Kansas history is told through the lives of its people, Hattebergs people.

And coming up.

You better believe we were talking about church history on our backs.

His job was to collect and preserve his church's history.

And what an amazing history it is.

You'll learn why Earl Weatherspoon couldn't wait to get to work every day.

Plus.

I probably built 100 houses in my lifetime.

I'd rather build an airplane.

Build Ali's airplane, had a special back story and was about to be reborn and return to the air.

See why it was such a special moment for this World War Two veteran.

Also.

A lot of times when I've had a lot of stress, I can just get on a horse and ride out across the hills and it's just a peaceful feeling.

Ranching in the Flint Hills was her joy and her life.

Bobbi Jo Hammond loved the work and loved the land.

See what life was like on the Prairie in 1989.

And I've taught everything from kindergarten through eighth grade and loved every grade.

She was one of those memorable teachers that kids never forget.

Her fun and novel approach to learning made Sally Loomis a superstar among teachers and a hero to the children.

But after 46 years, she was preparing to say goodbye to her last class.

Hello, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Those are just some of the stories from the past that we'll rewind and revisit for 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.

Faith has been the bedrock of Kansas life.

From the get go, even before there were cities, there were churches.

And one of the first was the church where Al Witherspoon worshiped and worked.

His job was to preserve his church's history and document the important role it played in Wichita life from the very beginning.

I don't think you'll ever get too old to not appreciate the windows.

The First Presbyterian Church was organized on March the 13th of 1870.

This church is older than either Sedgwick County or the city of Wichita.

In his third floor church archive, Al Witherspoon is the collector of all things old.

You better.

Believe it.

When we're talking about church history.

I'm not bashful.

Surrounding the sanctuary, historic stained glass windows.

These are Tiffany type windows.

People are more impressed by the windows in the sanctuary, I think, than any other part of the sanctuary.

This Lawrence land, I understood, cost $5,000 back in 1911.

It's here where art and religion intertwine.

As a gift to the soul.

The artist has been able to put in this little big face.

So much character.

I'm very fond of that face.

Another face, indirectly responsible for this stained glass window, was one of the church's early pastors, the Reverend John Peterson.

In Wichita's red light district, he'd helped the downtrodden, the gamblers, the prostitutes.

He habitually would go up and sit down beside him, but not identify himself as a minister, a Presbyterian minister, but only as a friend to the needy.

While this church was being built, money from the Red Light District provided this stained glass window in the reverend's memory.

And it's unusual for a church board to accept, quote unquote, sin money.

But in this case, they did.

I never get tired of delving into church history.

I think I've got the best job in Wichita.

First Presbyterian established its archives in 1970, and Al was only the second person to serve as the church archivist, a position he held until his death in 2003.

He was really into saving that church's history, and he did just a wonderful job.

You know, it takes people like that to preserve history.

And if we don't preserve it, you know, we don't.

Have it, it goes.

Away.

So thank you to Al.

Absolutely.

Have you noticed that people who love airplanes really love airplanes?

Oh, they really do.

Bill Ali, of Wichita had a love affair with a certain winged wonder for more than 50 years.

In 1999, Bill was enjoying a reunion of sorts that all aviation enthusiasts will understand.

It's a beautiful day today.

I'll tell you what.

For those who restore old airplanes, a light wind and a blue sky are a ticket to paradise.

I probably built 100 houses in my lifetime.

I'd rather build an airplane.

Bill Ali considers this ironic airplane an old friend.

I thought of this plane many times through the years.

In 1949, Bill owned this little plane just out of the Air Force.

He put about 50 hours on it, then sold it.

That's right.

But he always regretted it.

And now it's really.

Special because I've.

Restored it.

He found it in a Kansas barn.

The tail tucked up on a barrel.

Well, after a few years of trying to buy it, he did.

And you just fly by the seat of your pants.

But he didn't restore it that way.

He took time and care.

The plane was originally designed to be used as an artillery spotter aircraft in World War Two.

Only about 150 were made.

Now that I've restored it and I know where all the bolts and the.

Cotter pins were, all the cables.

Go.

Well, it might not fly as high as a modern jet, but on a crisp bottom morning, when the windsock talks, there's a man and his airplane reunited after 50 years.

I think it looks pretty sharp.

Bill passed away in 2004 at age 80, and according to the FAA, the airplane is now registered to a man in a little town near Shreveport, Louisiana.

And, you know, here in Wichita, the air capital of aviation, there are so many guys like him who restore old airplanes and they love it.

Most of them, many of them worked at the aircraft plant.

So they have the talent to do it.

And the knowhow and.

The knowhow.

And you would be amazed how many of those people are still around and still working.

And still working on air.

And they will like I said in the beginning, people love, airplanes do love.

And it's a labor of love for those people.

And now the plane is still, we assume, up and running in Shreveport, Louisiana, still.

Flying.

From aviation to the wide open prairie.

Kansas is a diverse land with many different ways of life.

And for Bobby Hammond, the Flint Hills helped define her life.

For decades now, she never got tired of the wide open prairie, an almost timeless lifestyle of a cattle rancher.

We get up early, get started you day life, and it's just peaceful and quiet and music.

Everyone else is still asleep and and I can just enjoy it so much in the morning.

15 years ago, Bobby Hammond returned home to the prairie.

Today, she and her son manage the nation ranch in the heart of the Flint Hills.

25,000 acres of grassland and a seasonal host to 14,000 head of cattle.

I guess I couldn't seem to stay away.

I kept coming back and I finally just decided I'm just going to move back and stick it out and see if I can make a living on the place.

When the hills beckoned, their voices are subtle, yet constant.

Maxey.

I kind of feel like I know what I'm doing here, and I. I feel like I know how to take care of it.

It's hard work working out here and riding on a ranch.

It's a lot of hard work and long hours, but I sort of thrive on that.

I think takes a certain type person, I guess, to enjoy living out here.

I've had a lot of people ask me why I lived out here, and it's this is just the place where I'm the happiest.

We run a lot of cattle on this grass and we have to take care of it for ourselves and future generations and I would hate to see it ruined if we don't have the grass.

We.

We don't have anything.

The prairie once stretched from Canada to the Gulf.

No more in Kansas.

The Flint hills are all that remain.

A lot of times when I've had a lot of stress, I can just get on a horse and ride out across the hills.

And it's just a peaceful feeling.

It bothers me that other people don't appreciate the hills like I do.

Rocky Hills Clear running water is not to call grass.

And I've noticed some real pretty sunsets in the last few years too.

I love it here.

Well, Bobby and her son kept managing the ranch for another 24 years.

Then in 2013, they had the league lead.

The owner leased the land to someone else who brought in their own management team.

Bobby ended up moving to a small house in Sedan, Kansas.

But she vows this is not the end of the story.

Even at age 81.

Now, Bobby says she gets ready to go back to work.

Or she wants to go back to work.

She says she's looking for an opportunity to get back out in the Flint hills and continue ranching.

You know, living in Sedan, Kansas, where she moved.

Yeah.

There's still Flint Hills nearby.

Absolutely.

So she's out in the country.

She's out in the country.

And she can go back and see those hills any time.

But I'm sure she wants to do something else.

Yeah, it's a shame she had to leave.

That's too.

Bad.

Progress sometimes.

Not very kind.

No, it isn't.

But, you know, you have to get on with your life.

And she's doing that.

But we have the stories.

That's right.

To look.

Back.

Exactly.

It is said that the influence of a good teacher can never be a race.

And that most certainly means that Sally Loomis lives in the hearts and minds of generations of Goddard School students.

She had her own style and approach, and that made her a classroom favorite.

I've taught everything from kindergarten through eighth grade and loved every grade.

For 46 years.

Goddard Teacher Sally Loomis has been preparing kids for life.

Oh, it's an exciting time.

They arrive like little sponges into a place called the Magic Toadstool Kingdom.

Their room is special.

Plus, every child knows that Mrs. Loomis will make them all detectives.

And that's one thing detectives love to do.

They love to discover, investigate and solve.

Awards from the nearly five decades of teaching adorn her classroom walls.

But the real reward is here.

How many more days until your birthday day here.

With the children?

Only to in the magic toadstool kingdom?

These detectives will remember this teacher as one of their best.

I like the dress and look like a teacher that the children would really love to have in their room.

Whatever the three travelers said, then we can make stone soup with that.

Who knows what a man in them is.

Learning here is because a teacher makes it fun.

Take a look at her fingernails.

And I was one day playing around and putting on different color of fingernail polish.

And I just I think the detectives were like this.

So I came to school and they just loved it.

So ever since then, I've been doing that.

And I tell them it's for special detectives, special Goddard children.

For almost a half century, all of these children have been special to Sally Loomis.

But retirement is inevitable.

It took me until about March to be able to say re retirement to make that decision.

But I've been very fortunate.

Teaching has been a wonderful career for me, and I love the rest of us are going to go on to music.

Kids are my business.

I'm proud of teaching and I'm proud of my detectives.

We're going to music.

Oh, of course I miss this.

I may shed a few tears because it's going to be very emotional, I'm afraid.

They're just wonderful little people that grow up to be fantastic adults.

But I'm going to miss these detectives so much.

I got a love, a great teacher.

That was the year 2000 when she said goodbye to all of her students.

That's right.

And you know, there aren't enough good teachers these days.

And the teachers we have are now fighting so many things just to stay in the classroom and teach those students who are fortunate to have every teacher that we have.

Well, unfortunately, Sally passed away in 2015 at age 83, but the memories her students have of her priceless.

They live on.

I mean, I'm sure if you went to one of her students today, they would have story after story.

They would.

And that's a whole nother another story.

Creativity can come in many forms and at many stages of life.

And for Harriet Kepler, the freedom of retirement was his opportunity to build and design and just to see where his imagination could take him.

Here's a slice of his life from 2000 to.

Three.

There in the field.

That's Harry Kepler.

His little Butler County place is about as relaxing as they.

Come the event.

We're really enjoying some guys want to go to Arizona, California, Arizona.

And I want to stay right here.

Who could blame him?

He's built a good life and created an area that his grandkids just love.

Just something to do.

I enjoy tinkering around with things and just challenge to see something like the rock or something like that.

Man, that would be a challenge if I could just do it.

So I'd take it after.

And the kids take after Grandpa's train.

Some of my wild ideas.

The oldest taking the blade off from the lawnmower.

And it just sits right on here.

It can come right off on the back of nearby.

Harry's very animals don't seem at all surprised at his constant tinkering.

I like to tinker with anything.

Anything is challenge.

I like to try the challenge.

I call it my Joe.

But his grandkids call it fun.

Seen this way.

A one time, Larry, down here on the highway.

That was land that options for cable.

I looked at Royal Life and say, wouldn't that make a beautiful kid's Ferris wheel as I like, get ideas like this, drive through the country?

Hey, let me do something.

I can make something that will last.

And the truth is, Harry can make something out of anything.

You see, it's hydrostatic drive, so you haven't got all clutches or anything.

So you can just move this lever, control your speed, or stop it or whatever you want.

Don't you wish you could be this country clever and just have fun?

I'm kind of proud of it.

Good Lord.

Has been awful good doing.

Yep.

Old Harry's places.

Just down the road and turn left at the sunset.

Well, Harry was a World War Two and Korean War veteran.

He worked for many years as an electrical engineer in the pipeline industry.

And as you saw, he had an enjoyable retirement until he passed away in 2018 at age 91.

You know, people sometimes really fulfill their lives in retirement, as he did.

Actually, sometimes even more than what you did for a living.

More than their working life.

Okay.

This next story is about a man who used to operate steam engines on the Santa Fe Railroad.

For Orville Bruner, it was more than just a job.

The railroad was his passion even after he retired.

This story from 1996.

Santa Fe Railroad is really what it's is all about.

And it's the railroad that runs through Orville Brunner's blood.

It's something that you don't see running up and down the railroad tracks anymore.

And even my children today don't remember my job on a steam locomotive.

For 38 years, Orville rode the rails first as an apprentice, then as engineer.

These pictures are from his last run on the Santa Fe.

And the first time he ever, Crum climbed up on one of them and sat down.

He kind of had that goosebumps, you know?

This is what I'm going to get to do.

I'm going to get the fire, this thing, you know, and someday get to be an engineer on it.

So that's that's what it's all about to me.

That tie was put in in 1951.

For years, Orville has loved his job.

And this town, Newton was home to his family and his children and grandchildren.

And this old train held particular interest.

And when you think how many miles this thing has gone over a million miles, that's a lot.

So it has to be a part of you and everyone that's ever been been involved in it.

And with it.

The Jaycees, it had this old steamer in the city park since the fifties.

And several years ago, another state expressed interest in it and the city just about moved it.

If it hadn't been for folks like Orville Bruner.

Some people have said they took the romance out of railroad and when they got away with it.

So I guess you could try to look at it there was a little romance and in that a locomotive.

Engine 1880 was saved with the help of Bruner and a host of other railroad fanciers who believed it should be restored and retained as part of Newton's railroad history.

They used to drive by and not even notice.

Now this big black thing standing out like it does causes people to notice.

Newton's railroad depot still watches two passenger trains a day stop in.

But it's not like the old days.

By my grandfather helped lay this railroad through here from day one.

So it's it's the Bruner family has had some part in this railroad up to the time I quit.

Much of the railroad has left Newton, but folks like Orville Bruner want his children and grandchildren to remember the past.

A past he lived and a past he loved.

This is something that they can look back and say, Hey, my dad, my grandpa, my great grandfather used to ride them things and work on them.

So this is history and it'll be handed down for years to come.

Orville was a World War Two vet who also served as city commissioner and mayor of Newton in the 1960s and seventies.

He died in 1999 at age 74.

And I remember when he took me out to the old train that's on display in Newton, the big train.

You know, they have a real locomotive on display there.

He knew everything there was to know about that train and just just to listen to him as he told the stories.

It was.

Great.

You know, Newton is such a historical railroad town.

And if you're ever nearby and I don't know if that when the museum is open and when it's not, but they have a moment amend tremendous history of the railroad in Newton.

Yeah, it's a great place to visit.

And the old station in Newton still serves the the railroad.

The Santa Fe.

Is in that way.

So it's great.

Yeah.

Well, those are all the stories for this week.

hattebergspeople@kpts.org is your email address?

Actually, it's our email address.

If you have a question or a comment.

And we always love hearing from you until next time I'm Larry Hatteberg.

And I'm Susan Peters.

It was great to have you with us and we'll see you again soon.