominent grocer and served on the city council. He also joined the Elks Club.

Young Greydon graduated from high school in Chadron and then attended two years at the Nebraska State Normal School on the south edge of Chadron. He took a teaching job for one year before heading west to California, where he studied literature and law at Stanford. Returning to Nebraska, he married Adele Lefebere in Omaha in 1922, and then went to Lincoln and pursued a Bachelor of Laws degree, which he was awarded in 1924. Then it was back to Chadron to practice law. He was appointed United States referee in bankruptcy and would also serve as city attorney in 1925.

Nichols was also active in business and social circles, and by 1932-33, he was state president of the junior chambers of commerce.

Family? Military service? We don't know about any of that, but we're curious and will pursue that information. At first glance, we found nothing about Mr. Nichols in our history reference books for Dawes County and Chadron. Perhaps his obituary in the Chadron Journal will help us learn more about this interesting fellow.

Greydon Nichols died in Chadron 40 years ago -- on August 15, 1971.

CHS Class of 1961 gathers for 50th....again!

2011-07-16T00:36:00.005-06:00

During the summer of 2010, the Chadron High School Class of 1960 held a reunion celebrating 50 years since they graduated, and the Class of 1961 -- which seems to have had a jaded history in trying to celebrate reunions at traditional times -- decided to join with the "older" bunch.

So, technically, it had been 49 years since they departed high school. Their first reunion gathering was 11 years after graduation. Seems like most classes enjoy the comfort of 10th, 25th, and 50th years -- with occasional variations.

But the Cardinals of 1961 have always marched to a different drummer it seems.

With recent "Fur Trade Days" celebration in Chadron -- accompanied by an abundance of school reunions involving Chadron Assumption, Chadron Prep, and Chadron High -- it seemed like a good idea for the Class of '61 to get back on track with a "true" 50th anniversary reunion.

So '61 classmates John Urwin, John Schleicher, and a handful of others, sent out word via e-mail that any and all classmates who wanted to try it again should try to gather for a reunion. And so they did.....many bringing along their spouses to join the fun.

These 1961 graduates of Chadron High School gathered for an informal
"50th Reunion" on July 9, 2011, at John and Mary Ann Schleicher's home
on Goffena Road west of Chadron. Left-to-right are: John Urwin, Tom Sims,
Larry Matthesen, Sheryl Jones Bruns, Larry Miller, Mel Reeves, John Schleicher, Ron Stever, and Jerry Mathis. Many thanks to John and
Mary Ann Schleicher for their warm hospitality. Some classmates think
the class should schedule a similar gathering for 2016!

John and Mary Ann Schleicher kindly offered up their home as a venue for the event, and it turned out to be a delightful affair.

True, there weren't nearly as many folks as congregated last year, but that allowed attendees to engage in deeper conversations without having to run hither and thither for a variety of events that are traditionally scheduled for reunions. An while most of those who showed up for the event live within a short distance of Chadron, Ron Stever came from Wichita, and Jerry Mathis came from Indiana. Tom Sims, Larry Miller, and Larry Matthesen all drove in from the Black Hills area. The rest of the group live in the immediate Chadron vicinity.

Participants all chipped in to buy food and drink, and Mary Ann Schleicher did a superb job of preparing the ribs and hamburgers -- along with a variety of additional dishes. Mary Lou Urwin had a hand in the kitchen, too, and it everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Our sincere thanks to the Schleichers, Urwins, and others who had a hand in putting this event together.

A few folks climbed aboard Urwin 4-wheelers to explore the surrounding territory, but virtually everyone enjoyed good fellowship and share more than a few memories from their days at Chadron High. Did we mention that several cameras were busy during this get-together? You'll find some photographs in our Class of '61 Reunion gallery.

Remembering 125 years of school in Whitney

2011-05-04T21:30:00.002-06:00

When the doors to the Whitney School close later this month, it’ll mark the first time that the Dawes County community has had no school in some 125 years!

Earlier this spring, the Chadron School Board announced its decision to close all rural schools in the county, including Whitney, which held its first classes in 1886 on the ground floor of the Woods Hotel at the northeast corner of Missouri and Division streets. Many people will remember the filling station that was located there in more recent years. Within a few months of that early school opening, classes were moved to the newly-built Methodist Church.

There've been school kids getting educated in Whitney for a long time. So the “Alumni Open House” set for 2:00-6:00 p.m. on Sunday, My 29^th, 2011, at the “new” school in Whitney will be a bittersweet experience -- sort of a last hurrah! It’ll be delightful to see students, faculty, and friends from yesteryear – as well as those from this final year, but it’ll be sad to see the end of a proud era.

While the existing school seems relatively new to most of us, it sits nearly in the shadow of a two-and-one-half story stucco building that was “school” in Whitney for longer than any other structure. But there was an earlier one!

This is believed to be the first Whitney school building
ca. 1887. Photo courtesy of Sam Couch

According to Mabel Kendrick’s wonderful book “Still Alive and Well - Whitney, Nebraska,” the very first school building was a one-room structure. It was built on the same parcel of land where both the existing Whitney School and its predecessor stand. It would have been just west of the sidewalk that led up to the front of the larger, abandoned school building. The wooden school (shown here at right) served the community for more than 35 years.

The first teacher in the school was Miss Eleanor Burkitt (later Mrs. W.S. Gillam of Chadron).

“A term in those days,” wrote Mabel Kendrick, “was three months, and a teacher was hired for one term at a time. Each year had a spring and a fall term with vacation between to allow for farm work and very cold weather. Other early teachers included A.G. Shears, Stella Weed, Stella Cline, and Charlie Stewart.”

“Recess time was spent in free play out of doors most of the time. Baseball was a favorite pastime.”

“The time from around 1910 to 1922 could be considered a transition period. The old ways were gradually being changed. The school term had already been extended to nine months. A teacher was required to pass a ‘teachers examination’ for which she received a certificate. Later the teacher had to have a high school education before she could take the test. A second grade certificate was issued. A knowledge of geometry, algebra and music was required to qualify for a first grade certificate. The school day began with ‘opening exercises,’ starting with the flag salute. The rest varied with the teacher.”

By 1919, the community had grown enough that the school was expanded to two rooms, and by 1921 there were enough students in Whitney school to justify creating high school grades, “so one was begun in the Methodist Church.”

This multi-level school was built in 1922.
It remains standing today.

The early 1920’s were a time of great optimism. World War I had ended and Whitney had survived the great flu epidemic of 1918 better than most communities. In the fall of 1922, construction was completed on a new two-and-one-half story school building that would accommodate all grades.

The curriculum expanded, too, including foreign languages. At different times, Latin, French and German were taught. There were accommodations for class plays – and even indoor sporting events. Although its open area basement was a bit confining, both boys and girls basketball was offered in 1923. Alas, girls basketball was discontinued in the spring of 1927 because of “the state ban.”

There were even school newspapers published in the early years, including “The Irrigator,” which soon became known as “The Mustang,” in recognition of Hastings College, the alma mater of one of the teachers. For a few years, the paper was actually printed on the presses of the Crawford Tribune. By the Depression years, the paper became a mimeographed publication and was renamed “The Shunga,” relating to the Sioux word for mustang.

High school classes at Whitney ran from 1921 until 1943. The last high school teacher was Mabel Kendrick. We believe the existing Whitney School was built in about 1988 or 1989, but we need help nailing down that information. Please let us hear from you, if you can offer details! Many thanks.

3rd and 4th graders at Whitney School; 1948-49
Thanks to Ruth Ann Connell (teacher at left)

Over the years, we’ve collected a few school pictures from Whitney, and most of them have been displayed in our Whitney School Gallery. We invite you to browse through them. Even more importantly, we hope you might allow us to add any old Whitney School photos you might have – particularly group photos. Just e-mail us. Of course, we give full credit to the good folks who offer such items. You may also want to browse around our Whitney Reflections web site -- even though it is undergoing a bit of reconstruction at the moment.

Too, we hope that anyone with ANY ties to Whitney School over the years will make plans to attend the Open House on May 29. People of every generation are encouraged to come and share memories. They’re looking for photographs, written stories, documents, and any similar items. Contact Michelle Haynes at mihayn@eagles.csc.edu. It'll be a grand opportunity to help rekindle some of the memories from the past 125 years.

We hope to see you there!

Warming up in Sun City!

2011-02-07T10:32:00.001-07:00

Chadron area folks living in Arizona routinely gather every winter to socialize and share memories of years gone by. And Chadron State College coordinates an alumni gathering at around the same time.

It's a great opportunity for "expatriates" to get together.

And even with the cooler weather that swept across the southwest this winter, it still beat the sub-zero temperatures back in Dawes County Nebraska!

Mike Smith has been attending these gigs for several years -- I think since he decided that the ice of Minnesota wasn't nearly as accommodating as the warmer climes of Arizona. Thankfully, he's alway had a camera along for the event and has kindly shared a few snapshots from the latest gathering.

That was at the Sun City Country Club and Golf Course, the same locale as the 2010 gathering.

But we saw a few new faces this time. Although I believe he's attended previous gatherings, we hadn't seen photographs of one-time Chadron Eagle editor and cheerleader Ted Turpin. Even with the hat hiding his hair (we remember curly locks), we were pretty sure that was Turpin.

Although emigrating from Nebraska to the southwest several decades ago, Turpin continued his journalistic activities and was a newpaper publisher for many years in Arizona. Of course, there were lots of other folks at the event, too, along with the familiar faces of Chadron State College folks, led by President Janie Park. We saw pics of Connie Rasmussen, Karen Pope, and Brad Smith, too.

You might enjoy taking a tour of the photographs we've posted in our "Arizona Gallery" from this and earlier Chadron meetings in Arizona. And thanks again to Mike Smith for sharing!

We always enjoy getting glimpses of these folks when they gather -- and share stories. We had the good fortune to participate in the 2005 gatherings.

After the icebox experience we've had this winter in South Dakota, we may be signing up to attend the CSC Arizona events in 2012!

Con Marshall is "Chadron Citizen of the Year"

2011-01-13T14:16:00.001-07:00

Lately, we've been proudly posting several articles penned by long-time good friend Con Marshall. We can't begin to count the many blessings that Con has bestowed on us and so many other people in Chadron and across western Nebraska. He and his wife, Peggy, are class acts. So it came as no surprise when Con was selected as the 2010 Chadron Citizen of the Year. CSC's Justin Haag wrote the following item that has been sent out to friends of Chadron State College.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jan 5, 2011

Con Marshall, Chadron State College’s former director of information services and sports information, was named the Chadron’s 2010 Citizen of the Year by the Chadron Record newspaper this week. The announcement was made in Wednesday’s edition.

The article contains testimonials from many of Marshall’s friends and acquaintances, who pointed out the longtime journalist’s knowledge of northwest Nebraska history, commitment to quality reporting and loyalty to Chadron and its sports teams.

Chadron Record reporter Kerri Rempp, the article’s author, wrote that Marshall's name has become "practically synonymous" with Chadron.

“Marshall has worked tirelessly over the years promoting Chadron and Dawes County and the people who call the area home,” she wrote.

Marshall directed CSC’s information services efforts for 36 years ending in 2007. Since stepping down from that role, he has continued to work as an information officer at CSC, completing a number of special projects for the college. One of the projects is a history book about the institution’s first 100 years which will be published later this year.

—Justin Haag, CSC Information Services

NOTE: In case you missed it, here another link to the full Chadron Record story about Chadron Citizen of the Year - Con Marshall.

Artistic talent abides in Mitchell descendant

2011-01-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1950's, young Chuck Mitchell took paintbrush in hand and affixed images of well-known cartoon characters to the walls of the newly-constructed snack bar inside the old Pace Theater in Chadron. It certainly dressed up the snack bar, and helped gain some recognition for the multi-talented Mitchell. Years later, with wife Vonie Van Natter, those artistic talents were carried on through twin sons Clark and Charles Mitchell. And as fate would have it, even the next Mitchell generation exhibit those same creative traits. Thanks to veteran writer Con Marshall for sharing the following story with us. Thanks, too, to the crew that puts together the Chadron State Alumni Magazine, where this feature recently appeared.

CSC senior returns from a year in Italy

By CON MARSHALL

A Chadron State College student is back on campus this fall after having what she calls “a very special experience” during the 2009-10 school year.

Melissa Mitchell, a senior from Stone Mountain, Ga., spent 12 months in Italy in the International Students Abroad program. She studied both semesters at the Florence University of the Arts, earning credit toward her humanities minor. She also traveled extensively in western Europe.

“I learned a lot, traveled a lot and met people from all over the world,” said Mitchell, who is majoring in English education at CSC. “I had a really good time. There are some things I would do differently if I could do them over again, but it was a great experience.”

Mitchell admits that she’s adventurous. Otherwise, she says she probably wouldn’t have enrolled at Chadron State after graduating from high school in 2005, even though both of her parents, Charlie and Sheila, are CSC graduates and her great uncle, Wayne Van Natter, lives in Chadron.

She was one of 70 participants in the ISA program in Florence, but she was one of just two who took part two semesters. Most of the students were from the United States, but there were others from around the world.

The classes she took were taught in English, but she was forced to learn Italian, particularly the first semester when she stayed in a home in which neither of the parents spoke English. Their two sons, who are in their 20s, served as interpreters until Melissa had learned enough Italian so she could get by with it.

She said she can now read and write Italian quite well and can speak it rather fluently after having no background in the language when she went to Europe a year ago. She hopes to retain the skills she learned, and plans to use Skype, an internet voice and video service, to communicate with the friends she made during her adventure.

Mitchell said there are two things she did a lot of during the past year that she no longer wants to do. They are riding on trains and taking pictures.

“I went everywhere by train,” she said. “It is good way to get around over there because it is convenient and cheap. I went all over Italy and saw much of France, Germany, Austria and England by train. I also took pictures wherever I went. I probably took at least 200 on every trip. By the time I came home, I was tired of riding on trains and I’m not taking any more pictures for a while.”

Mitchell often rides a bicycle to get around Chadron and bought one in Florence. However, she seldom used it because she felt safer walking. She explained that the area near the university she attended is crowded, the sidewalks are narrow and the automobile traffic seemed unorganized and potentially dangerous for a bike rider.

Most of the buildings in the main part of Florence are made of stone and are only inches from one another, she said. Since the city is in a valley, it is hot in the summers. But she escaped much of the heat the last three months by serving as the nanny and English tutor for a seven-year-old girl whose well-to-do parents have a villa on the Mediterranean.

“She and I stayed there most of the summer while her parents worked in Florence. They would come to the villa to see us on weekends,” Mitchell explained. “We had a good time together. English is the fourth language she is learning.”

Former sheriff, principal has led long, interesting life

2010-12-05T14:21:00.003-07:00

by Con Marshall

Although he no longer lives in the county, if anyone deserves to be called “Mr. Dawes County,” it might be Jim Butler.

He is the grandson of Dawes County pioneers, grew up on a farm during the drought and depression the 1930s, was an excellent athlete at both Chadron Prep and Chadron State College, was involved in the nation’s struggle to survive during World War II, was the county sheriff for nearly 10 years and served as principal of the Chadron Elementary Schools for more than two decades.

Now a resident of Lincoln, Butler is still hale and hardy at age 91. Accompanied by his five sons and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he returned “home” last month to be inducted into the CSC Athletic Hall of Fame. While in town, he was a member of the Chadron Prep panels that discussed their beloved school and visited with several long-time friends.

While he’s been through the “School of Hard Knocks,” Butler acknowledges he’s also had lots of good fortune during his life.

“I’ve often said that somebody up there has looked out for me all these years,” Butler said with his shy grin. “Just about everything I tried has worked out somehow. I’ve been very lucky.”

Butler’s health is one of his blessings. While he’s been treated for atrial fibrillation, a rather common heart disorder, he looks and acts much younger than the calendar specifies. He lives on the fourth floor of a retirement center in Lincoln and nearly always takes the stairs instead of riding the elevator. He also participates in workouts three times a week and, best of all, his mind is still sharp.

Of course, he’s not the first Butler to live a long and active life. His father, T.J., a lifelong resident of Dawes County, was still raising a huge garden and hauling cattle in his 30-year-old Ford truck when he was 93.

The first Butlers in the county were his grandparents, John and Sitha. They were among the 50 or so members of the Sweat Colony who came from Missouri in 1884 and settled along the two Bordeaux Creeks east of what became Chadron. The Butler homestead is now known as the Ralph Rhoads ranch along Highway 20 about eight miles east of town.

Jim’s parents were living there in the late 1930s when it was sold out from under them, plunging the family into poverty.

“Those were hard times anyway, and after that happened we didn’t have anything,” Butler said. “The place was sold to a relative for just a dollar an acre. It was a big mess. My dad then borrowed $10,000 and bought a bunch of sows and was going to raise hogs. But the hogs got cholera and died. Then before long the bank went broke.”

T.J., his wife, Grace, and their three children moved into Chadron, where he landed a job at the Reitz and Crites Lumber Yard. T.J. later used a team and wagon to pick up the garbage in the western half of Chadron. After a few years he brought a truck for the job, eventually purchased a stock rack so he could haul cattle and launched his long career as a trucker.

After graduating from the eighth grade at the Rucker School near the family farm in 1932, Jim attended high school at Chadron Prep.

He had never seen a football or basketball game when he began high school. Prep didn’t have a football team while Butler was in school there and he didn’t go out for basketball as a freshman. But he started as a junior and a senior. The Junior Eagles qualified for the state tournament both years, but lost in the first round in overtime both times.

After graduating from Prep in 1936, Butler enrolled at Chadron State. The college’s football coach, Ruffus Trapp, encouraged him to come out for football. After one year of learning the game, he played enough as a sophomore to earn a letter.

The following year, 1938, he earned a starting nod at guard, but just before the first game he suffered a severely sprained ankle. By then, Ross Armstrong had taken over as the head football coach and advised Butler to soak the ankle in hot water and put it under the heat lamp—a common treatment for sprains then and the exact opposite of the ice applications used today.

“It (the ankle) swelled up and turned black and blue. I was on crutches for a couple of weeks and then returned to practice,” Butler recalled. “I had earned my starting job back and was about to play when I sprained the other ankle. Ross told me I might as well skip the rest of the season. I guess you would say I received a medical redshirt.”

Butler said he never had any trouble with his ankles again and he was a starting guard on both offense and defense his final two years in 1939 and ’40. The 1940 team pulled off a major upset, defeating the University of Wyoming 12-9 in a game played in Casper. Butler was instrumental in the victory. He said both teams played the single-wing offense. He knew the system well and was able to nail the Wyoming tailback for losses several times after the offensive guard left Butler unblocked while pulling to run interference on the opposite side of the line.

“Some Chadron people made quite a bit of money that day,” Butler said with a grin. “They bet on us with some Wyoming fans who were sure they were going to beat us. It was quite a game.” Butler said when he played he weighed about 170 pounds, or about the same as he weighs today, and had “pretty good speed.”

While Butler didn’t start for the Chadron State basketball team, he earned a letter in both 1939-40, when the Eagles were 16-4, and 1940-41 when they were 15-3. None of the losses those two years was by more than five points and four of them were by one or two.

When World War II broke out, Butler left college before graduating, moved to California and worked in Burbank at the Vega Aircraft factory that was a Lockheed subsidiary. He was the foreman of a 10-man crew that initially assembled Ventura bombers and later the famous B-17 bombers as soon as the pieces came out of the jigs.

“We could assemble a plane in 10-hour day,” he said. “It was a tough job. Inspectors went over every rivet and weld. Our crew was one of the best. I sometimes rode along on the test flights.”

While still in college, Butler married Madeline Iaeger, granddaughter of one of Chadron’s most prominent citizens in its early history, L.T. “Billy the Bear” Iaeger.

“She was the best looking girl in college,” Butler said. The couple had two sons, Gary and Dale, when she died of pneumonia in 1943 while the family was living in California.

While he was working at the aircraft factory, Butler had tried a couple of times to enlist in the military because he wanted to be a pilot, but his requests were rejected because of the importance of his work. He was finally accepted into the Army Air Corps and had begun pilot training when Madeline died. With two small sons to raise, he received a dependency discharge and returned to Chadron.

The Butler family had already lost Jim’s older brother, Melvin, during the war. He was a Navy pilot and had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in November 1941, but was shot down near the Solomon Islands in September 1942 and was never heard from again.

Back in Chadron, Jim helped with his father’s trucking business, which became quite lucrative. Because of the Great Depression and then the war, there weren’t many trucks available but in the mid-1940s area farmers had a couple of bumper wheat crops that needed to go to market.

“We hauled lots of wheat,” Butler said. “Some days we made $125 or $150. That was a lot of money in those days. We never got rich, but it was more money than the Butlers had ever had before.”

After the war ended, Butler was planning to take his two boys and return to California. But romance changed his plans. He met Donna Sailor, who had come from Gordon to work at Midwest Furniture in Chadron.

“We hit it off and before too long I was married to another wonderful woman,” Butler said. “She took over as the mother of my two boys and after a while we had three more (Scott and twins Criss and Curt). It was another case where I was really lucky.”

Butler returned to college in the spring of 1947 and completed work on his bachelor’s degree. That fall became the industrial arts teacher at Provo High School at the Black Hills Army Depot near Edgemont. He stayed just one year.

The next year Dale was old enough to attend kindergarten, something South Dakota schools didn’t offer. Donna was friends with Opal Schroeder, the kindergarten teacher at the East Ward School and wife of Chadron Superintendent of Schools H.A. Schroeder and

“She thought Dale should be in kindergarten and that Opal should be his teacher, so we moved back to Chadron,” Butler said.

For nearly 10 years, he was the Dawes County sheriff. He was appointed to the position after Cy Spearman resigned at the end of 1948. Butler took over just as the Blizzard of ’49 struck. His new job immediately called for around-the-clock duty as he and other law enforcement officers helped in dozens of rescues and other emergencies for about two months.

He recalls that one of his activities was riding in the C-47 bombers from an air base in Colorado that were used to drop hay to cattle that had been marooned by the storm. “Frank Snook (a Chadron pilot) and I would fly to Alliance, where the C-47s were located, and then direct the pilots in making the deliveries because we knew who lived on most of the ranches in the county.”

The Chadron Record reported that 1,854 hay bales were dropped on 29 ranches in the Chadron area during “Operation Haylift.”

Butler said after the storm subsided, being the sheriff was a good job. He was elected to the position twice, but resigned in early 1958 before completing the second term.

“There was just a two bedroom apartment in the court house and with the five boys and a college girl to help Donna feed the prisoners, we were really crowded,” he said. “We decided I needed to do something else.”

Once again, Butler planned to move to California and went there to interview for a teaching position. However, fate again intervened. In the fall of 1960, Schroeder hired him to teach industrial arts, social studies and junior and senior high school physical education and help Fuzz Watts coach the Cardinals’ football teams.

During this time, he worked on his master’s degree at Chadron State and after two years at the high school, he became a fifth grade teacher and the principal at East Ward. Two years later, during an evaluation of the school system, it was recommended that one person serve as principal for all three elementary schools. Butler got the position.

“I really never applied for any of the jobs I had in the Chadron Schools,” Butler said. “Heinie Schroeder just asked me to take them. I think it worked out pretty well. We had good (teaching) staffs. In the early 1960s the college was really growing and a lot of the new professors had wives who were elementary teachers. We hired quite a few of them.

“Also, I was good friends with Royce Vathauer, who was one of the college professors that worked with the students who were studying to be elementary teachers. He’d send some of the best ones to student teach in the Chadron Schools and if they got along well and we had an opening, we’d hire them.”

Butler retired from education at age 66 in 1985. Seven years later, Jim and Donna moved to Lincoln. It was difficult for them to leave, but since all five sons and their families lived in eastern Nebraska, or Missouri or Iowa it was a logical decision.

Donna, who gave lessons to dozens of aspiring pianists, had several physical problems in her later years and died in April 2008. Jim said having his family nearby has helped keep him going. There also are numerous activities at the retirement home where he lives, he’s active in the Aldersgate Methodist Church and he continues to follow both college and professional sports.

Jim Butler's sons all gathered at Chadron State College to help him celebrate his induction into the CSC Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2010. Shown left to right are the "Butler Boys" -- Curt, Chris, Jim, Scott, Gary and Dale. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

This past Sunday, he attended the women’s exhibition basketball game between Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska-Kearney and saw freshman Jordan Hooper of Alliance score 20 points to lead the Cornhuskers to a 97-55 victory.

“I keep pretty busy and still enjoy life,” he said. “And, I’ll always remember the good life I had in Chadron.”

The "specialties" of Sid Umshler

2010-12-03T17:13:00.015-07:00

When the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Oklahoma Sooners do battle tonight at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, it’ll be the culmination of a football rivalry dating back more than 75 years. We well remember the ‘50s, when the two teams were in the Big Eight and the rivalry was palpable. Somehow, since formation of the Big 12 Conference, that rivalry hasn’t seemed quite as intense – perhaps a harbinger of things to come for the ailing conference. Nonetheless, the game tonight will determine the conference championship, and it’s sure to be a humdinger.

Joining the millions of avid football fans nestled in front of their TV sets to watch the big game will be Chadron native Skip “Sid” Umshler. A 1964 graduate of Chadron High School, he’s been retired from a successful sales job in Omaha since 2001. He and his wife Bev, who is retired from a long career with the telephone company, decided to pull up stakes and move into a country home in Missouri – not far from Branson.

While Skip’s passion for NU football remains unbridled, he is anything but your typical armchair enthusiast of things Husker.

Skip and Bev Umshler in the "Husker Room."

In late November, we had the good fortune of visiting Skip and Bev at their home just outside of Mount Vernon, Missouri. Skip and I chatted a bit about old times – recapturing some of the memories we shared as teammates on the 1961 Chadron High Cardinal basketball team, which won the Class “B” State Championship under the tutelage of Verne Lewellen. If our nostalgic discussion seemed to take place in something of a time warp – especially for our very understanding wives – what happened next seemed like an episode from the Twilight Zone.

Skip and Bev were giving us a tour of their home, when we began navigating our way upstairs. Then, it was as if Rod Serling was transporting us from Mount Vernon, Missouri to………NEBRASKA!

Upstairs, from ceiling to floor along all the walls of a spacious room dubbed the “Husker Room,” sports memorabilia abounds – most of it celebrating Nebraska Cornhusker football. Photographs, posters, shirts, caps – all of it exquisitely framed and professionally displayed. Neon signs. Jerseys. All forms of memorabilia. If you simply woke up here, you might think you’d dozed while on a tour of a trophy room at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

Since time was limited, the fascinating tour was cut short, and we were able to enjoy only a brief summary of key items. There’s lots of stuff from and about Jerry Tagge, the All-American Husker quarterback who was field marshal in the Big Red’s 35-31 win over the Oklahoma Sooners in a 1971 game considered to be college football’s “Game of the Century.” Tagge and Umshler later became good friends in Omaha, further inspiring Skip to expand his memorabilia collection. Umshler also got acquainted with NU athletic equipment manager Mel Worster. Autographed items from coaches and players abound. And there’s more than just Nebraska mementos. Many dozens of items have come from players and coaches he’s met and befriended – not just in Nebraska, but Iowa, Missouri, and elsewhere.

Alas, we should’ve been snapping photos and taking notes – so much to see and experience, and so little time! Skip and Bev have invited us back, and I suspect we’ll be on their doorstep one day soon, eager to more leisurely explore and examine the trove of Cornhusker treasures that grace this special room. Each and every item has a story. It’s a stunning display.

Cardinal teammates Umshler and Miller -- reunited.

One wonders how long it’s taken Skip to collect these items – all tastefully exhibited. He notes that he’s been gathering the collection since the mid-1990’s.

While he disavows patience, it clearly has taken much time and effort to amass this collection. But it’s not the only hobby that Skip has undertaken.

In 1976, while traversing roadways across Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas and surrounding states as a sales rep – first for a hobby craft company and later for a smokeless tobacco firm – he bought a metal detector and took up coin-hunting. Within a couple of years, he had found some 8,875 coins, more than 1,300 of them silver. Of course that doesn’t include class rings, dog tags, and numerous sterling silver religious medals. His collection is now safely ensconced in an Omaha safety deposit box.

In 1979, Umshler authored an article for Western-Eastern Treasures, a leading “how-to” magazine for metal detectionists.

“My only regret,” he wrote in the October issue, “is that I didn’t get into this ten years earlier! I’ve had countless hours of enjoyment and know if I live to be 90, I’ll be out there huntin’ somewhere – though by then I may have to talk a grandson into doing my digging for me!”

Skip Umshler at work searching for

coins in the town square at Tecumseh,
Nebraska in October of 1980

Skip shared with us a letter from a Scottsbluff woman, whose high school class ring had been lost many years earlier. Skip found it while foraging for coins on the town square in Ord, Nebraska. The lady wrote a touching letter of thanks to Skip – noting that her husband had recently died after their house burned down, destroying everything they owned.

“Getting back my ring is something real special,” she wrote.

“Special” seems to fit Umshler well.

The oldest of three children born to Warren and Jen Umshler, Skip was a talented all-around athlete in Chadron during the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s. He was only a freshman when he suited up for the varsity at Chadron High in 1961, when they won the state “B” basketball tournament. Later that same year, he played first base on the outstanding Chadron Midgets squad that won a berth in the National Teeners Baseball World Series in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Many Dawes County old-timers will remember Skip’s dad, Warren, as a long-time employee for the State Highway Department and an ex-Marine who won both the Silver Star and Purple Heart during World War Two. He was good friends with another WWII hero from Chadron, Warren Beamish. The senior Umshler became something of a fixture with the American Legion Color Guard that supported events around Chadron for decades. He also refereed basketball games for several years. Skip’s mother, Jen, once served as Clerk of the District Court and still lives in Chadron. In addition to Skip, the Umshlers had two daughters, Shari and Cam.

Following high school, like so many youngsters, Skip struggled a bit in finding out what he wanted to do with his life. He was soon to discover that “having a good time” wasn’t all that good. Those years might euphemistically be called “colorful,” but they were difficult.

He married Beverly Urwin – who also has roots and relatives in Chadron. Her sister Marilyn and brothers John and Bob still live in the Chadron area. Another sister, Karolyn, lives in Tennessee. The marriage proved a positive step, especially when they retreated to Omaha and pursued new careers.

Bev landed a job with Northwestern Bell Telephone Company – later Qwest – from which she retired more than 30 years later. Skip’s affable personality proved a real asset for sales work, and he found the work both enjoyable and profitable.

While the “collector” side of Skip Umshler has shown brightly through his coin collection and Husker memorabilia, there’s yet another “special” talent he possesses – poetry. While he dismisses the thought that he’s really a poet, he concedes that his mother’s fondness for two of his poems enticed him to have them framed. Click on the image at right to see one of these poems. Read the other one here. Both were penned not long after Skip graduated from Chadron High, and we think his work was exceptional.

Along the way, Skip and Bev raised two girls, Kim and Jodee, who still live in Omaha. There are three grandchildren: 15-year-old granddaughter Hunter; 11-year-old grandson Tai; and 9-year-old granddaughter Sydney.

Skip waxes enthusiastic as he talks about grandson Tai, who’s already a collector of sorts – not coins and memorabilia, but trophies! At his ripe young age, he’s already collected a wide array of BMX racing trophies for his prowess in a bicycle sport that is gaining wide popularity.

We figure it’ll be no time at all before some of Tai’s accomplishments earn him a place in the Umshler “Husker Room”!

Chadron Prep students 'had it made'

2010-11-06T09:33:00.007-06:00

By CON MARSHALL

Students who attended Chadron Prep thought they “had it made,” those participating in panel discussions on Oct. 22 said during a program that was a part of Chadron State College’s homecoming celebration.

Nearly a dozen people who had attended what officially was the Campus Laboratory School, but was commonly referred to as Chadron Prep told of their experiences at the school. The lab school operated for more than 50 years. It accepted students in 1911, the same year as Chadron State opened, and was closed in the early 1960s after the college’s administration and board decided the funding could be better used to increase faculty salaries and strengthen the accreditation status.

These individuals were the panelists who told of their experiences at Chadron Prep last week as part of the Chadron State College homecoming program. In front, from left, are Jan Adams, Jean Henkens, Doris Harrington, Jerry Berry, Marilyn Hills and Gary Bieganski. In the back are Lois Putnam, Jeanelle Grant, JoAnn Schaeffer, Jim Butler, Don Kay and Goldie Dawkins Mitchell. Another panelist was Don Housh. NOTE: Click on the photo to see an enlarged version.

Laboratory schools were founded so college students who were studying to become teachers could practice teach in elementary and high school classrooms before graduating. The lab schools closed on many other college campuses about the same time. The college students then did their practice teaching in public and private schools.

“I thought I was very lucky to go to Prep,” said Lois Putnam, who lives near Oelrichs. “We had it made. We got to do things that kids in other schools didn’t get to do. We had physical education classes beginning in the third grade, swam in the swimming pool, got to take home ec when we were seventh graders and our science classes were super.”

Other members of the two panels agreed with Putnam. They noted that when they were high school students, college professors often were their primary teachers. Several said playing in the school orchestra that was directed by Roy Peterson, who also directed the college’s orchestra, was a special treat. Taking Spanish under Emma Steckelberg also was a bonus, others noted.

Some parents insisted that their children attend the Campus Laboratory School. Putnam said she lived just two blocks from the West Ward Elementary School in Chadron, but her mother enrolled her in Susan Frazier’s kindergarten class at the Lab School. That meant she had to walk a mile and a quarter to school instead of two blocks.

Putnam said years later as a college student she did her student teaching in the same room in Hildreth Hall where she had attended the first grade.

JoAnn Schaeffer had a similar experience. She attended the Lab School from kindergarten until she graduated from high school, then returned to Chadron State to earn a bachelor’s degree after raising five kids.

Jim Butler, Don Housh and Jeanelle Grant had attended rural schools before enrolling at Prep. Butler said he was “scared to death” when he stepped on the college campus as a high school freshman, but got along fine.

Don Kay noted he attended Crawford High School for two years, but his father didn’t think he was learning enough and persuaded him transfer to Prep. Marilyn Hills said she transferred from the Chadron Public Schools to the lab school because most of the students in her Sunday-school class went there. Gary Bieganski said he had attended schools, several of them large ones, “around the world” while his father was in the military. When his family moved to Chadron, Bieganski enrolled at Prep and he said, “I really enjoyed it.”

Goldie Dawkins Mitchell recalled that a few hours after she was born in January 1920, two teachers from the college stopped at her parents’ apartment and saw her. Six years later when she was ready to begin school, Mitchell said one of the teachers contacted her parents and said she should enroll at the Campus Laboratory School. She did, and remained in the Prep system until graduating from high school in 1937.

Mitchell said Hildreth Hall was still under construction when she began school and her first classes were in the Administration Building. When the new building was completed in 1926, she and her classmates helped carry the supplies across the street.

A couple of the participants said there was criticism of the Laboratory School by some educators not connected with the college because much of the instruction was done by the student teachers. However, the panelists said that was often advantageous because the student teachers were competitive and liked to outdo each other when it was their turn to teach.

“I’m glad I got to go to Prep,” said Jerry Berry, a member of the final high school class in 1961. “The student teachers worked hard and were a lot of fun. Some of them worked with students who were having problems and helped them succeed. We also got to know a lot of the college kids. It was like one big happy family. The Prep reunions that we’ve had for the past 45 years are great. The spirit lives on.”

It is impossible to talk about Chadron Prep without mentioning the three Class C state championships that the basketball teams won in the 1950s. Jan Adams described the coach, Archie Conn, as a great person who stressed respect, developing friendships and being kind and understanding to one another.

Another milestone for Prep occurred in 1961, the year the high school portion closed. Just a few weeks after the announcement was made, Prep won the championship at the first CSC Scholastic Contest.

Long-time Chadron resident Jean Henkens said her experience at Prep was different than most. She grew up in Martin, S.D., but came to Chadron the summer between her junior and senior years in high school to take science courses that were taught by college faculty members Charles Philpott, Lyle Andrews and Minnie Lichty.

“That was a great experience,” Henkens said. “I learned a lot. After I graduated (from high school) in 1936, I came back over here to go to college. I knew this was the place for me.”

Another of the panel members was Doris Harrington, who taught second grade from 1960 until 1964 when the elementary portion of the school was closed. She said she has fond memories of that experience and enjoyed supervising student teachers.

The discussion was arranged by members of the CSC Education Department.

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Our deep thanks to good friend Con Marshall of Chadron for sharing this great story and photograph with Dawes County Journal!

Jim Butler

Jim Butler inducted into CSC Athletic Hall of Fame

2010-11-01T01:32:00.032-06:00

Some months back, we did a short piece on long-time Chadron educator and lawman Jim Butler (left), who now lives in Lincoln.

Mr. Butler turns 92 in January, but you'd never know it by the schedule he keeps. Although he now lives in Lincoln near some of his sons, he still occasionally drives back to Chadron to take in a CSC ball game or -- as happened last week (10/23/10) -- to be inducted into the Chadron State College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jim Butler grew up along Bordeaux Creek east of Chadron, one of three kids born to T.J. and Grace Butler. He went to school at the old Chadron Prep, competing in football, basketball and track. After graduating from high school in 1936, he enrolled at Chadron State in pursuit of an Industrial Arts degree.

Then it was college work at Chadron State, where he participated in sports under legendary coach Ross Armstrong.

Veteran Chadron writer Con Marshall wrote, "Butler played offensive guard and linebacker for the CSC football teams in 1937, ’39 and ’40. His defensive play was a major factor in the Eagles’ 12-9 win over the University of Wyoming in 1940. He also lettered in basketball at CSC two years when the Eagles were 16-4 and 15-3."

After several jobs, marriage, two children, the death of his wife, and service in the Army Air Corps, he returned to Chadron following World War II. Butler remarried in 1946 and graduated from CSC in 1947. After teaching and coaching for a year at Igloo, SD, he was appointed as Dawes County Sheriff, a job he held from 1950 until 1958 – with lots of memorable experiences!

Many folks will also remember Jim Butler playing first base and other positions for the Chadron Elks baseball team for several years. Check out a few photos from an earlier era in Chadron.

Read Con Marshall's story about the Chadron State College Hall of Fame inductees.

The Jim Butler award is well deserved, and a timely recognition for a family with a lot of sports history. His son Dale was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Below are a few Jim Butler photos we snapped at the October 23 induction luncheon at Chadron State College. You can click on the images to see a larger version of the photo.

2010 inductees to the Chadron State College
Athletic Hall of Fame. Jim Butler center front.

Members of the Jim Butler Family were on hand
as he received his award at Chadron State College

Woodhead scores his first pro TD

2010-09-26T23:12:00.034-06:00

While this is not a sports site, we do like to acknowledge a few of the folks who've helped to put Chadron on the national sports map. Chadron State's star running back from a few seasons ago -- Danny Woodhead -- created much excitement for west Nebraska residents during his college career. The two-time Harlon Hill (2006 and 2007) trophy winner has had a slow start in the professional football circuit, and it didn't look good when the New York Jets released him on a waiver earlier this month. Four days later, he was picked up by the New England Patriots.

But if we've learned anything about Danny Woodhead, it's that he's a dedicated young man who doesn't quit. That's one of the reasons he was popular with Jets fans -- and we suspect he'll soon win over Patriot fans. He had an excellent debut with the New England Patriots in their 38-30 win today over the Buffalo Bills. Only a handful of Eagle lettermen have gone on to enjoy recognition in the pro ranks -- dating back to 4-year letterman Dub Miller's (1931-32-33-34) stint with the Chicago Bears. Enjoy a Boston Globe story and a few Danny Woodhead photos at this link: Patriots 38, Bills 30 - Boston.com

We appreciate veteran writer Con Marshall for sharing his story about Woodhead's warm reception by New England players and fans.

Bill Finch was a 'King of Swing'

2010-08-02T12:27:00.024-06:00

Bill Finch loved music. But it was broadcasting where he left his mark.

A native of Illinois, Finch was deeply rooted in the music and culture that he had grown up with in the 1930’s and ‘40s.

He also had a knack for new technologies and ventured into broadcasting – first radio, and then television. But television was a mere flirtation, and he molded his lifelong career around radio, sharing his love of big band music with radio audiences from Nebraska and Colorado to South Carolina – and around the world.

It’s no surprise that he was blending those two traits when he partnered with Coloradan Bob Fouse to put Chadron radio station KCSR on the air back in May of 1954. That event was listed among “New Beginnings” in the recently-published history of Chadron, Nebraska, prepared as part of the quasquicentennial celebration this summer.

Few folks with first-hand knowledge about the beginning of KCSR are still around. So it’s left to those of us who were mere youngsters romping around Chadron in the mid 1950’s to tell the story. And that story can’t be told without first knowing about the people who made it happen – and Bill Finch was in the thick of it!

Born in Lovejoy, Illinois, in 1922, Finch was just a few months old when his parents moved to Chicago. In later life, he told newspaper writer Thom Anderson that life as a big-city kid was pretty exciting. He said he remembered the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which took place not far from his house – as was the Biograph Theatre, were gangster John Dillinger was killed.

“The gangsters were often looked at as sort of folk heroes…we didn’t worry about them, though. They were never a real danger to citizens – only to each other when one invaded the other’s turf. The police figured they’d just kill each other,” Finch was quoted as saying.

He also remembered with great delight the wide array of big bands that would play in the many ballrooms around Chicago – from Glenn Miller and Guy Lombardo to Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

“Being raised in the Big Band era was the best thing a person who was musically inclined could possibly experience,” he was once quoted as saying. Those inclinations led him to master the saxophone and clarinet.

During World War II, Finch served a stint in the Pacific with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. His four-year hitch included an assignment to Special Services and ended in Tokyo, where he was a courier with the Army Security Agency. After his discharge as a 1^st Lieutenant, he enrolled in the broadcasting program at Denver University, where he graduated in 1951. Then it was off to his first radio job at KRAI in Craig, Colorado, where he was Sales Manager and also handled announcing chores.

It was likely in Denver, however, that Bill Finch crossed paths with Bob Fouse, an announcer and Promotion Manager at KTLN in Denver. It was fortuitous that Fouse’s family was apparently quite wealthy. Finch and Fouse joined forces in the early 1950’s and decided to build a radio station in Chadron, Nebraska. The station went on the air in May of 1954 from studios at 212 Bordeaux Street, just a few doors north of where the station is now located.

Much could be written about those early days of KCSR, which operated at 1450 Kilocycles with only 250 watts. Nonetheless, the station boasted that it was the “Tri-State Voice by Listener Choice,” but the signal struggled to reliably serve an audience in South Dakota – let alone Wyoming, which was even farther away.

But everywhere the signal could be heard, the station was a hit!

Early KCSR staff members included other DU alums like Cliff Pike and Freeman Hover. They were creative and resourceful, and they didn’t hesitate to take chances trying new things. The station was on the air 18-hours a day and incorporated everything from country and western to classical music in a format that was “keyed to the mood of the day.” But it was the local news, sports, and weather that caught the fancy of a Chadron-area audience hungry for their own radio station. They loved it.

Other early staff included Dave Scherling, who had been at KGOS in Torrington, and local Chadronites Ted Turpin and Sherry Girmann. Turpin did news and sports. Girmann was receptionist and stenographer.

Finch served as Station Manager and guided most of the technical work, while Fouse was Commercial Manager. Both did on-air work, but Fouse dove full force into programming, injecting his rare brand of creativity that was showcased on a weekday morning program called Breakfast with the Boys. We have a some photographs from this era; you'll find them posted in our KCSR Gallery.

Finch and his wife Dorothy became well-known in the community; their children Barbara and Ron enrolled in the Chadron public school system. Finch had a flair for showmanship, too, creating and hosting a weekly live performance program called “Curly’s Corral,” featuring area country and western musicians. “Curly” Finch became something of a celebrity, donning western outfits (at left) and even riding a horse down Main Street in a parade. Quite a trick for a guy who grew up in Chicago! But he knew the importance of country music to station listeners, and he responded in a positive way.

In 1958, as a part-time announcer at the station, I vividly recall one summer afternoon when Bill was at the control board hosting an afternoon of recorded music. He decided to spice it up a bit by playing Count Basie's “One O’clock Jump,” followed by another version of....“One O’clock Jump”......and then..... yet another version! I have no recollection of just how many renditions he found, but he was loving every minute of it. It was clear he had a passion for big band music – even if it was demonstrated in a rather unorthodox way! He was, after all, the boss!

By late 1958 and early 1959, Finch was simultaneously managing KDUH-TV in Hay Springs, the new television station owned by Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises. Whatever the motivation for Finch and Fouse, they sold KCSR to the Huse Publishing Company of Norfolk, Nebraska. The deal was done in August 1959, and Finch was gone from Chadron.

Finch then bought a radio station in Clewiston, Florida, but it became a tumultuous time for him and his family. He was soon divorced from Dorothy and lost the station, taking a job at WFTL in Fort Lauderdale.

By 1963, Bill Finch met magazine editor Patricia Lane, and they wed on New Year’s Day in 1964, soon re-locating to Casper, Wyoming, where he was again involved in broadcasting. But the lure of the Rockies took hold, and Bill and Pat moved to Colorado Springs, where – among other things – he hosted a weekend big band program called The Finch Bandwagon on KVOR.

The program was heard by an Air Force colonel who had some clout with higher brass, and Finch was asked to produce the program for the worldwide audience of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. He’d periodically fly to Los Angeles and record as many as 13 programs in one trip.

This phase of Bill Finch’s career accomplished several things. First, it gave him an opportunity to invite top-name talent to the studio for interviews that could be inserted into his programs, which were pressed to LP discs and distributed to AFRTS station and ships around the globe. Surely, it must have been a real kick for the kid from Chicago to rub shoulders with top entertainers, ranging from musicians like Percy Faith, Patti Page, Stan Kenton, Frankie Carle and Lawrence Welk (shown here with Bill Finch), to legendary writers like Jimmie McHugh and Sammy Cahn, to name just a few. Second, as an ex-GI, Finch relished being able to share music that he had grown up with and loved with a whole new generation of American kids – not to mention the large “shadow” audience that tuned in AFRTS in every part of the world.

Bill and Pat Finch had a son of their own, Holmes, who spent his formative years in Colorado Springs.

The AFRTS gig went on for more than a decade, but – according to a 2002 news story – Finch lost is voice and had to undergo surgery on his vocal chords. While he regained his voice, it was markedly different, and Finch apparently felt that his tenure as a radio announcer was at an end.

Shortly thereafter, the family headed east – to South Carolina. They settled in Pamplico, where Pat had grown up.

In 1975, the final chapter of Bill Finch’s broadcast career unfolded. He went to work at WJMX in nearby Florence and resurrected the Finch Bandwagon radio show. It thrived and became something of a fixture on the station, running steadily for 27 years. At the end of that long stint on radio station WJMX, writer Stella Miller dubbed Finch the 'King of Swing' in an article for Golden Life magazine.

Finch's first wife, Dorothy, suffered a bout of heart ailments and passed away in 1995 in Orlando, Florida. Their daughter Barbara lives in Orlando today, where her husband is project manager for a construction company. They have five children, 10 grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Finch's older son Ron lives in China and owns his own window dressing company. Ron’s two sons are in college and his daughter is in high school. Finch's younger son, Holmes -- by his second wife, Pat -- is an Associate Professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he serves as Director of Research for the Office of Charter School Research.

In 2002, on his 80^th birthday, Finch suffered a stroke. Despite this significant setback, he fought his way back and was soon sharing the helm of The Finch Bandwagon on another South Carolina station, WOLS, where he was again immersing himself – and his many fans in the area – with his beloved big band music. Click the "Play" button below and enjoy a few minutes of an original AFRTS broadcast of The Finch Band Wagon.

Bill Finch died June 9, 2004, just a few weeks shy of his 82^nd birthday. His wife, Pat, continues to live in her native Pamplico, South Carolina.

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Our thanks to Pat Finch, Barbara (Finch) Schenk, Holmes Finch, and Ruth Munn Kilgallon for generously sharing photos and other materials used in this article.

Early Chadron: Hollywood of the Plains?

2010-07-19T20:58:00.010-06:00

More than a decade before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began staging Academy Award ceremonies in Hollywood, one of the earliest western films about Wild Bill Hickock was produced in…….Chadron, Nebraska?

Not that the movie would have won an Oscar. According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, it wasn’t even close to being an accurate depiction of Wild Bill, but it was an ambitious undertaking for a group of local folks in Chadron who produced the film.

Entitled Wild Bill and Calamity Jane in the Days of ’75 and ’76, the 1916 movie was said to have embraced several “state of the art” production techniques, including film masking and titles within the film. Most intriguing for us was the fact that local citizens created the Black Hills Feature Film Company and sold stock in an effort to bankroll the project. We don’t know how many shares they sold, but one “William Chalk” was the proud owner of Certificate No. 4, shown here.

Interestingly, the certificate is signed by Willis Schenck, Secretary, and A. L. Andrews, President, of the Black Hills Feature Film Company – and Schenck also performed in the film. According to the credits, he played the role of “Nettie’s father.”

But the real limelight of this film was focused on a young lady by the name of Freeda Hartzell Romine, who – according to the Centennial History of Chadron, Nebraska (1985) – was born in Nebraska but grew up in Deadwood, South Dakota. That’s where, so the story goes, she learned to become an expert rifle shot and honed her skills well enough to appear in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis with Will Rogers. She would have been only about 12 or 13 years old. The photo here shows Freeda with fellow performers in Wild Bill and Calamity Jane in the Days of '75 and '76.

The young lass also toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Western Show for several years, according to an account in Dawes County - The First 100 Years, published in 1985. She and her railroader husband, Guy Romine, had a daughter, Catherine. Many years later, the Romine’s divorced. Freeda reportedly lived for several more years in Chadron, but also had a home in Indiana. We know nothing about her final days.

Other "locals" in the film included Freeda's mother, Mary Hartzell, who portrayed Calamity's mother, and A.L. Johnson, who was cast as Wild Bill. Barney Efting played the infamous Jack McCall, while Dick Iaeger was Calamity's brother. In researching this local drama troupe, we discovered that Iaeger was an uncle to Karen (Kindig) Schlais, who still lives in Chadron.

Alas, this film – and the film company – were also lost in obscurity. Fortunately, the movie was finally “re-discovered” some years ago and placed in the Nebraska archives in Lincoln. It was dusted off and featured a few years ago by Nebraska Educational Television in their Next Exit series.

Enjoy this glimpse of film magic that is nearly 100 years old.

Remembering teachers past

2010-07-08T12:03:00.001-06:00

VERNE LEWELLEN was one of the most highly respected coaches to ever come through Chadron High School.

A native of Minatare, he was a standout athlete. During World War Two, “Coach Lew” served with Patton’s 16th Armored Division that helped liberate Czechoslovakia; he then enrolled at Chadron State College after the war. A top flight defensive back at Chadron State, his four pass interceptions in the “Bean Bowl” football game against Idaho State in 1949 established a school record that has never been broken. His superb football career earned him a berth as a charter member of the CSC Athletic Hall of Fame.

Lewellen was also a top notch baseball player and likely could have had a career in the major leagues. After teaching and coaching at Hay Springs for three years, he came to Chadron as basketball coach and taught in Junior High, becoming Principal. He took the Cardinals to three state basketball tournaments, including 1960-61 when CHS won the Class B championship.

Lewellen retired from coaching and left Chadron to become Superintendent at Rushville for five years. He and his wife, Erma, then returned to the “Valley,” where he served 20 years as Superintendent at Mitchell.

A staunch supporter of CSC, he has served on the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The Lewellens still live in Mitchell, not far from their son Curt and daughter Tammi Greenlee.

A “surprise” tribute luncheon for “Coach Lew” and Erma was held in Chadron on July 8, 2010.

Remembering teachers past

2010-07-07T12:53:00.001-06:00

LaVONA SMITH LEMONS taught Home Economics and Physical Education at Chadron High School in the late 1950's.

A native of Crawford and a graduate of what is now Chadron State College, she taught in Grand Island for three years before coming to Chadron High. Con Marshall wrote last year that “she remembers when Cindy Huls dressed up like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and did some tumbling stunts during halftime at a couple of basketball games during the holidays, much to the delight of the crowds…after leaving Chadron, the Lemonses moved to Scottsbluff, where Larry taught special education and physiology for 20 years and LaVona became a stay-at-home mom. While still in Scottsbluff, Larry left education for nine years and became involved in sporting goods sales and management.”

The Lemons family moved to North Platte in the mid-1980s. LaVona became Volunteer Coordinator for North Platte Schools, while Larry worked as the counselor at the Hershey Schools. Their son Jay is president of Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania; daughter Jill is a counselor in Loveland, Colorado, and daughter Holly has a real estate license in Fort Collins. They have seven grandchildren.

LaVona and her husband Larry Lemons were able to attend the joint reunion last year for the classes of ’58 and ’59 at CHS. LaVona

As Chadron Prep grads assemble

2010-07-06T08:49:00.010-06:00

Although the Chadron Prep high school was shuttered in 1961, memories of that fine school linger. Prepsters continue to assemble annually to celebrate their good fortune at having been a part of the school.

For many folks, the basketball dynasty honed by the legendary Archie Conn, is synonymous with Chadron Prep.

There is a long list of names that ring true when thinking about outstanding basketball players at Prep. Muma. Amstrong. Lytle. Kuska.

And within that list – if not at the top – is one James Hampton.

A four-year letterman for the Junior Eagles, Jim Hampton was a bit on the short size for such a stellar player; he was an all-around athlete who performed nearly as well on the gridiron and the diamond as he did the basketball court. He was an integral part of the outstanding Chadron Elks baseball team for a few years back in the '50s.

We can’t recount all of the statistics about this fine player, but we do know that he garnered 310 points in 24 during his senior year. Jim was a Class C All-State player on a team that dominated the Northwest Nebraska Conference – and most other competition. Of course, Chadron Prep also brought home several state championship trophies in those years.

At a sprightly 73 years, Hampton still shoots hoops regularly in Michigan, where he and wife Shirley (Durham) have lived for many years. He has retired from a successful career with Dow Corning. We’re told that his free-throw percentage is considerably higher today than back in the 1950’s, and he was a superb shooter back in those days.

If you have good photos of other Prep players from that era, we’d enjoy being able to share them here on Dawes County Journal. Drop us a line at galeymedia@gmail.com.

Remembering teachers past

2010-07-05T13:50:00.003-06:00

JAMES ZEMAN, a 1956 graduate of Chadron High School, returned to CHS to teach English and Speech in 1960-61 after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from Nebraska State Teachers College at Chadron in 1960. It would be the first of his 42 years in the teaching profession.

“I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the senior English class that year,” Zeman told us. “I still remember fondly the senior class play, and I can’t forget Murray Schmechel coming out on stage in the barrel in “Tons of Money.” That was Zeman’s only year of teaching at CHS.

He spent the next six years teaching speech and coaching speech activities at Lead (SD) High School while working summers to complete an M.A. in Speech Communication. After a one-year stint back at Chadron State as a one-year replacement, he signed on at Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD to teach speech and handle forensic activities. It turned out to be a 34-year gig. He completed a Ph. D. in Speech Communication at Pennsylvania State University and was very actively involved with the South Dakota Education Association for many years.

Jim Zeman retired in 2003 as a full professor at Northern State and spends his time in both Aberdeen and the Black Hills region – as well as a couple of weeks each year on the Oregon coast.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-28T19:39:00.002-06:00

H. A. SCHROEDER was a long-time Superintendent of Schools in Chadron, well-known and high respected throughout the community. A native of Pierce County and a graduate of Wayne College, he was a standout athlete during his years with the “Wildcats.”

After graduating from Wayne, his career in education took him to Scribner, where he was Superintendent for 11 years. Then it was on to Broken Bow for four years; but then he left education to manage a Broken Bow hotel. In 1946, Schroeder and his wife, Opal, came to Chadron, where he had been hired as manager of the Blaine Hotel; however, he was soon recruited to replace the late James Skinkle as Superintendent of Schools.

Henry “Heinie” Schroeder served as School Superintendent from 1947 until 1967.

While a few students over those years got to see the inside of Heinie’s office and experience “character-building” spankings, most knew him as a gregarious and fairly jovial fellow, who – with little prompting – was happy to demonstrate his football skills by punting a ball to the top of the school building. Opal Schroeder taught Kindergarten at East Ward for some 20 years. Their daughter, Susan (Schroeder) Lundberg, was a 1955 graduate of Chadron High School.

Upon retirement, Heinie worked at the Pine Ridge Job Corps Center for a few years. Chadron historian/writer Con Marshall says Heinie played a key role in getting accreditation for the school at the Job Corps Center, which is nestled atop a hill south of Chadron in the Nebraska National Forest.

It wasn’t long, however, before the Schroeders decided to head back to their roots in eastern Nebraska, spending their remaining years in Norfolk.

Heinie Schroeder died in 1983; Opal passed away in 1990.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-25T18:22:00.006-06:00

RON and JANE BECKER taught at Chadron High School for two years – 1958-59 and 1959-60. Jane taught English and Speech; Ron directed the band and choir.

The Beckers grew up in Lincoln and met at the University of Nebraska. As teachers at CHS, they were both involved with many student productions, including God’s Trombones and Carousel. By1960, Jane became a stay-at-home mom to care for their new son. They soon moved to Scottsbluff, where Ron became Director of Instrumental Music for the school system. He took the Scottsbluff band to Washington, DC for the inauguration of president John F. Kennedy in 1961 and to the New York World’s Fair in 1964.

By 1968, Ron Becker began a career in school administration, taking the position of assistant principal at Scottsbluff High School. Shortly after the arrival of their daughter, the Beckers moved to Lincoln, where he was Director of Secondary Education for the Nebraska Deptartment of Education; during this period, he pursued and earned his doctorate at NU. Jane worked for Stanford Research. After Ron’s stint as state director for the North Central Association, the family moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1976, and Ron became director of secondary education for the school district. In 1994, he retired, but later went back as assistant superintendent for the Sioux Falls School System for a couple of years. From 1995 through 2005, he served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, traveling the globe in evaluating Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS).

Jane Becker was also at work in the 1990s, specializing in clergy taxes for a Sioux Falls CPA firm. She retired in 1996, but continued to volunteer for the IRS/AARP program.

Active in the arts community of Sioux Falls, Ron was enlisted to serve on the Board of Directors for the Friends of South Dakota Broadcasting, where he contributed his talents for many years – including multiple terms on the national Association for Public Television Stations.

The Beckers live in Sioux Falls.

NOTE: Thanks to Con Marshall for providing much of the information contained in this piece.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-21T15:58:00.002-06:00

ROBERTA GROVER was Librarian and also taught English at Chadron High School from 1957 to 1961.

Born on November 29, 1911 on her parent’s country farm south of Beloit Kansas, Roberta (Lukens) Grover graduated from high school in 1925 and from Sterling College, a four-year Christian school located in Sterling, Kansas, in 1933. She had a desire to become a school teacher and had taught at some rural schools even before she acquired her college degree. Roberta quit teaching when she married Oscar Grover, a minister.

They raised three sons, and Roberta went back to teaching high school while her sons were in high school. The family arrived in Chadron, Nebraska in the summer of 1957. She was at Chadron High School for four years before moving to Moberly, Missouri. Some years later, Mrs. Grover retired in her home town, Beloit, Kansas.

Her two oldest sons, Delbert (1958), and Ron (1959) graduated from CHS, and her youngest son, Robert, attended Junior High and two years of high school in Chadron. Both Delbert and Ron were able to attend the CHS joint reunion of the classes of 1958 and 1959 last summer in Chadron.

Mrs. Grover lived at Presbyterian Manor in Newton, Kansas until her death in 1987 at the age of 75.

The Junior Eagles dynasty

2010-06-20T11:50:00.008-06:00

There were few teams that could keep pace with the basketball squad at Chadron Prep during the decade or so before the high school closed its doors in 1961. The Junior Eagles won state championships in 1950, 1952 and 1955 under the legendary Archie Conn. Those teams were also undefeated.

Names like Kuska, Hampton, Lytle, and Muma still conjure up images of a stellar group of players that few teams anywhere in Nebraska could keep pace with. Jim Hampton was a starter with the 1951 squad -- shown above in a photo that Jim has kindly shared with us. Sitting on the floor in front of his teammates, the 5'2" Hampton looks almost like a team ball boy -- a perception quickly dispelled once the half-pint hoopster took to the floor. He was just a freshman, and he did grow to a "towering" 5'5" by his Junior year.

Dr. Jim Hampton is now retired from Dow Corning. He and his wife, Shirlee (Durham), live in Midland, Michigan.

Jim provided us with this key to the above photo: standing (left-to-right) are Ervin Horton, Jim Forbes, Allen Livermont, Bob Buchanan, Franklin Clark, Pete Woods, Duane McMeekin, Dale Webster, Tom Hoffman, Jim Neeland, John Kent, and Ken Woolery; seated (l-r) are Jim Palmer, Curt Roberts, Bob Armstrong, Bob Allgood, Charlie Muma, Larry Lytle, Les Churchill, Wally Goff, and Coach Archie Conn. Jim Hampton is in front. To take a closer look at this photo -- along with others -- visit our Chadron Schools Gallery.

Just a note about Archie Conn. From his days at Chugwater, Wyoming, until he chalked up an impressive 247-33 career record at Chadron Prep, Archie Conn was a coach who seemed to know how to get the most out of his players. When Prep closed, Archie remained at Chadron State for a few years before taking a job teaching education courses at the University of South Dakota-Springfield, where he retired in 1972. He died in 1984.

It was our pleasure to interview Archie Conn in 1976 after he had moved back to Chadron. That was the year he was presented with the Distinguished Service Award from Chadron State College, a well-deserved honor for a remarkable career dedicated to young people and their education.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-18T17:52:00.005-06:00

GORDON “FUZZ” WATTS was one of those rare individuals who seemed endowed with natural talent for just about anything he pursued.

Born in Denver in 1928, “Fuzz” Watts grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming, where he graduated from high school. After a tour in the Pacific as an Air Force cryptographer, he went to college at the University of Wyoming, but soon transferred to NSTC at Chadron, where he was a three-year football letterman.

He married Bonnie Haun in 1951; they had four children: #1-Patti; #2-Debbie; #3-Mike; and #4-Bill. After graduating from college in 1952, Watts signed a contract with Chadron schools and would change the fortunes of Cardinal football – leading the 1954 team to the first undefeated season for Chadron High since 1927. During his 11 years at the helm of the football program, his teams racked up a 79-17-4 record. They won conference crowns nine times and were undefeated in 1954, 1956, 1960 and 1962.

As Athletic Director, “Fuzz” Watts was credited with initiating a very successful high school wrestling program and a popular elementary grade school basketball program. Many players on the 1961 Class B Championship team began playing together in the 3rd and 4th Grades.

For the thousands of students whose lives he touched, “Coach Watts” was a master at motivation. He left CHS in 1965 and worked as a construction boss for several projects and was also Superintendent of Buildings & Grounds at CSC.

Watts died of natural causes on June 18, 1984. He was just 55 years old. Shortly after his death, veteran writer Con Marshall penned this poignant piece about Gordon “Fuzz” Watts for the Chadron Record.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-15T07:00:00.002-06:00

MARGO MEANS McCAWLEY was among the most respected teachers over the years at Chadron High School and Chadron State College.

She was born in Hemingford in 1907, the only child of Fred and Alice Melick. Her father was reportedly the first postmaster of Hemingford. According to the book Hemingford 1886-1985, compiled by Edna Clark, Melick had served as postmaster of Carlyle, which was just east of present day Hemingford. In December 1885, he made application to change the name of the post office location from Carlyle to Hemingford. It was approved, and he became the first postmaster of the new community of Hemingford.

Young Marguerite was reportedly active in a local chapter of Camp Fire Girls and excelled in the classroom, receiving her high school diploma when she was just 15.

After graduating from the University of Nebraska, she worked for about a decade in private business and government before taking a teaching job at Neligh High School for nine years. She came to Chadron in 1957, teaching a variety of “commercial” classes at Chadron High in the basement of what is now the Chadron Middle School. “Mrs. Means” served as sponsor to several groups, including Pep Club and the Cardinal Yearbook Staff.

In 1961, she moved across town to the Nebraska State Teacher’s College and taught business courses for 11 years. She married the college Business Manger Paul McCawley in 1964. Much as she had done at Chadron High, Mrs. McCawley became a favorite with students and staff alike. In 1971, she was named Nebraska Business Teacher of the Year; the following year she was elected to the Chadron Board of Education by what her obituary described as “a landslide.”

Margo and Paul McCawley traveled extensively during their years together. Alas, she also was to wage a lengthy battle against leukemia. She retired from Chadron State College in 1972. Good friend Con Marshall, who has chronicled so much history of Chadron State College and the community, wrote about Margo in 1972 that she was “…an accomplished musician, although she no longer gives lessons and says she now plays only for her own ‘amazement,’ once held a pilot’s license, can read 10 languages, was twice named one of the most popular speakers at Nebraska Girls State, was the first master’s degree recipient at Chadron State to receive all A’s, and has waged a successful battle with leukemia for the past eight years.”

When students from Chadron High School classes of 1958 and 1959 congregated for a reunion last year, no teacher was mentioned more often – or with greater admiration and fondness – than Margo Means McCawley. And as 1960 and 1961 graduates from CHS prepare for their reunion this summer, it seems clear from comments sent to us that Margo was a perennial favorite of students from across the years.

Margo McCawley died in December 1977 in Chadron following a lengthy illness. She was 70 years old.

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-11T22:07:00.003-06:00

JAMES A. MYERS was born in Casper, Wyoming, in 1906, but he was raised and spent his entire professional education career in Chadron – serving the Chadron Public Schools for 44 years.

The son of a railroader, Myers grew up at 635 King Street in a house built by his father. That was his address for more than 50 years.

Young Jim went through elementary and secondary school in Chadron, then enrolled at the Chadron Normal College, where he earned his degree in 1928. He signed on as a math teacher at Chadron High School, a job he held for 21 years. For some of those years, he also did double duty as an Assistant Principal. That was followed by some 23 years as CHS Principal – from 1949 to 1972, when he retired.

During those years at Chadron High School, many students knew the Home Ec teacher…..others knew the coaches……others were well-acquainted with the shop teacher. But EVERYONE knew the Principal, Mr. Myers. In those years, it was hard to see him as a fiercely dedicated educator committed to quality education, which he was. He was deeply respected (some might say feared). It took several years for some of us to warm up to this quiet and gentle man who was an effective teacher and administrator.

Myer’s wife, Nellie, taught elementary grades for many years; she passed away in 1969.

Myers was feted at a banquet at the end of the 1972 school year. More than 200 people gathered at the Middle School gym for the “Jim Myers Day” event. Former students and colleagues joined in the celebration, including long-time Superintendent of School H. A. Schroeder.

Former students paying tribute to Myeres included Harold Clark from the class of 1929; Gordon Larson from the class of 1934; Ozzie Ostrander, class of 1947; Mick Megown, class of 1958; Neil Daniels from the class of 1962; Bob Roos, class of 1969; and Jan Baumann from the class of 1972.

While Myers was presented with an engraved wrist watch in honor of his retirement, he made it clear that it’s the good memories he’s taking away that will be most cherished.

“I remembered having looked back at some of the yearbooks in my office, and the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the multitude of fine memories that I’ll be taking with me,” said Myers.

Myers moved to Vancouver, Washington in 1972 to be near his son, Ralph, and family. Dr. Ralph Myers was a research chemist for Crown-Zellerbach paper products. Jim Myers died in 1990

Remembering teachers past

2010-06-08T11:31:00.014-06:00

As Chadron celebrates its 125th anniversary this summer, there’ll be an abundance of school reunions. It'll be an opportunity to rekindle many memories -- including those of teachers at Chadron's three high schools through much of the 20th century. If you have photos or information about teachers of this era, please E-Mail us. Thanks!

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ELAINE STOLLER taught Home Economics and Girls Physical Education in the 1950’s and early 1960’s at Chadron High School.

Since leaving Chadron in 1964, she and husband Ron have lived in Lincoln, Nebraska; Tucson, Arizona; and Columbia, Missouri. They also did a stint in Colombia, South America, where her husband took a two-year assignment with the University of Nebraska. Many folks may well remember Elaine’s husband, Ron, who served several years as the Dawes County Extension agent. We recall crossing paths with him at KCSR Radio, when he would come in to record a weekly radio program.

The Stollers have two daughters – both born in Chadron. Daughter Carol is a nurse and works in Health Administration with Kaiser in Los Angeles; Diane is a general surgeon at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis. They have five grandchildren.

Recalling her teaching years in Chadron, Mrs. Stoller remembers one incident very vividly. It seems the Phys Ed class was outside playing and “all at once…they put down their equipment and walked off the field to the locker room. I had no idea what was wrong, so I quickly followed them and to my surprise, they had planned a baby shower for me in the locker room. I was pregnant the last semester, and the first pregnant teacher to teach at the high school. Times have changed!”

Then there was the time that the varsity basketball players – just boys back in those days! – taught and coached the girls basketball classes. "As I look back on my years of teaching at Chadron High and remember the wonderful students and experiences, I always thought the students at Chadron could be better disciplined -- but learned after teaching in many other schools that those Chadron students were almost perfect compared to most other places!"

Mrs. Stoller recently spent six months in the hospital, a rehab-center and nursing home following a fractured femur and knee replacement. We’re happy to report, however, that she’s back home now! The Stollers are at home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Remembering teachers past

2010-05-18T00:23:00.014-06:00

JIM BUTLER has enjoyed many diverse and interesting experiences – from military service in World War II to distinguished careers in law enforcement to education.

Born in January 1919 along Bordeaux Creek about eight miles east of Chadron, James L. Butler was one of three children born to T.J. and Grace Butler. He, his sister Elizabeth and brother Melvin, all attended country school through the 8th Grade. Young Jim then went to Chadron Prep, where he competed in football, basketball and track before graduating in 1936.

Then he enrolled at Chadron State College and pursued a degree in Industrial Arts.

It was during that time that he played on CSC athletic teams under the legendary Ross Armstrong.

After several jobs, marriage, two children, the death of his wife, and service in the Army Air Corps, he returned to Chadron following World War II. He's in his Air Corps uniform in the photo shown above. Butler remarried in 1946 and graduated from CSC in 1947. After teaching and coaching for a year at Igloo, SD, he was appointed as Dawes County Sheriff, a job he held for 10 years – with lots of memorable experiences!

Many folks will also remember Jim Butler playing first base and other positions for the Chadron Elks baseball team for several years. Check out a few photos from an earlier era in Chadron.

In 1960, Butler joined Chadron Public Schools and held a variety of teaching and administrative positions. He earned school administration certification and his Specialist Degree in Education from Western State in Gunnison, Colorado while working at CHS. In 1985, after 26 years with Chadron Public Schools, Jim Butler retired as elementary principal.

In 1992, he and his wife, Donna, moved to Lincoln. She passed away in 2008. Donna and Jim were married for 62 years.

Jim Butler remains active at 91 years of age. He lives in Lincoln and follows both the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Chadron State Eagles. He has five boys and their families to keep track of: Gary in Savannah, Missouri; Dale in Overland Park, Kansas; Scott in Des Moines, Iowa; Criss in Omaha; and Curt in Lincoln.

Remembering teachers past

2010-05-06T17:26:00.012-06:00

CURTIS THOMPSON was one of the longest serving and best-loved teachers and coaches at Chadron High School.

Born at Sargent, Nebraska in 1922, he had a bad left arm that prevented military service, but he was an avid sports enthusiast all his life. He taught school in rural Sioux County in 1942 – before attending the State Normal School at Chadron the following year.

After teaching a year at Sargent, he came to Chadron High in 1945, where he taught for six years before earning his college degree. He coached varsity sports but switched to junior high in the 1950s. We have fond memories of his many diverse and colorful ties! He was assistant varsity basketball coach when the Cardinals won the state Class B basketball title in 1961. That same year, his youth all-star baseball team won a berth in the National Teener Tournament in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

He taught/coached in Chadron for 38 years, the second-longest teaching tenure in the Chadron school system. He was married to Chadron native Betty Rhoads. She was a Registered Nurse at the Chadron Community Hospital for many years. They had two boys, Skip and Gay, and a daughter, Kathy. When Thompson left education in 1984, he and Betty traveled extensively until her death in 2001. Curt Thompson died in 2006. He was 83 years old.

The Campus Shop

2010-04-17T11:00:00.001-06:00

Some time back, we shared a piece about the old Colacino’s Supper Club east of Chadron.

There’ve been many popular eating establishments around Chadron over the years – from King Louie’s and the Niles Café to the Pullman and the Chuckwagon. But how could we overlook the Campus Shop?

Well, we haven’t. And while it was popular mostly with college kids for several decades, it also drew lots of younger teens and a few adults, too.

The building today looks much the same as it did nearly a half century ago, sitting along the east side of Main Street near the entrance to Chadron State College. There’s even still a sign that says “Campus Shop,” although you’re not likely to catch any wafts of burgers and fries. It’s been decades since the building housed a restaurant.

John “Richie” Fahey has vivid memories of the Campus Shop. When he moved from Igloo, South Dakota to Chadron in 1951 to go to Assumption Academy, he worked at the restaurant for a couple of years.

“It was in the days before there was Student Union cafeteria or snack bar on campus,” says Fahey, who remembers making 60 cents an hour at the popular college hangout.

“And there wasn’t much in the way of tips in those days.”

The shop was owned by Gorton Jim Boyd, who also was an early owner of the Frontier Drive-In on the east edge of Chadron. Boyd’s son managed the Campus Shop for quite a while. (We know of a Gorton Jim Boyd who was City Manager in Holton, Kansas in the late ‘50s and wonder if it was the same guy.)

“We were open from about 5:30 in the morning until 10 o’clock at night, and we had a drive-in window,” remembers Fahey.

“For 10 cents, you could get an egg sandwich on a bun. Our slogan was Where Eagles Meet to Eat.”

Of course, the Campus Shop was something of a social hub, too. With a busy grill and soda fountain, it was the place to meet for a quick burger – or perhaps enjoy some soft ice cream on top of a brownie. All the while, “grooving” to music from a juke box that was stocked with all the latest tunes. The photo here -- an ad lifted from the 1950 Cardinal -- said the Campus Shop was "Famous for its 'after the game' snacks and convenient curb service. You'll find delicious sandwiches and drinks at this drive-in. These students find the Campus Shop's home-made rootbeer delicious on a warm afternoon." Not sure who the gals are, but the boys in this photo look like Jerry Richards and Lloyd Eitemiller.

Over the years, dozens – probably hundreds of high school and college kids worked at the buzzing little hangout. Fahey specifically remembered co-workers Charlene Yeradi, JoAnn Konrath and Ruth Ann Katen.

We’re aware of at least two other owners back in the ‘50s and 60s.

Red and Juanita McKnight operated the Campus Shop for a while, as did Charley and Marian “Mammy” Shumway.

Shumway's daughter, Penny, had her turn working there.

“Becky Moody and I could really clean the floors, but it’s just a wonder we didn't kill ourselves when we mixed ammonia and Clorox!”

“They (Mammy & Charley) always said it was hard work, but the best place to be,” says Penny, who now lives in Torrington, Wyoming.

“They truly loved the college kids. I know we sure had a lot of them live with us over the years!”

Batter up!

2010-04-12T17:25:00.006-06:00

Ah…..smell the popcorn…..the public address system echoes off the fences at War Memorial Baseball Park in Chadron. The music is a traditional march -- probably National City or Stars and Stripes Forever. The year: probably about 1952 or 1953. Baseball season has opened, and you should beware of the wiley West Ward crew! This may be the year they upend the Kenwood battery of Tyon and Steele. Or maybe not.

In any event, the crew shown here comprised the Ward Three baseball team – probably in about 1952. Perhaps you can confirm the year and some of the players.

On the ground, left-to-right: Michael Hoevet, LeRoy Preble, Dale Butler, UNKNOWN, and Maynard King. Standing are: Orville Preble, Cash DeFlon, UNKNOWN, Larry Moore, Bill Hoevet, Melvin White, Ron Moody, Gary Butler, Mickey Megown and Fred King. If you can offer additions or corrections, please e-mail us!

Thanks to ex-Chadronite Larry Moore of Mohave Valley, Arizona, for sharing this great old photo with us. You can get a closer look at the photo above, along with other old Chadron area photos in our Photo Gallery.

Remembering teachers past

2010-03-31T10:30:00.004-06:00

As Chadron celebrates its 125th anniversary next summer, there’ll be an abundance of school reunions. It'll be an opportunity to rekindle many memories -- including those of teachers at Chadron High, Chadron Assumption and Chadron Prep. If you have photos or information about teachers of the mid-20th century....or earlier....E-Mail us. Thanks.
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GLENN MASTERS was on the staff at Chadron High School as the Vocational Agriculture instructor in the 1954-1959 period. He then returned to the university in Lincoln on a fellowship to obtain an advanced degree in agricultural economics.

That stirred memories of his childhood as a Garden County farm boy in the 1930s and the suffering that his parents endured through years of severe drought and economic depression. So he was motivated to find a job where he could better use his new skills toward improving the economic and general welfare of rural populations.

His search led him to a career with the Bureau of Reclamation.

“The bureau specialized in capturing runoff from the mountains each year to provide water for irrigation, municipal and industrial needs, and hydro-electric power generation with the releases from storage powering the turbines,” says Masters, who found himself in Grand Island for a couple of years, then the Pacific northwest, and finally Denver.

That’s where his responsibilities put him in touch with all the bureau planning activities for 17 western states.

“I feel very fortunate to have had nearly forty years in public service, including my time in Chadron.”

Glenn and his wife, Dorothy, live in Littleton, Colorado.

Four score and two years ago...

2010-03-25T23:35:00.014-06:00

Browsing through the 1928 Milestone yearbook from Chadron High School has been been a delight!

The hair styles and dapper attire of these pre-Depression-era students at CHS were definitely from another era. But reading the "farewell messages" offered by the graduates of that year seemed remarkably contemporary. We remember similar quotations inscribed in yearbooks from the 1950s and '60s. It seems that some things just don't change.

“Love is too simple a game for brainy men to indulge in,” wrote Harold Thompson.

Ann McDaniels, whose extracurricular activities included a role in the Class Play of 1928, offered “Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.”

But our favorite – and one often likely repeated in yearbooks over the years – was from football player Roscoe Godden. “The reason I don’t study is that my questions baffle the teachers."

Baffled and otherwise, teachers at CHS had to not only ride heard on their students, they also had to toe the line for superintendent James Skinkle, a graduate of the University of Chicago and long-time CHS superintendent. We suspect Mr. Skinkle was long gone from this earth before most of us roamed the streets of Chadron, but many of you may recall his widow, Ethel, a longtime housemother at Crites Hall at Chadron State College.

Mr. Skinkle and all the faculty were beholden to the folks shown here: the elected members of the school board. Click on the image at right from the 1928 Milestone, and you'll get a closer look at them.

Perhaps some of you recall these community leaders. We recognize only attorney F.A. Crites (top left) and businessman F.A. Hood (bottom right). And it's not surprising that David A. Hood – whom we remember as a 1952 grad of Chadron High School – looked exactly like his father, Fred, who ran an insurance company from his home at 3rd and Main Street for many years.

Please e-mail us or leave a Comment below if you can offer additional information about these or other school board members from 1928.

Remembering teachers past

2010-03-24T16:37:00.011-06:00

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Elmer Dudden taught Vocational Agriculture for three years at Chadron High School (1959-1962) and then returned to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

While there, he received an M.S. in Public Administration with a minor in history. In 1965, he began teaching at Lookout Mountain School in Golden, Colorado, a correctional school for delinquent teenage youth. He worked in the Vocational Department there for 27 years. During that time, he married, became a father, and used his free time to build four or five houses.

Retired since 1992, he and his wife, Elaine, continue to live in Golden with a grandchild, Kimberly. They live on a five-acre ranch with four horses. They bought the horses so that two granddaughters could participate in Westernaires, a precision riding group that performs at the national Western Stock Show and regional events.

He is active in both Lions and Optimists service clubs and has served on the local Water District Board for over 20 years. He says he’s also been active in conservative politics. Mr. Dudden says his health is still very good, and he feels blessed for many things – including his experience at Chadron High School. He says he’d enjoy a phone call or visit from any FFA students who were in his classes.

Remembering teachers past

2010-03-16T10:49:00.014-06:00

Robert “Bob” Folsom taught music at Chadron High School from 1956 through 1958.

Born in Minnesota, his family moved to Chadron, and he was a 1943 graduate of Chadron High School. During World War II, he served in the Army, but we know nothing about his tour of duty. He returned to Chadron and earned a degree from Chadron State in 1949 – later picking up a Master’s in Music Education from the University of Nebraska.

Besides Chadron, he taught in Ravenna, Nebraska; Trinidad and Brighton, Colorado; and Lewellen, Nebraska. His longest tenure was in Benkelman, Nebraska, where he headed the music program for many years. Folsom married “Modie” (Pack) Wood in 1965 and they happily shared a home until 1999, when health required that he be moved to a nursing home in North Platte.

An avid model railroad enthusiast and amateur radio control pilot, Folsom was also a member of the Benkelman Methodist Church, the Lions Club and American Legion.

According to the Benkelman Post, Bob Folsom died in July of 2000 and was survived by his wife, four daughters and a son, as well as two brothers, a sister, and 15 grandchildren.

"Speck" Brown dies at 71

2010-02-24T17:42:00.010-07:00

Another well-known alum from the 1950s at Chadron High School has died.

Ronald Louis Brown died last Friday (2/19/10) at his home in Montgomery, Illinois, a suburban community just west of Chicago. He was 71 years old.

Ron was born in Chadron to Charles and Hazel Brown on March 21, 1938.

“Speck” was a four-year letterman in football and basketball during the mid-1950s at Chadron High and served as Vice-President of the Junior class in 1954-55. Long-time Chadron writer Con Marshall remembered that "All three Chadron basketball teams won district championships, but only Chadron High reached the state tournament. The Cardinals won the Class B district title by beating Bridgeport 69-38 after losing to the Bulldogs 67-66 the week before and downing Bayard 58-49 after falling to the Tigers 83-63 in February. Chadron then topped Valentine 55-54 in the regional playoff. Coached by Verne Lewellen, it was the Cards’ first trip to state since 1933. At state, Hebron beat Chadron 56-50 as the Cards made just half of their 32 free throws."

A 1956 graduate of Chadron High School, "Speck” was among the handfull of varsity basketball players who also coached 5th and 6th graders, and he called his team the “Wildcats.” Both “Speck” and his older brother Clayton were athletes and well known throughout the community. You'll find a Ron Brown in several of the photographs we've posted in our Chadron Public Schools Photo Gallery.

According to his obituary, Ron did a tour with Army Special Forces after high school. He later went to work in the automotive industry.

Ron Brown was preceded in death by his daughter, Valerie Nicholson; his sister, Ermel Brown; and his parents. He is survived by his wife, Beatrice, and children: Kimberly (Les) Fugate and Victor Davidson; four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Also surviving are his brother Clayton Brown and sister Marjorie Williams.

Read Ron Brown’s obituary in the on-line Chadron Record.

Chadron women named Honorary Mayors

2010-02-17T21:34:00.011-07:00

Every year, a fairly good-sized group of former Chadron area residents gather for a luncheon and get-together in Mesa, Arizona. Long-time friend and retired newspaper guy Mike Smith is a regular attendee of Chadron Area Reunions (CAR) and provided the Chadron Record with the following story. He has kindly allowed us to use the story on High Plains Almanac. You'll find additional photos from the event in our photo gallery for the Chadron Area Reunion.

By Mike Smith

Evelyn Roberts and Lois Christensen, Chadron residents until they retired to Arizona in the mid-1990s, were recognized Saturday, February 6, as “Honorary Mayors” of Chadron for the day for their decades-long contributions in the Chadron area.

Chadron Mayor Donald Grantham issued proclamations and certificates of appreciation for their service and good-neighbor achievements. The documents were presented – to their surprise – at the annual Chadron Area Reunion in Mesa, Arizona.

Mrs. Christensen was born in Chadron in 1919 and celebrated her 90th birthday December 27. She ranched with her late husband Franklin and family most of her life. Mrs. Roberts, now 95, moved to Chadron in 1928 as a youngster and ranched with her late husband Vic near the Christensens, 15 miles north of Chadron below the South Dakota border.

Family members attending were Mrs. Roberts’ brother-in-law Bob Roberts and his wife Barb of Mesa, and Mrs. Christensen’s son Ron Christensen and his wife Sonya, and her daughter Jerrie Roberts.

The reunion drew 37 former or current Chadron area residents.

The next day, Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope of Chadron State College were hosts at a CSC reunion in Sun City, Arizona. Their event attracted 17. Mrs. Rasmussen is executive director of the Chadron State Foundation; Mrs. Pope is director of CSC Alumni and Giving.

Attending the Chadron State reunion:

Rich and Micki Seiwert, and Harold and Daisy Mundschenk, Sun City West, AZ; Marcella Warren, Peoria, AZ; Carl and Diane McManis, Goodyear, AZ; Fred and Delores Fisher, Surprise, AZ; Maria Daniels, Darrell Dedic, and Mike and Jo Smith, Sun City, AZ; Cash and Deanna Franklin, Gering, NE; and Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope, Chadron.

Attending the Chadron Area Reunion:

Evelyn Roberts, Ron and Sonya Christensen, and Lois Christensen, Tempe, AZ; Bob and Barb Roberts, Clayton Luther, Wilma Quelle, Hank Reitz, Brian Wadsworth, Bill and DeeDee Smith, and Dick and Sharon Colacino, Mesa, AZ; Dorothy Gregson and Jack and Lora Miller, Apache Junction, AZ; Jerrie Roberts, and Larman and Olga Wilson, Phoenix, AZ; Ron and Cheryl Moody, Chandler, AZ; Joan Van Sant Shoop and Will Louis, and Harold and Daisy Mundschenk, Sun City West, AZ; Fred and Delores Fisher, Surprise, AZ; Mike and Jo Smith, Sun City, AZ; Harold and Norma Lee Perkins, Sidney, NE; Charles and Marge Finley, Sutton, NE; Caryle Colerich, Farmington, NM; and Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope, Chadron.

Who's in First?

2010-01-19T16:35:00.034-07:00

Floanne "Bunny" Apa Nitsch was kind enough to share this First Grade photograph taken at East Ward school in about 1951. It's the latest of several class photographs we've begun collecting from Chadron Public Schools over the years.

Many of these youngsters went on to graduate with the CHS Class of 1963. Teacher Myrtle Forbes is standing at right. You'll likely need to click on the photo to see a larger image, or you can visit our Chadron Public Schools Gallery and select an even larger image from the menu.

We need help identifying many of these folks. So send us an e-mail with your thoughts, or you can just leave them in the Comments link below this posting. Those who can be identified include:

Front Row (left-to-right): Ron Wilkinson, Jolene Byerly, David Hood, Janie Irish, ?, Jim Coleman, Junie Clark, Don Richardson, Tom Saults, and ?;

Middle Row: Pam Peterson, ?, Janice Adkins, Floanne Apa, Jerry Bauman, Barbara Haag, Cy Hall, Judy Gatzmeyer;

Back Row: Bob Doell, ?, ?, ?, Linda Strom, Bob Sewell, Dianna Marcinkiewicz, Rick Carlson, Pam Jones and Lois Sloniker.

Visitor from Pepper Creek Ranch

2010-01-16T10:56:00.012-07:00

We’ve been fascinated with family history for a long time.

Thanks largely to a burgeoning sector of gray-haired baby boomers, genealogy remains one of the fastest growing hobbies in the country. Computers have become an invaluable resource, and reams of new data are added every week.

Much to our chagrin, we’ve come to learn that not everyone shares our passionate yearning to know more about our ancestors. Young people, particularly, seem almost immune to contracting this affliction, but many will eventually succumb.

Some time back, we happened across this poem, Visitor, penned by Chadron native Jill (Colwell) Burkey. Jill's piece Pregunta won first place in the 2009 Denver Woman’s Press Club’s Unknown Writer’s Poetry Contest. But it was her honorable mention entry, Visitor, that really caught our attention. We were moved when we heard her read it, and she has graciously allowed us to share her poem here. You need not be a genealogist to appreciate the truism that it conveys.

Visitor

When you are a child, you assume
you will go on never knowing anyone
who rests beneath a sad stone.
Death is before your time –
just a name and date your parents visit.

Then one day in June, you’re thirty-four,
buy a dozen light-pink roses
and deliver the better part of your bouquet
to the cluster of graves that is now your family –
the grandpa who called you "frizzletop,"
the great aunt who always served dilled beans.

So much history in too little ground,
but there they are, mingling
at a permanent cocktail party, sitting
two by two on a long car trip,
a tall dandelion the groundskeepers missed
now an arm waving to you out the window.

The four leftover roses you bring home
wilt by your windowsill, and you begin
to feel the wheel on the watch turn
towards your generation, the engraver’s
chisel itching to scratch your name.

--Jill Burkey

Jill grew up on Pepper Creek Ranch, twenty-two miles south and eight miles east of Chadron. Her great-grandparents, Earle and Jeannette Colwell, founded the ranch in 1915.

A 1990 graduate of Chadron High School, Jill went on to earn a BA in English and Business at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She married Todd Burkey, and they moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, where she is now a freelance writer and stay-at-home mother of two elementary-aged children, Parker, 8, and Brooke, 6.

That’s Jill and family in the photograph at right. Just click on the image to see a larger version.

Many old-timers will remember Mr. and Mrs. Bill Colwell, who ran the Pepper Creek Ranch for many years. The Colwells were also involved in a wide range civic affairs in the region. Their son John Colwell – Jill’s father – was a 1961 graduate of Chadron High School, and that class is planning a reunion next summer (July 2010) in Chadron. John and Peggy were quite well known in and around Chadron for many years. They now divide their time between Grand Junction, Colorado and Arizona.

Many thanks to Jill Burkey for sharing this great poem – and photographs – with us.

A blast from the past: Colacino's

2010-01-02T22:34:00.013-07:00

Ask almost anyone who grew up in northwest Nebraska in the mid-20th century about Colacino’s, and you’ll see a smile emerge – along with lots of memories!

Really old-timers will recall when the place was known as Kelso’s Pavilion. It was located along U.S. Highway 20 about two miles east of Chadron.

No one seems to know for sure when the pavilion was built, but it was likely sometime between World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s by Art and Nels Kelso. And it wasn’t just a single-story, frame dance hall. There once was a swimming pool, a bath house, observation deck, and even a boat pond!

We first remember the popular dance hall from the late 1940s, when Tony and Nancy Colacino bought the pavilion, according to their son, Dick, who now lives in California. By that time, the pool and pond were gone, but the pavilion was still a jumping place with lots of live entertainment – bands that came from all across the region, and eager patrons that would drive in from across the panhandle, Wyoming, and South Dakota.

“A lot of soldiers came up from Fort Robinson,” remembers Colacino.

Nancy and Tony Colacino had operated the White Lunch café in downtown Chadron for several years after World War II. That business was located on the west side of First & Main Street, just south of where a Safeway store had once been located. H & R Block bought the café building in the 1950s, and Colacinos opened up a supper club adjacent to their dance pavilion east of town. This is an aerial photograph of the supper club, taken in 1953.

In its day, the supper club was a one-of-a-kind in the area, and it was a very popular place. Among their regular customers was prominent banker C.F. Coffee and his wife. We’re told that sometimes the club would open early, just for them. In any event, Colacino Supper Club established its own large clientele – somewhat different customers than those who showed up on weekends for a good, sometimes even rowdy, time at the pavilion!

We’ve posted a few higher resolution photographs of the pavilion and supper club in our Early Chadron gallery. Our thanks to Dick Colacino and his daughter and son-in-law, Tina and Kevin Stopper, for giving us access to the aerial photograph of the old Colacino business.

After her mother died, young Mary Colacino operated the supper club with her father, and the business continued uninterrupted until the summer of 1965.

That’s when Colacinos sold the business to Harold and Norma Miller, who had previously owned the 120 Bar in downtown Chadron. They later tore down the supper club but continued having dances and other events at the pavilion. According to a 1985 news story in the Chadron Record, the building was later sold to the Nixons.

In later years, the pavilion was painted pink and was popularly-known as the Pink Panther. It continued to be a site for weekend dances. By the mid-1970s, Gil and Roger Nitsch owned the property, and they converted the venerable old hall into a pig barn.

Alas, in 1985, the roof collapsed and the structure was tore down. Colacinos was no more.

No more dancing, no more squealings;
we’re left with just nostalgic feelings.

Radio guys had impact on AFRTS

2009-12-20T15:41:00.007-07:00

For some 70 years, the Armed Forces Radio Service -- now known as the American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) -- has provided information and entertainment to U.S. military personnel around the world. Technology, of course, has remarkably reshaped the service, which in 2009 delivers programs on a variety of platforms with greater technical sophistication. But its audience has always valued AFRTS, even when it was a scratchy AM radio service in the gloomy, early days of World War II. From crude mobile stations in Europe to small makeshift operations on isolated islands in the south Pacific, Armed Forces Radio brought music, comedy, culture and news to military personnel. Back then, it was about the only real method for giving GIs overseas a taste of home.

Given its longevity and rich history, It’s no big surprise that thousands of broadcasters over the years gained their first real experience in radio and television with AFRTS.

We had the privilege of working with two men who had a big impact upon AFRTS. And both had strong ties to KCSR in Chadron, Nebraska.

Bill Finch – in the years following his selling KCSR to the Huse Publishing Company (licensee of WJAG in Norfolk) in 1959 – eventually landed in Colorado Springs, where he produced and hosted a local big band radio program. We don’t know how the program came to the attention of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, but by the late 1960s, Finch was flying to Hollywood periodically to produce a big band music program called “Finch’s Bandwagon.” This photo shows him visiting with an unidentified Army officer (at left) in an AFRTS production room. Finch's shows were tape recorded and then pressed to audio discs for distribution to stations around the world. These programs aired for a several years on AFRTS and were quite popular with G.I.s around the globe.

The other photo (below right) shows Finch during a recording session with band leader and entrepreneur Lawrence Welk, one of dozens legendary musicians he interviewed for the program.

Unfortunately, we don’t know what’s happened to Bill Finch. A few long-time Colorado broadcasters say they remember him, and they think he moved to North or South Carolina. Alas, efforts to locate him have been unsuccessful.

We remember Finch as a laid back guy with loads of talent. He seems to have vanished from the broadcasting world, and we're not certain he's even still alive.

If Finch was laid back and creative, Bob Thomas was probably a better businessman -- someone who was conservative and paid attention to details. Bob was General Manager of WJAG in Norfolk, Nebraska for many years. In 1958-59, he orchestrated the purchase of KCSR in Chadron for the Huse “Beef Empire Stations.”

During World War II, Thomas was assigned as Officer-in-Charge of the Armed Forces Radio Service shortwave branch in San Francisco, beaming programs to G.I.s across the South Pacific and other regions of the world. It was impressive that the top brass picked a small market Nebraska broadcaster to take on this huge task – a decided compliment to Bob and his achievements at WJAG.

In this photograph, Thomas is seated at his desk in San Francisco. The other two gents are not identified. Thomas once recounted for us how the War Department, at the end of World War II, planned to close down the AFRS operation in New York City. Although his hitch in the Army was about to end, Thomas was sent to New York to begin the closure process. he was soon discharged and went home to Nebraska, only to learn some months later that the War Department actually closed down AFRS San Francisco instead, keeping the New York operation open for several more years. Such are the ways of the military.

It’s been many years since we’ve visited with Bob Thomas. In the 1970s, he was instrumental in helping us write a history of AFRTS as an MS thesis at Iowa State University. Last we knew, he had re-located to the warmer climate of Arizona in retirement. Finch and Thomas had distinctly different approaches to broadcasting and management, but each -- in his own way -- left an indelible mark on this broadcaster and, we believe, on the radio business.

Many memories...

2009-12-14T22:03:00.008-07:00

In preparing for a class reunion next summer (July 2010) we’ve been chatting with lots of old classmates – some of whom we’ve not seen for about a half a century. While each of us has memories of specific incidents that may not connect with others, it’s always fun when we happen across common ground. Like the “walkout” of 1961.

Almost everyone remembers it, but each of us remembers slightly different versions. Therein lies the fun…..in trying to connect the dots….er, years……in a way that makes some sense of those diverging memories.

Another bit of common ground is found when we talk about teachers and administrators. Fortunately, many of us tend to forget the poor or nondescript teacher -- there were a few -- but we have more vivid memories of the ones who impacted our lives in some positive way.

And everyone remembers Mr. Schroeder.

Superintendent of Chadron Public Schools for some 20 years, there’s lots we never really knew about H. A. Schroeder – or “Heinie” as he was known to all the grown-ups. Oh, sure, a few knew about his legendary office paddle, and most of us -- at least the boys -- were impressed with his ability to kick a football to the top of the school building. But we really didn't know much about the man.

After he retired from public education and moved back to eastern Nebraska in 1971, most Chadron High School graduates from his era were off making a living in esoteric places like Rawlins, Alliance, Hyannis, Oelrichs, Rapid City, and even Denver and Omaha!

So by the time Con Marshall wrote an excellent story about Schroeder for the Chadron Record, most of us weren’t around to enjoy it. Let’s correct that here.

With Con Marshall’s blessing, we’re pleased to offer you this news feature from 1982, Schroeders...Many Memories.

A few radio memories...

2009-11-23T18:50:00.011-07:00

KCSR Radio had been on the air for only about one year when they placed this display advertisement in the Chadron Record. It included the full weekly program schedule for the 250-watt AM radio station, the first in the far northern reaches of the Nebraska panhandle.

Many of the same programs were still on the air four years later when the Community Service Radio Corporation -- owned by Bob Fouse and Bill Finch -- sold the station to the Beef Empire Stations owned by the Huse Publishing Company out of Norfolk, Nebraska.

You'll find a larger, easier to read version of this schedule, along with a collection of photographs from some of the earlier days of KCSR Radio, by visiting our KCSR Gallery.

Ex-KCSR GM honored in Colorado

2009-11-02T21:22:00.009-07:00

We’re not the swiftest of messengers, but we do like to share good news about folks who’ve been a part of the Chadron community over the years.

Many of you will remember Jack Miller, a native of Norfolk who moved to Chadron in 1959 to be manager of KCSR Radio. His wife Connie was a nurse for many years at the Chadron Community Hospital, and they both had a big impact on Chadron for the decade or so that they were in the community.

So it was with pride that we wrote a note on our Radio-TV Journal site about having lunch and visiting with Jack and another KCSR veteran, Don Grant, while we were in Fort Collins earlier this year.

Both Jack and Don had come out of WJAG Radio in Norfolk, the oldest licensed radio station in Nebraska. Don returned to Norfolk in short order, but Jack remained in Chadron, becoming involved in a wide range of civic activities, including a long tenure on the hospital board.

Jack and Don were only two of several ex-KCSR staffers who migrated to KCOL radio in Fort Collins in the 1970s. Veteran newsman John DeHaes and programmer Wil Huett both landed there, too. DeHaes had worked for the Chadron Record before switching to broadcast news with stints at KCSR and later at KMMJ in Grand Island. Huett – if memory serves me correctly – had come out of southeast Iowa, perhaps the Keokuk area – before arriving in Chadron.

Of course, they’re all gone from the Chadron scene, but Jack Miller – no relation to yours truly – made quite a splash with Colorado broadcasters. Two years ago, he was named to their Colorado Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Hence, my opening apology for a long delay in acknowledging that recognition.

Jack Miller and Don Grant are retired in Fort Collins, as are – I believe – John DeHaes and Wil Huett. Both John and Wil are widowers. John married a bit later in life to Lorraine Ford, mother of JoAnne and Laurie Ford, Chadron High graduates from the early 1960s.

This posting was spurred by the video tribute to Jack Miller that we found on the worldwide web. We've archived it below. Simply click on the arrow at the bottom left of the image box to see the video. If you watch closely, you can catch a glimpse of John DeHaes, too.

A belated tip of the hat…again…. to Jack Miller!

Take me back to the ball game

2009-10-12T16:57:00.020-06:00

In the early 1950’s around Chadron – and lots of other communities, I suspect – town kids spent lots of time every summer on baseball diamonds.

That baseball was the American pastime there was no doubt. When we weren’t on the field playing Ward, Midget, or Junior Legion ball, we were gathering for afternoon scrimmages on any lot big enough to accommodate the game. One of our favorite spots was an empty field immediately east of what is now the Miller Building on the Chadron State College campus. These days, that field is occupied by the Reta King Library.

Occasionally, we’d retreat to backyards and improvise a bit with practice golf balls and makeshift bats. We called it “cotton ball,” although it was known by other names, too. Big city kids called it “stick ball.” I remember two types of balls used: one was a foam rubber sphere; the other was a hardened, perforated plastic ball. I preferred the foam rubber ball, which could be more easily manipulated for a wide range of strange pitches from exaggerated curves to drastic dropballs!

Summer evenings were especially fun when there was a Chadron Elks baseball game. The young men and old-timers who comprised this team in the 1950s was a diverse group of guys who shared one common love: baseball. That team deserves a separate story at a later time! From pre-game music over the speaker system to the public address announcing by Walter Hampton – summer fun was in the air, rich with the smell of freshly-popped popcorn - and baseball!

Perched on outfield fenceposts, we kids bided our time, waiting to retrieve the frequent foul balls or homeruns. This was not only a way to see the game – but we were also providing something of a service to team. After all, baseballs didn’t grow on trees, and the 10 cents reward for returned balls could net an industrious kid a buck or two! Few kids who were as adept at chasing and finding foul balls as Kenny Connors, a Prepster whose achievements in the realm of foul-ball chasing were almost legendary. As he confided to me some decades later, it was also a way to occasionally replenish one’s own supply of baseballs. After all, we had to have something to play with when we gathered for our afternoon games.

Another baseball-related cottage industry that kept us off the streets and out of trouble, usually, was collecting and trading baseball cards. Of course, this was a hobby in which anyone could participate, and it was great fun. These were chewing gum cards -- popular long after the tobacco card collectibles of the early 1900s.

I was fortunate enough to team up with Lawrence (Larry) Denton, an older friend, who was a savvy collector and shrewd enough to effectively negotiate the swapping of two Bob Keegan cards for a more valuable Jim Hegan card.

Our big year in the baseball card game was 1953. I was 10 years old. Lawrence and I had bought lots of Topps chewing gum at the Newsy Nook that summer, parlaying a formidable inventory of cards. For each 5 cent-package, the purchaser got five cards – and some really bad gum. Those were the days before parents and merchandisers got into the game, selling and buying entire collections in one fell swoop – snatching from kids the joy we found in collecting and trading cards.

Like so many other things in life, new generation parents want their kids to have everything now, rather than working for it over time. Is it any wonder we’ve seen a whole generation of kids grow up who want and expect to buy a new home while still in their 20s!

With the promise that I would never sell or give away the fruits of our 1953 labors, I kept our card collection neatly tucked away in a cigar box (probably belonging to an old Denton family boarder named Jim York) for decades. In recent years, I’ve moved the cards to a binder that allows me to occasionally revel in the collection, remembering the many happy hours we spent buying, selling, and swapping cards. But our collection is still not complete.

Anybody have a #46 Johnny Klippstein?

Dale Butler tapped for Hall of Fame

2009-08-02T09:29:00.007-06:00

Frequently, as I struggle across the golf course and mumble a few curses at my ineptness at the game, I resort to a bit of weak humor.

“They should call this game “If,” I proclaim.

“If only my slice had kicked in, I’d still be in the fairway.”

“If my putt had been just a tad longer, I’d have had a par.”

“If Jim hadn’t interrupted my concentration, that could’ve been a nice drive.”

If, if, if, if.

It’s often a crutch we use to escape the reality of the situation – but it’s not all bad.

Perhaps its real strength is when we use our minds to conjure up possibilities – and then muster the fortitude and commitment to accomplish something. And, doing it without mourning the circumstances of our situation.

I think Dale Butler epitomizes this.

A classmate of mine, Dale was born with just one full arm and a “stub” for the other. I suppose this was a defining fact when I first met Dale as a kid growing up in Chadron, Nebraska. But that limited view didn’t last long.

Kids seem to have a knack of quickly getting beyond the small stuff and focusing on what counts. And for those of us who loved sports, it wasn’t which neighborhood you lived in, or the color of your skin, …or how many arms you had. It was: can you play the game?

Dale was an exceptional athlete. And while I suppose it’s natural to speculate about how great he’d have been with two arms, I’m here to tell you he was great with one arm! And I don’t think any of us who grew up with Dale thought of him as “handicapped” in any way. We thought of him as, well, Dale. In sandlot baseball “workup” games, I remember Dale being among the first choices for a teammate.

Each of us is motivated in different ways. As a kid, I was competitive and worked hard to be as good a basketball player as Larry Matthesen, one of the best ball handlers and shooters ever to come out of Chadron High. I suspect Dale may have been motivated in his own way to achieve excellence.

Perhaps the most important factor in shaping our character is our parents. Dale was blessed with a nuturing home life. I’m certain that parental vision, strength, and commitment helped Dale Butler and his brothers to succeed – not just in sandlot baseball and neighborhood basketball games – but in life.

And Dale has certainly done that.

While many of us have been sports spectators perched in front of our television sets after work, Dale has been active officiating basketball, football, and baseball games over the past four decades. Good friend Con Marshall has crafted this excellent story about Dale’s recent selection to the Nebraska Athletic Hall of Fame. It’s just one measure of Dale’s success. We’re happy to have been a part of his early years, and we’ve admired his many accomplishments in education, business, and life!

Warm congratulations are due Dale for his accomplishments. Well done, good friend, and best wishes to you, Carol, and your family!

It seems like just yesterday...

2009-07-13T18:37:00.005-06:00

She may not have been there in person, but the spirit of Margo Means was palpable last weekend at a school reunion in Chadron. It was a joint gathering of students who graduated from Chadron High School in 1958 and 1959.

We had a chance to sneak in to the informal outdoor “picnic” at the home of Cleo Steele Koerber (’58) on Friday evening, hosted by Cleo and her brother, Ben (’59). Despite a thunderstorm – replete with some marble-sized hail – the event was a real success, with folks ducking onto the patio and into the house and garage. It was a pleasurable gathering for attendees to get reacquainted.

Amidst the hugging, conversations, and laughter, we also saw a few tears of joy. Such is the way of classmates who’ve not seen or talked with one another for years – even decades! We snapped a few photos at the event and posted them in our CHS 58-59 Gallery.

Reunions don't just "happen." Lots of obvious hard work went in to planning and executing this one, and we suspect that hometowners Cleo Steele Koerber and Barb Barnum McDaniel from the Class of 1958 and Judy Dau Blundell and Con Marshall from the Class of 1959 led the way. What helped make this reunion particularly special was a terrific informational booklet compiled, produced and distributed by none other than Con Marshall (’59). We’ve all seen similar publications for family or school gatherings – but none like this. With photographs, contact information, and dozens of great anecdotes from reunion participants, this is a collector’s item for any Chadronite from the 1950s!

Scanning through my booklet, I began to notice a pattern emerging. These people really appreciated Chadron High School and most of their teachers. And one name kept popping up repeatedly – Margo Means. Of course, Con quickly noted this trend and wisely wrote about Margo in the booklet, injecting portions of an article he had written about her nearly 40 years ago.

Teachers do make a difference in the lives of their students. Some teachers make a BIG difference. I was touched by the fact that so many memories of Margo Means emerged independently from so many people. She was no pushover. Words like “tough,” “old school,” and “no nonsense” come to mind. But so do words like “understanding,” “student oriented,” and even “compassionate.” To be sure, we all had our favorite teachers, and it appears Mrs. Means was right at the top of the list for many. After her five-year stint at Chadron High School, she taught for another 11 years at Chadron State College and married CSC Business Manager Paul McCawley in 1964.

Chadron is always a busy place during Fur Trade Days. We suspect there were lots of reunion gatherings of old friends in homes, restaurants, bars and parks around town Friday night. Saturday was the really busy day with lots of things planned around Fur Trade Days. Our CHS alumni folks gathered at 9:30 Friday morning to visit some more before climbing aboard a flatbed truck captained by Orville Dau – husband to Judy Blundell Dau (’59) – as part of the Fur Trade Days parade. As modern day parades in rural America go, it wasn’t bad. But with an apparent shortage of marching bands, crepe paper floats, and teenage ingenuity, it fell far short of parades a half century ago. I mean, how many tractors, riding lawn mowers, and old cars does it take to “make” a parade these days?

After the parade broke up, attendees were left to their own devices, but we saw many wandering around the Fur Trade Days booths on the courthouse grounds. More than a few people sampled the tasty desserts on the lawn just outside the Congregational Church. I believe others explored new exhibits at the impressive Dawes County Museum south of town. And almost everyone “dragged Main Street” to see just how much things had changed. Chadron Prep alums were also in town over the weekend, too, so there was an opportunity to visit with some of the “Junior Eagles.”

Alas, we did not attend the CHS evening banquet at the old Legion Club, but we understand that good friends and former teachers Ron and Jane Becker drove in from Sioux Falls for the event. LaVona Smith Lemmons and her husband, Larry, came from North Platte to join the festivities, too. Another former teacher and coach, Verne Lewellen, had hoped to attend, but was undergoing rabies treatment as a result of an altercation with a cat some time back. He and Erma live in Mitchell, Nebraska.

We’re told the Legion Club gathering went off without a hitch – lots of good food and some great story telling. All in all, it was an excellent ending for a wonderful reunion weekend.

It’s worth mentioning that a dozen or so CHS alums toured the old school Saturday afternoon. Many commented on just how good the three-story structure looks after all these years. Of course, there’ve been some major renovations – but enough remains of the old building to evoke lots of memories. There’s no auditorium in the building – now used as the Middle School – but as you walk the halls, you can almost hear the class bells ringing and leather slapping the floor as late-comers race to class.

And perhaps even the ominous echo of Principal Jim Myers – after squinting his eyes while gazing upon some tomfoolery in a classroom – admonishing us with:

“Nothing to do?..........Don’t do it here!”

Wayne Jones (1944-2009)

2009-07-08T01:48:00.009-06:00

Life-long Chadron resident and good friend Wayne Jones has died (7/4/09) at age 65. He passed away at the Chadron Community Hospital following a four-year battle with respiratory problems.

Wayne graduated from Chadron High School in 1962 and Chadron State College in 1966. He chose to stay in the community and raise his children there. Recognized as a successful teacher and administrator, he worked in the Chadron Public Schools for some 33 years – 21 of them as principal at Chadron High School.

Wayne grew up on a ranch about 13 miles northeast of Chadron along White River. I always had an interest in his home place, since it was there that my mother – Lettie (Maiden) Miller – was born and raised a generation earlier. Several times, Wayne graciously offered to give me a tour of the ranch when I was back in Chadron; alas, that tour would never take place.

Details about Wayne’s passing were included in this news story written by Con Marshall for the Chadron Record. Wayne's obituary appears in the Record as well.

Con’s story recounts how Wayne never abandoned his farm background. He was apparently the last CHS graduate to earn the State Farmer degree awarded by the Future Farmers of America. He routinely returned to the family ranch to help with calving and other chores.

We had last visited with Wayne and his wife, Suze, two years ago when the CHS Class of 1962 had its reunion. We posted several pictures from that gathering, including some of Wayne, in a reunion photo gallery.

Wayne’s leadership transcended education. He was active in the community and served as a member of the Chadron Community Hospital Board of Directors for more than two decades. While we knew of these and many other endeavors by Wayne over the years, we didn’t know about his organizing the Christmas lighting project at Finnegan Park.

Wayne and Suze lived near the park, and he apparently played a key role in helping turn the park into a “holiday showplace,” as Con described it. Having spent much time playing in that park as a youngster, I have a special fondness for it. While it’s too late to express my appreciation to Wayne for this deed, I’m making it a point to join others in visiting Finnegan Park next Christmas. And then I’ll remember – and thank -- our good friend Wayne Jones for his many contributions to the kids of Chadron and the entire community.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Suze Jones, daughters Heidi and Heather, and the entire Jones family. Wayne was a class act and will be missed sorely by the Chadron community and all who knew him.

A walk in the woods

2009-05-24T01:21:00.004-06:00

During a late night Skype conversation with brother John in San Diego this week (5/23/09), he shared the news that a 4.7 earthquake had shaken central California east of Fresno earlier in the day.

This bit of natural disaster news got me to wondering: whatever happened to King’s Chair, the huge boulder that once sat atop one of the pine hills just south of Chadron State College? Did tremors from an earthquake cause it to roll down the hill and crumble into pieces? Was it viewed as a safety hazard and demolished to keep some wanton waif from falling off and cracking his head open? Or, perhaps time simply weathered it down bit-by-bit, and my aging eyes just can’t discern it anymore?!

These are some of the grave questions I occasionally ponder whenever I’m thinking about Chadron or heading back there for a visit. Since I wasn’t able to see the landmark when last I visited Chadron, the above questions started percolating in my mind. I simply refuse to believe that my wits have teamed up with my vision and have taken leave of my body……but that’s probably more plausible than the other possibilities.

Lots of Chadron kids used to trek around in those hills – and perhaps still do, although many homes, including those in “Hidden Valley,” have encroached upon much of the terrain.

John and I enjoyed reminiscing about a few noteworthy places scattered through those hills. There was Koske Dam, Sacrifice Cave, Blue Rock Cave, and another some of us used to call Paradise Valley.

One of my buddies – I don’t know who – snapped this photo more than 50 years ago at the entrance to Blue Rock Cave. Lawrence Denton is atop the cave, and I’m next to the entry. Alas, that might’ve been my final encounter with Blue Rock Cave, since my attempted pilgrimage back to the cave some years later was a real bust. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, I was going to show my son one of “my special places” where I played as a kid. Kind of a “rite of passage” thing. So we put on our hiking shoes and headed for the hills. Two hours later, we had traipsed over C Hill, scaled King’s Chair, hiked to the “new” water tank, and visited what I remembered as Paradise Valley. Sacrifice Cave was beyond my endurance, so we didn’t even try that.

But the centerpiece of the hike was to be Blue Rock Cave. We covered a lot of ground that day, but we (I) never found the cave. I suspect my now 41-year-old son wonders if there really is such a place – or ever was.

Let the above photo serve as evidence that there really was such a place – and I was there! Unfortunately, my stint in the Junior Forest Rangers Club was brief, and my navigational skills slipped away over the years, and Blue Rock Cave was never again found – by me, anyway.

Perhaps I’ll take a GPS unit next time. At least I’ll know where I am when I don’t find the cave.

Andrew Carnegie to the rescue

2009-05-15T00:37:00.007-06:00

While rummaging through a box of old photographs and letters belonging to an aunt who lives in Wyoming, I happened across an unused postcard emblazoned with this image of the Chadron Public Library.

Built in 1912 at 512 Bordeaux in Chadron, its design is comparable to many libraries across the country that were funded in whole or part by Andrew Carnegie. A wealthy industrialist from Scotland, his successful steel business in Pittsburgh eventually evolved into U.S. Steel. He was responsible for more than 3,000 libraries across the United States alone -- others were in Canada, Scotland, Australia, and elsewhere.

Like other recipients of Carnegie's benevolence, Chadron had to provide both a site and ample operating money for the facility, which they've done over the years. The library had a major renovation in 1964. As it approaches a century of service, the Chadron Public Library seems to be a busy place, according to its web site, but I find no reference to the initial cost of the structure.

Alas, I wish I'd spend more time there as a kid. Growing up only about four blocks from the library, it would have been an easy walk. I suspect I spent more time in the Chadron State College library during my freshman year at the college than I collectively spent in in the public library while attending East Ward, Junior High and Chadron High School.

The postcard shown here was created by Bloom Bros., Inc. out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and when created, it required only one penny to send the card anywhere in the United States. I like the rather "painted" style used in colorizing the image -- a fairly common practice after the turn of the century.

...about Miss Koch

2009-04-26T15:04:00.004-06:00

So, who was Ross Armstrong? And Beatrice Koch? And Doris Gates?

Anyone who’s ever had a relationship with Chadron State College probably knows who Ross Armstrong was. The long-time coach, Athletic Director, Dean, and foundation administrator impacted the lives of thousands of young men and women – some more than others. Today, most students at CSC know of Armstrong only as the man for whom the Armstrong Building is named.

Names like Armstrong, Kline, Koch, Thoendel, Andrews, Gates, and many others, remain vivid for lots of us – whose ties and associations with the college reach back to the 1950s and earlier.

After meetings last weekend on the CSC campus – recalling several Chadron State faculty members who left their marks on students – I decided to share some thoughts about a few of those teachers who touched my life in a special way. In coming days, we’ll reminisce about some of those folks. But this particular posting will focus on a pert professor who had a big impact on many CSC students – including this writer.

I was only three years old when 51-year-old Beatrice Koch came to Nebraska State Teachers College at Chadron as a member of the English Department. A native of Fullerton, Nebraska, she was a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She later earned an M.A. at Columbia University. After a two-year stint teaching at Rising City, she had moved to Norfolk, where she taught high school from 1920 to 1943.

Among her many students at Norfolk: entertainer Johnny Carson and U.S. Senator Gale McGee of Wyoming.

During World War II, Bea Koch volunteered to work in the Fitzsimons Army Hospital (shown at left) near Denver, but in 1945, she returned to the classroom in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. In 1946, she came to Chadron and would teach English at the college until she reached the Nebraska mandatory teacher retirement age of 70 years.

I cannot remember Miss Koch walking anywhere without a sense of purpose. I still can hear the “clickety-click” sound of her high heel shoes moving her down the hall of the Administration Building at warp speed when I took her Freshman Composition and Introduction to Literature classes in 1961-62. By that time, I had been working as an announcer at KCSR Radio for nearly three years, and I remember Miss Koch taking me aside after one class and gently – but pointedly – reminding me that I had a “special responsibility” since my work on the radio would be heard by many people.

“Take care to do the best that you can,” she admonished me. My frequent relapses with the English language over 50 years in broadcasting would often cause me to be haunted – with appreciation – by Miss Koch’s words.

Forced to step down from teaching in Nebraska, she moved to Huron, South Dakota, and taught another eight years before retiring.

Our long-time friend Jim Zeman, a Chadron native who graduated from the college and went on to a prestigious career on the faculty at Northern State in Aberdeen, South Dakota, had at least one class under Koch and remembered her as very much “a traditional English teacher” who was full of energy.

Con Marshall, retired CSC Director of Information, probably knows more about Chadron State College and its graduates than anyone else, told me recently that Miss Koch had a real impact on his career and that "she's a big reason I made it through college."

And Con remembers this anecdote. “She once said that the reason she never married was she’d never met a man she couldn’t live without!” Koch was definitely independent, but not without a sense of purpose – and humor. He also recalls hearing that Miss Koch had a twin sister and that they excelled at tennis as University of Nebraska co-eds. Con concedes that the story may not be verifiable, but I think it's probably true -- or it should be!

Beatrice Koch was active in education for more than half a century, and in 1984 she was awarded the Chadron State College Distinguished Service Award for her significant contribution to the college. She died December 28, 1989.

But I still can hear that clear and forceful admonishment from the diminutive Miss Koch:

“Take care to do the best that you can.”

CHS alumnus drowns in Mississippi

2009-04-11T10:11:00.003-06:00

News reports from Meridian, Mississippi, delivered the sad news that Don Mathis, a standout athlete at Chadron High School in the 1950s, drowned Thursday afternoon (4/9/09) in a boating accident.

Don was a 1955 graduate of CHS, where he played football and basketball. He was the fullback and placekicker on the Cardinal's undefeated 1954 team. He went on to play center for the Chadron State Eagles and later earned entry into the CSC Athletic Hall of Fame. Don and his wife, Wyoma (Brown), moved to Mississippi many years ago, where they operated a successful small business just south of Meridian.

According to WTOK-TV in Meridian, rescue officials believed Don may have been trying to get his boat onto a trailer and that perhaps the boat started to drift. The accident occurred at Okatibbee Lake northwest of Meridian. The Lauderdale County coroner said Don Mathis was pulled from the lake late Thursday afternoon after a search of the area by divers. His boat had been seen floating empty in the lake.

Only last month, we had told the story about Don and some of his buddies making a trek to Yellowstone Park in 1955 -- Youthful adventures of the 1950s. Their trek took place shortly after Don had graduated from high school, and they took some pictures along the way. After graduating at Chadron State College in 1959, Don taught school in Taylor, Nebraska; Hot Springs, South Dakota, and Fort Dodge, Iowa, before moving to Mississippi.

A teammate on the 1952-53 basketball team at Chadron High, Mike Smith, has noted in an e-mail that Don is the latest of several CHS athletes from the early 1950s who've passed away. Others were John Christopher, Tom Blundell, Lou Riemenschneider, and Bill McCarter.

We have fond memories of visiting with Don and Wyoma Mathis in Chadron during an all-school reunion some years back. It was a bit of serendipity that, like Don and Wyoma, we also lived in Mississippi -- but we all had to return to Chadron to share memories! Until checking upon Don's graduation from CSC in the Alumni Directory this week, I didn't know that he and I shared another common experience -- we both went to graduate school at Iowa State University in Ames.

Don Mathis was 72 years old when he died. An on-line obituary can be found at this link to the Meridian Star. Addional information about Don's career can be found in a story published on-line by the Chadron Record on April 14, 2009. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Wyoma and the entire Mathis family over their loss.

Curly's Corral

2009-03-27T13:29:00.011-06:00

Trips to Colorado to visit our son in Wheat Ridge often conjure up memories of Colorado broadcasters who helped lay the groundwork for KCSR in Chadron.

The other day we wrote about a recent visit with ex-KCSR managers Jack Miller and Don Grant, who both live in Fort Collins. That delightful interlude caused me to remember Bill "Curly" Finch, a co-owner of KCSR when it went on the air in 1954. Among other places, I'm sure, Finch was once at KRAI in Craig, Colorado, before teaming up with Bob Fouse to establish the new radio station in Chadron.

While Finch was later known worldwide for playing big band music as host of Finch's Bandwagon on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, he also had a bit of country in him. Well, I'm not absolutely sure about that, but I do believe he understood the importance of country music to folks in western Nebraska, so he launched Curly's Corral on KCSR. It was a showcase for local talent, including long-time radio host Ellis "Peabody" Hale and another well-known musician, Russ Garner. They're among the musicians in the photo below.

Included in this scene are (L-R): Bob Rinker, Ellis "Peabody" Hale, Russ Garner, Unknown, Neville Sits Poor, Bill "Curly" Finch, Joe Crossdog, Harry Hanson, Howard Parker, Dave Parker, and Gordon Benson.

Live broadcasts of Curly's Corral were staged on Saturday afternoons in the small KCSR studio at 212 Bordeaux in Chadron; I don't recall other venues, but I'm sure their were remote broadcasts from other locations; I was a teenager and more inclined at that time toward Pat Boone and Elvis Presley.

Finch would often engage in some spontaneous tomfoolery. Big band music really was his "schtick," and I recall one weekday afternoon when he played "One O'clock Jump" by Count Basie, then proceeded to play every other version of the tune that we had in the library. I was amazed at how long it took to accomplish the task -- and wonder how many listeners actually stayed with it!

While Finch was a shameless promoter, he had a real knack for understanding what an audience wanted. He remained in the wings while a creative Bob Fouse and witty Cliff Pike took the limelight with their popular morning show Breakfast with the Boys. I don't know whether Curly's Corral was his brainchild -- or Ellis Hale's -- but it certainly couldn't have succeeded without Finch's support and involvement. I don't recall Finch ever playing an instrument or singing, but he certainly was the perfect host for the program that carried his moniker.