Cover Story
‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ Backstory
Ruth Henning couldn’t find the one book she wanted to read. So, like a lot of writers before her, she wrote the book herself. That book, “The First Beverly Hillbilly: The Untold Story of the Creator of Rural TV Comedy,” is a newly published memoir of Henning’s husband, television producer Paul Henning, who grew up…
A Ledger of Names, Mine Among Them, Tell Our Vietnam Stories
All 30 of the boys listed on the Vietnam-era Selective Service ledger were born in the spring of 1948, during America’s most prolific era of mass procreation, the end of World War II. At 18 years old, the thing first and foremost on our minds was to find a way to commit the same act…
Which Schools Are Integrated?
Lisa Gooden was set on finding the right school for her children in Kansas City. The choices were complex — public, private, charter, signature — but she felt good about all the buildings she visited. There were probably a dozen or so public elementaries within a couple miles of her neighborhood, so she didn’t understand…
The Great American Immigration Debate — Minus A Century
FLAT RIVER, Mo. — This old mining town in the southeast Missouri Ozarks once straddled the richest lead deposits in the world. But it no longer exists and the name is all but forgotten — much like the riots here that shocked the nation a century ago this week. As America’s never-ending debate over immigration rages…
(Faith)fully Serving Listeners
Virtually every Sunday morning for more than two decades, the Rev. Robert Lee Hill has left his Brookside home before sunrise to make his way to the studios of KCMO radio. The live talk show he co-hosts with Rabbi Michael Zedek and Bill Scholl of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has also become…
A Powerful Force, Sixty Years Later
Charles Farris endured hurricanes and typhoons during his 28-year naval career. But even so, when the south Kansas City man hears reports of a funnel cloud, six decades melt away, and an instinct kicks in. “Every time I hear a tornado warning,” he said, “I go looking for a shovel to dig myself a hole.”…
A Jolt to Electric Car Drivers?
Kansas City Power & Light could soon deliver sticker shock – along with the kilowatts – as it seeks to wring more cash from its network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The utility is pushing for an optional “session fee” of up to $6 per hour for time spent at one of its charging…
Keeping the Pace After the Passion
Hailee Bland-Walsh has long been an activist in the LGBTQ community. Though she has shut down traffic marching in San Francisco, it was the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., in January that was one of the “most transformative” experiences she’s had. “It was so powerful, the density of human beings in one place,” said Bland-Walsh,…
Where Nature and Science Meet at the Farmhouse
Eleven-year-old Jamie O’Connell Case hangs out with her classmates like any other schoolgirl, but her farm time is special, when she holds her baby goats, weaves fleece, and studies the heavens, along with many things below. Nestled along rolling hills just east of Interstate 49, at the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri, is her family’s…
Bach and Beer
Jan Kraybill’s got nothing against football. In fact, she’s come to love the Kansas City Chiefs. But you might say Kraybill fumbled the planning of her debut concert as principal organist at Community of Christ church in Independence, Missouri. [FLEX-CONTENT] It was not until about a month before the January 1999 concert, with promotions already…
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