Another half hour of Hattebergs People is queued up and ready to roll.

And here's what's coming up.

I'm convinced I've told my wife this and she understands.

She's a writer, too.

I said.

I have ideas.

In Wichita that I swear I would not have if I were somewhere else.

He came to Wichita to write novels.

But he spent his career on the world stage moderating presidential debates and anchoring the news on PBS.

See what Wichita native Jim Lehrer had to say about his career and his hometown back in 2010.

Also.

One of the messages they would like to get out is don't mess up like I did.

You'll see how an art program at El Dorado Correctional Facility had much to teach the artists, as well as the people who came to view their work.

Larry talked to the man who made it all happen.

Plus.

You're rich.

If you have people who love you.

You're rich.

In that case, Henrietta Shear was a very wealthy woman.

Her life experience taught her to be gentle, kind and appreciative.

You'll see why everybody wanted to call her mom.

And we'll have this story.

Youre tuned to the World Service and are listening to Marxism Today.

This Hutchinson teenager had a fascination for shortwave radio and questions for the Soviets.

We'll revisit the story from 1985.

Hello, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Those are just some of the stories we'll show you on this edition of Hattebergs People.

These stories are like old friends.

Their lives radiate from the screen, like prophets of the past.

They were teachers, but not in a classroom.

Instead, they taught about life to those around them who cared to listen.

And I was their student.

You can take the boy out of Wichita, but you can't take Wichita out of the boy.

At least that was the case for one of America's best known and most respected journalists.

And we're talking about the great Jim Lehrer.

Now, he was the longtime PBS news anchor and moderator of 11 presidential debates.

Lehrer's contemporaries included Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings.

And yet, despite this fame and acclaim, this humble man never forgot where he came from.

He returned to his hometown on a regular basis, though few Wichitans would have ever noticed him.

And I just think and I write, and now I go and have a drink and I stay up all night if I need to, to write.

And I don't shave and, you know, and don't wear a coat and tie.

And I am because I'm a little boy, I can do anything I want to do.

Good evening from Washington, I'm Jim Lehrer.

That little boy from Wichita has done well as the well-known public face of the PBS NewsHour and author of 20 novels, three plays and two memoirs.

He plays on the world stage of news nightly, bringing us the facts without hype.

But it is Wichita, where he comes to be quiet.

I'm convinced I've told my wife this and she understands that she's a writer, too.

I said, I have ideas in Wichita that I swear I would not have if I was somewhere else, if I was sitting on some mountaintop somewhere on some beach, somewhere.

It just makes it.

It's a special thing for me.

And every time I have an opportunity to come to Wichita, I take it.

And when I come here, I see a Wichita of today.

But I also always see the Wichita of the 1940s.

Those were those are the real memories from the 1940s.

I am literally a little boy again.

He was in Wichita over the weekend to help KPTS celebrate their 40th anniversary.

And those who met him.

Found an ordinary guy who's had An extraordinary life.

I'm Jim Lehrer of The NewsHour on PBS.

And I welcome you to the first of the 2008 presidential debates.

In the last six presidential elections He's done an Unprecedented 11 presidential debates.

What is going through your mind as the clock is ticking, the seconds down and you're about to go live to the nation on a presidential debate?

How much pressure is there on you?

It's enormous.

It is.

It is.

It is beyond description.

It is like holding live dynamite in your hand.

And when I am about to say to yourself, if you inclined this way, this is not about me.

If they are talking about me when this debate is over, even if they're saying good things about it.

Jim, great job.

Hey, great question.

Good...

I've screwed up.

Nobody should be talking about the moderator when the debate is over.

They should be talking about the candidates.

Well, that was 2010.

Two years later, Lehrer moderated his last presidential debate.

It was Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney.

And then he retired that same year.

And 2013, he published his 21st and final novel.

On top of the several other books and screenplays he had written during his life.

Now, in 2019, Lehrer was right here at PBS Kansas to be a guest on Victor Hogstroms One on One program.

And that's a two part series.

You can watch it online any time.

Then the following year, he passed away suddenly from a heart attack.

Jim Lehrer was 85 years old and one of the nicest humans on the planet.

He was just a great down home Wichita guy, talked to anybody, but he loved to come back here to write his books.

So he was just a great human being to be around.

And he was known around the world.

I'm impressed by that.

But yet he was so down to earth here in Wichita.

And I'm also impressed he worked virtually as a journalist till the day he passed.

He really did.

He really did.

And you got to hand it to him.

And none of us knew he was ill. And then just all of a sudden we got that.

Yeah, well, he is missed.

He is definitely.

Some consider prison to be punishment for doing bad things, but Glen Lygrisse liked to see it as an opportunity for troubled people to change their ways.

He saw potential and talent in many of the men in the Eldorado Correctional Facility and he sought to help.

Here is what he did.

Its said that a work of art is a confession.

If so, that quote certainly applies to these pictures hanging in the Butler Community College Art Museum.

They were done by inmates at the Eldorado Correctional Facility.

One of the messages they would like to get out is don't mess up like I did.

Glenn Lygrisse is the reason why they're hanging at this college.

Glenn is Dean for Enrollment Management here.

He's also a teacher and he's involved in a prison ministry.

One day he was given a painting by the prisoner he was mentoring.

I saw what it did for his self-esteem.

You could give me a gift of monetary value.

And this means more because this is a gift from the heart.

The picture was painted by inmate Michael Trombley and added to those pictures on display at Butler Community College.

These paintings are coming from people in the general population, not to segregation units.

So the inmates have to earn this privilege to be able to participate.

At the Eldorado Correctional Facility.

Inmates whose identities I could not show paint where one imagines that the inmate artists can artistically escape, at least for a few hours while putting brush to canvas.

Lygrisse says it made a difference in the inmate he mentors.

Before this, he found that he was having much more problems dealing with anger issues, interpersonal relationships, things of that nature.

Since this time, in our time of mentoring, he has developed into a better person.

These are ways which people can give back a little bit in a very, very small way, but can give back a little bit to society of some of the things they took away.

These chessboards are an example, of what you might call trash art, because this one is made from newspaper that is hand rolled up, very tightly glued and then painted and then glued into place to form the chessboard.

This one is made from discarded popsicle sticks.

What it is about is saying, I'm looking for something beyond the crime.

And let's say, how can we then take this person who did a bad thing and help them be a better person?

Lygrisse was able to convince others at the college that a display of prisoner art would not only be beneficial for the inmates.

Interesting to see where the Art came out of.

But it would also give them a calm way to deal with their issues, and it would open the community's eyes to another level of prison life.

It was the right thing to do.

Yes.

Well, Glen retired from Butler County Community College in 2012.

I know Glenn.

Well, he's a good friend of mine, and he's that's just the type of guy he is.

You know, he sees a place where he can help people, people who need help.

And he steps up, you know, and he's just one of the guys that we have in our life who steps up when there's a need and we need more people like.

Absolutely.

And he just did it without asking questions, without saying, is this all right?

And you never know how many lives he changed by letting those people who were incarcerated there be creative.

Right.

And maybe give them some self-esteem, and that kind of thing.

He could have changed several of those people's lives.

I think Glen has changed lives throughout his career.

So congratulations, Glen.

I love that story and glad you're still here enjoying it.

Absolutely.

Okay.

It's usually the loudest and flashiest people who get most of the attention.

But in 1985, for a couple of minutes, Henrietta Shear got the spotlight.

Thanks to Larry.

Well, to the outsider, Henrietta seemed like just another face in the crowd.

Unless you took the time to talk with her.

Her name is Henrietta Shear, but everyone calls her mom.

Youre rich.

If you have people who love you, you're rich.

Youre not poor.

If love were gold, Mom Shear would surely be rich.

This transplanted English woman spends her time helping others.

She makes clothes, shawls and hats out of discarded cloth.

Even bread wrappers are knitted into balls to exercise arthritic hands.

Well, if it's going to do someone good, if it's going to help to heal a hand or if it keeps a child warm, why not?

Newsreel: Terror from the skies that made...

Mom Shear is no stranger to adversity.

In her native England, she survived two world wars and the horror they wrought.

I have seen what you have done for us in the war.

I have seen the boys suffer.

And I wish the people could realize what war means to them.

I really do.

I don't think I don't think anyone understands what those boys go through for freedom.

But I don't think you realize what you have that's worth fighting for.

This country is worth every effort you can give it.

Mom Shears greatest pleasure in this country is her knitting and sewing that she does for others.

I love to see what comes out of it.

I never know what I'm going to do when I start out.

And if it gives someone pleasure, you cant buy it.

You cant buy love.

So why not give something?

Mom loves America but misses her England and her roots.

The nicest...

The churches.

The.

In my day, we were going to church and we would tiptoe and we would think the altar is where the Lord is standing over us.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

I praise God every day...

I just love Him.

He is the only thing I can depend on.

Mom Shear.

England's loss but humanity's gain.

This is Larry Hatteberg.

Almost 40 years later.

Of course, Mom Shear is no longer with us, but her life of kindness to others and appreciation for America is not forgotten.

Thanks to that story, we need to remember people like that.

She came over as war bride.

And it's just important to know that they adopted this country and did good things here.

And especially this day and age.

We need to hear more from people like her.

Absolutely.

Who want to give back to our country like she did and appreciate everything.

And thank you for giving to other people, too.

And I'm sure she's looking down.

Ill bet she is.

At us.

Going, you guys keep on giving too.

We will do our best.

Oh, here is another great memory from the 1980s.

This one involves Steve Weidman who was a college student in Hutchinson.

In the midst of the Cold War.

Steve got the attention of the Russians.

He invited me to his house one evening in 1986, when his name was heard around the world.

We are attuned to the World Service offering in Moscow and are listening to Marxism Today.

The last thing 19 year old Steven Weidman of Hutchinson expected to hear was his own name on Radio Moscow.

Steven Weidman of Hutchinson, Kansas.

Eight months ago, Steve took up the hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts.

His father is an amateur radio operator, so the equipment was at his fingertips.

Radio enthusiasts send confirmation letters to the various radio stations to confirm that they actually heard the broadcast called QSL Card.

Steve sent one to Radio Moscow and also tacked a question on the end asking How can a government that promotes world domination by communism promote world peace?

I honestly did not expect any response to the likes that I got.

To his surprise, he received a letter back from Radio Moscow telling him his letter would be answered on the air and then gave him the date and time.

Radio: Today, we will answer a question received from a listener in the United States.

Steven Weidman of Hutchinson, Kansas.

With his parents listening, Radio Moscow then went on to detail a six minute dissertation on socialist theory.

Radio: How can government that promotes world domination by communism... Well, they came out in the beginning of the broadcast and said that it's not possible to have both.

Peace and domination.

Im an idea on the world.

Then they went on to say that they were not attempting to dominate the world.

Well, they didn't change Steve's mind about the Soviets intentions, but he did learn one thing, and that was to listen to their radio with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Larry Hatteberg, KAKE News, Hutchinson.

Radio: After the Soviet Union paper.

Well, all these decades later, Steve says he remembers that day like it was yesterday.

Now he is still an amateur radio operator, lives in Houston, Texas, now, and works, not surprisingly, as an electronics engineer.

You know, there's so many people who have the hobby of listening to radio from all over the world and they and they love it.

But he made a difference.

He made a difference.

He asked questions.

And that's great.

What a great question, too.

Absolutely.

And you were there to record it all.

All those years ago.

I love that.

I love that.

By the way, his mom still lives in Hutchinson.

And we want to tell her hello.

Glad you're still here.

And thank you for your son.

Absolutely.

A fun little story to do.

Well, whether it's the wide open prairie or the charming small towns, Kansas life has a lot to offer.

And Dave Kirk has embraced every bit of it.

Now, Dave was living his best life in 1997.

See why he considered his little corner of the world to be the next best thing to heaven.

Come on, Frisco.

So I do count my blessings every day and feel very lucky to be where I'm at.

Youre alright, buddy.

Dave Kirk is home.

Up, up.

From here it's a 40 minute commute to his Cottonwood Falls business but time like the prairie Grows on you.

If I was to win the lottery tomorrow I don't know that there's other than maybe pay off a few bills probably a single thing I'd change about my life.

Since 1872.

The Cottonwood Falls Courthouse has been the rallying point for this town and the people.

And in some ways, it was for Dave.

That courthouse up there looming over the Flint Hills really seems to be the the magic of the town and what has kept this town alive for so long.

What is it that I can help you find today?

Born in Kansas City, but a yearning for the prairie.

I always stop in to see what you got.

Oh, Great.

So you haven't been to Cottonwood before?

Dave found a local backer and purchased a clothing store in downtown Cottonwood Falls.

Complete ladies section upstairs.

The men's and bootwear and the dress clothes are in back.

Jim Bell and Son Western Wear had been losing money.

When Kirk took it over, he completed an 8000 square foot historically correct restoration and added $300,000 in inventory.

I know how you ladies are with your purses now.

It's a building project process.

Nothing happens particularly fast here in Cottonwood Falls, but we sure feel like we're headed in the right direction and gaining some momentum.

While you're in town, you have to go check out the hotel.

The hotel is the Grand Central Hotel, a fully restored ten room full service hotel with all the appointments of a first class facility.

Not only do you have an authentic little western town, but there's a certain feeling or magic about this area.

And this is one of the few places anywhere that you can come, and things arent that relatively different than they were maybe 100 years ago.

All right, buddy, nothing happens without a little risk and a lot of hard work.

Its going to be in the same thing tomorrow as it was yesterday.

And that's the beauty about this area.

So I'm just I'm one of the real fortunate people that just has kind of fallen into his own dream world.

So I wouldn't change a darn thing.

See, that wasnt so bad.

Eventually those circumstances change.

Dave eventually got tired of working long hours when he and his wife started having kids.

No surprise there.

So he moved on to something else.

He started a company that provides wireless broadband.

Well, that became a nationwide success.

And Dave was able to sell it and retire a few years ago.

Meanwhile, both the clothing store and the hotel are still operating in historic Cottonwood Falls.

Now under different ownership.

I love Cottonwood Falls.

Cottonwood Falls is one of those wonderful Kansas towns that if you go there and you just walk down the main street, there's the old hotel, there's a clothing store, and there's a story around every corner.

And the courthouse.

And the courthouse, everything.

And the Santa Fe Trail runs through there.

I mean, it's wonderful.

One of Kansas's treasures, Diamonds in the Rough.

A history book right there.

What impresses me about him is he starts off with a simple life, and then he sells, invents all kinds of technological things and sells it and has a great time.

Exactly.

Exactly.

He went from small town to big time.

Exactly right.

Well, old father time is creeping up on all of us, unfortunately.

But Maggie Knobloch didn't let old age stop her from being active and really having fun.

Maggie was about to turn 90 and was still throwing strikes.

When the sun is still low in the morning sky and the dew is sparkling on the milo.

You might find Maggie Knobloch tending her farm near Mt.

Vernon, west of Cheney.

Keep active.

But when the moon is high and the sun is gone, Maggie sometimes moves her attention to a little nightlife.

Oh.

I was way out of my lane!

Monday night is always bowling night and with her 90th birthday coming up next month.

You might think she'd slow down.

Wrong.

Didnt get ‘em all!

While bowling is for fun.

Her family was serious business.

She raised 12 children on the farm.

Well, the best probably was the enjoyment we got out of it.

Jim got knocked out, and he was unconscious for 2 hours.

And they told mom he was asleep.

Now, most of her children are scattered all over the world, only two, Jeanette and Rosemarie live nearby.

Yeah, that's right.

Oh.

So you would think that after all those kids, after all that work.

Yeah.

Why don't you try to pick it up, Monica?

And with a 90th birthday looming closer, Maggie would slow down.

Well, then you don't know Maggie.

Just get up there and play.

Try to get strikes.

And I cant do that very well.

Once in a great while.

I got one when you was back there talking.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Maggie, you caught me goofing off, actually.

I just wasn't moving as fast as you were, and I missed it.

You know, that's the thing about Maggie Knobloch.

She's ahead of folks half her age.

Here on the farm.

She worked hard, even made a magnolia tree grow, which isn't easy in Kansas.

And she says, keep moving.

Don't settle down to a rocking chair and above all, keep working and growing all your life.

It's like my dad says, hard work don't kill a mule.

So the next time you think 90 is old, think of Maggie Knobloch.

90 and still bowling.

90 and still feisty.

Now, Maggie's first husband, Paul, died on the battlefield in France during World War One.

Her second husband, Peter, the father of her 12 children, was Paul's brother.

Now, Maggie outlived them both by a long shot, and she lived to be 101 years old.

You know, there are a lot of people across Kansas who are now making it to the century mark and past there.

You know, and it's just amazing to me that, you know, I have an aunt who lived to 106 and was just amazing.

Really.

Wow.

Longevity in your blood.

Yeah.

Well, congratulations to all of them.

Well, that's all we have time for this week.

That is our e-mail address.

If you have a question or comment.

For now, thank you for watching.

I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

We'll be back again soon.

We will see you then.