Another half hour of Hattebergs people is on the way.

Coming up.

I felt lost alone.

I started drinking to try and forget what had happened.

His life derailed by tragedy.

Less coffee had nowhere to turn but a bottle.

Then in his darkest hour, he found a lifeline that saved him.

It's a story of renewal and second chances that is just as relevant today as it was in 1985.

Also.

She is much more of a symbol not just for America, but for for the whole world.

The official photographer for Lady Liberty was on assignment across the country.

Larry caught up with him as he was snapping shots in Eldorado.

Two years before the statue's 100th birthday.

Plus.

I look good in pink and and that's my favorite color.

And that's what I choose to do with every day.

Have my own style.

Meet the Art City man who shows his true colors in everything he does and in the process, he's inspiring the next generation.

Learn what it's all about.

Coming up, I and.

Our families, friends and relatives meet us and say, how are you kids?

They tell us we act like kids.

They call us kid.

So hope they loved each other and loved the land.

They shared their foothills.

Honeymoon had just begun.

It's a lesson in getting older and not giving up.

We'll also have this.

See on the other side.

Joe Dilemma had the big idea that he'd swim across Cheney Reservoir.

Do you think he made it?

You'll find out if you stick around.

Hi, everybody.

I'm Larry Hatteberg.

And I'm Susan Peters.

Those are just some of Larry's classic stories that are queued up and ready to roll for this edition of Hattebergs People.

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.

Hardship and tragedy befall us all at one point or another.

And too often are coping mechanisms simply make a bad situation worse.

Less coffee of Wichita went from one nightmare to the next when alcohol sent his life spiraling out of control.

In 1985, he shared the story of his heartache and how he turned his life around.

I know what it's like to be a Skid Row drunk after having been a college professor in my life.

It makes you stop and think after years of it makes you stop and think just where you've met and what you could have been.

It's bad enough just being an alcoholic is bad enough.

We'll get it filled tomorrow.

Take the servicers out of there for me with you out of out.

Of less coffees.

Life is one of tragedy accented by alcohol abuse.

Now, though, his life has changed and he's general foreman for the Wichita branch of the Salvation Army.

He hasn't had a drink for nearly two years.

But to understand him now, you have to understand him.

Then the year was 1954.

He was a college professor at Berkeley, an architectural engineering.

Then a tragedy.

His wife and three children killed in an automobile accident.

From then on, less became an alcoholic, lost his job, his business, and nearly his life.

I felt lost alone.

I started drinking to try and forget what had happened.

And it took me 18 months to come off the first drunk.

Today, less is a different person.

He supervises the sorting operation at the Salvation Army and is trusted and respected by his peers.

But when he was drinking 2/5 a day, his life was going down the drain.

You get to the point where everything looks hopeless.

You can't do anything about it.

You've got to look for somebody else or something else that can give you a reason for even staying around.

In my case, at a time like that, I walked into a Salvation Army to see if we'll take it off or we'll do it.

Seems to work fuel efficient automobiles.

In fact, the service the Salvation Army provides in repairing, sorting and restoring used articles has been a boon to less coffee.

Yeah, he hasn't had a drink in two years.

It makes me feel pretty proud to have come back this far, and it makes it all worthwhile because by example, I might be able to show someone else that they don't have to go as far as I did.

Even today, once in a while, there are temptations.

Once in a while there are frustrations that you say, Well, is it worth it?

But if you stop to think about where you are as against where you've been, it's all worth it.

Every sober minute is worth it.

There is a tragic irony in less Coffey's life.

His wife and three children who died in that car accident, they were killed by a drunk driver.

Larry Hatteberg, KAKE News.

Well, nearly 40 years later, we're not sure where lessons life went from this point, but you have to admire a guy who comes through such tragic day and yet has hope.

You can't imagine his whole family killed at once by a drunk driver.

And it's natural to turn to the bottle after that.

But he recovered.

And thank you for bringing us his story of recovery and helping others gives us light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope in the midst of evil.

We learn so much from these people.

Also in the mid-eighties, America experienced renewed enthusiasm for the statue of Liberty.

Lady Liberty at Ellis Island was approaching a big birthday and was in need of a makeover.

All that effort also shine the spotlight on replicas of that big statue that dot the American countryside, including right here in Kansas.

She means something different to all of us, whether we came by boat or native born.

The Statue of Liberty is our monument where the torch of freedom still burns.

Miss Liberty, though, is aging her dress soiled by time.

She is, however, not alone.

She is much more of a symbol, not just for America, but for for the whole world.

That's Peter B Caplin climbing inside Miss Liberty, where no photojournalist has ever gone before.

Peter is the official photographer for the statue.

His unique style of photography shows liberty as she's never been seen before.

His camera is mounted on a 17 foot pole, an assistant snaps the shutter.

The statue will soon be closed for renovation.

The sale of Kaplan's pictures will help pay for it.

At a few rolls in my pocket and maybe give me a couple more to take up with me.

Of course, Miss Liberty stands in New York Harbor, but smaller versions proliferate in cities and towns across this nation.

Boy, that sun is just a killer.

Kaplan is now concentrating his efforts on them.

He's currently on assignment for Geo Magazine and journeyed to Eldorado to photograph the Liberty statue on the courthouse grounds.

You know, when I first started the project, I thought I get in some ways, I said, how how many shots?

How many times can I spend with it?

How much time I do with her before I get bored?

But it's just.

Just last week, we were camping out there, as I said, in the fog.

And it's totally new every time.

It's totally fresh, it's I constantly see her in a different light and different view, where that's real purdy.

I just want to play around it a little bit more, see if I can get something better from over here.

I'll try it over on the side.

Kaplan will be traveling from coast to coast, photographing Liberty Replicas similar to this one in Eldorado.

In 1986, the real liberty will be 100 years old.

$39 million is needed to restore the aging statue.

And Kaplan hopes this photograph and others like it will kindle the American spirit so that the money can be raised.

For a still photographer, it's probably one of the greatest projects ever to work on.

Donations for restoring the statue can be sent to the Liberty Ellis Foundation, P.O.

Box 1986.

New York.

New York 100184.

Photographer Peter Kaplan.

It's been a continuing love affair, a love affair with Miss Liberty.

Larry Hatteberg, KAKE Television News.

Now, renovation of the statue was extensive.

It took two years, and it included replacing the corroded torch with an exact replica with a flame.

And it was covered in 24 karat gold.

President Reagan rededicated Lady Liberty on July 4th, 1986.

The Statue Project was one of Peter Kaplan's claims to fame.

He died in 2019 at the age of 79.

His cause of death was lung disease, believed to have been caused by toxic debris in the air following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

He was he was a fascinating man.

And he loved taking pictures of that statue.

And he loved becoming a part really a part of history by helping to save the statue.

Very interesting guy.

We're so glad he claimed came to Eldorado.

And now that picture is a part of part of his U.S. history.

Yes, absolutely.

From one inspiring place to another, the Kansas Flint Hills.

Larry loves the Flint Hills.

Aren't they a vast wonder of nature?

Someone once said.

Are so vast and so wonderful.

And for the couple in this next story, they were also a place of romance where love blossomed late in the final season of life.

This story is about the country.

It's about country people.

It's about living.

And it's about love.

As a matter of fact, it's about two people and their relationship with the land.

It's about two people and their relationship with each other.

The Flint Hills near Cedar Vale, Kansas.

The land for us gently upward, rolling across ancient seabeds.

The prairie is not only grass, rock and dirt.

It's a feeling and a way of life.

Norvell Baker is a relative newcomer to the Hills.

A rancher in Colorado most of his life.

He moved here in 75 and 800 acres of flint hills land are his inside respect for the hills surrounds them.

NORVELL His wife Louise taught school for 40 years, and art was one of her subjects.

It is then, no wonder that pictures on their wall represent a deeper feeling.

A feeling that's found only with those in love with the land, fresh grass.

The Bakers are, as politicians are fond of saying, the grass roots of this country.

Every day of every week they work together with the cattle or with the land.

She drives the truck.

He feeds.

They don't make headlines.

And that's okay.

He probably never will.

It's the land and the cattle and each other.

That's what's important to them.

I take great pride in my cattle.

And I'm very concerned about them as I would be human in one sense of the word.

For the end of the day.

Almost at the same time, we think, I wonder if all the cattle are all right and all of the pastures in Dallas and complete.

We check the pastures.

There's something else you should know about the Bakers.

They are newlyweds, actually.

Less than two years.

Both spouses died of lengthy, tragic cancer related illnesses, but the sun did not set on their lives.

Instead, their broken years became their golden years.

Our families.

Friends and relatives meet us and say, How are you kids like us?

We act like kids, like a theater soap.

And now we realize it's lighter than we think.

We want to live already lives.

I want to be young.

Norval and Louise aren't looking back, trying to change what is now.

They simply reflect on the future.

A future of two people together from near Cedar Vale, Kansas.

This is Larry Hatteberg.

Though joyful and hopeful that future was short.

Norval died a year and a half later at age 74.

But for a period of time, a short period of time, they were in the place, the Flint Hills.

That made him the happiest.

It made him the happiest.

They had hope and they were happy.

And they were happy.

They were in their happy place.

They were before they went to heaven.

They were.

And Larry takes the best pictures in the Flint Hills.

I love the hills.

I think it's one of Kansas, his greatest assets.

And that's why I'm out there.

And your pictures make it look even better.

You're so kind.

And you can see the pictures on Larry how to burn photos.

What's your website?

You know, I haven't published many of those pictures, so they're not where anybody can see.

You can come over to my house.

I've got them on the wall.

Larry.

Okay.

Okay.

What you're going to do this autumn published those foothills pictures.

I'll see if I can do that just for you.

Thank you.

We'll let you know if he does.

Can what you wear make you feel better?

Well, it can, and it does for our city resident Jeff Henderson.

Now, Jeff is known around our Kansas City high school as Mr.

Pink.

Odd color for a guy.

But for Jeff, it's part of his personality and a way to teach tolerance to the students.

All right.

Now, it's been a great day today.

It is lunchtime at our Kansas City High School and the Bulldogs are being watched over by a.

Guy wearing pink.

While you just for fun.

Oh, you know, especially you.

That guy is Jeff Henderson, the in-school suspension supervisor who wears pink every day of his life.

I refuse to wear what people think I should wear or, you know, fit in a category.

I mean, this is the way from float.

It was years ago that his mother bought him a pair of pink slacks.

And from that point on, he fell in love with pink.

I don't hurt anybody with it.

You look good.

You feel good?

I think I look good in pink.

So I wear pink.

And when I see that he's the crack of the.

Baby, you never see him angry.

And it's kind of hard to be when, I don't know, just the way he presents himself.

He's always so happy and he's always so willing to do things for other people.

And I think the name suits him perfectly.

In his school room, pink is everywhere.

The filing cabinet, the chairs, baskets, you name it.

Jeff is surrounded by pink.

For me, it's having my own style.

In his car, the music wasn't Pink Floyd.

But the car, it is a light pink.

It's fun.

And if you follow him home, you'll see family pictures.

His pink cell phone and memorabilia of his work as a policeman in the Air Force.

And of course, more pink walls.

You know.

A man's house is his castle, and you want your castle be the color you want it to be.

So this is a calming color to me.

I have had people come up and ask me, are you gay?

Is that why you wear pink every day?

And I say, No, I wear red because I look good in pink.

And and that's my favorite color.

And that's what I choose to do with every day.

I have my own style.

Was there year that at school a malfunctioning fire alarm put Jeff into full administrative mode?

Just days ago, he believes that if wearing pink is an issue, then that might foster conversation.

And with conversation will come clarity and understanding.

For the kids.

I think they do a great job for the most part of accepting people, more so than some of the some of the adults.

Fun times.

The alarm turned out to be false, but Jeff Henderson isn't a real guy who simply likes pink.

And if the rest of the world doesn't, so be it.

Yeah, I try to live life for, you know, my naivete, but I woke up this morning.

So today is a good day to move from the great.

Now, that story was 29, but the story could have just as well have been done today.

About the only thing that's changed is Jeff doesn't drive that pink Cadillac anymore.

I'd love to have that pink.

I know.

But this is why he doesn't drive a Cadillac anymore.

He now drives a pink Fiat.

In fact, here's a recent picture Jeff sent us.

Is that not the coolest thing ever?

Okay.

He he's a great guy and he's a unique guy.

And those are the kind of people I like to put on how to work.

And we need more of them in the world.

And and every student who went to Park City High School in that generation will.

Remember it, remembers Jeff.

Jeff, when you trade in the pink Fiat.

Give me a call.

Now to a man from the greatest Generation.

Fred Chaddock remembers the war like it was yesterday, but his gold years were spent with his treasures from 2001.

A visit with an unusual man.

Yes, sir.

I love to enjoy life and I love to experiment.

And that born and raised, just eight miles west of Kabul.

We've been here around 52 years.

I'm down here every day and that's good exercise for the old man.

Fred Chaddock is in the downstairs of an upbeat life hobby shop.

Like a hobby museum.

I'll put it that way.

His basement is full of.

Treasures, rocks, arrowheads.

And I got all the heirs, what county they come from.

These unique pictures are made from salt crystals.

And I love to come back down and look what I have done and look.

See what I can do to improve it.

I was always fond of rocks ever since I was a small kid.

I paint them and people come down and they look at them and they say, God, I wish I could do that.

Hey, I just do it to suit myself.

But people love them.

I don't know what I'd do if I didn't do it.

I put it that way.

I think I would go up to the wall.

This here is just something that I can get down here and forget my troubles.

There is always more to a man's life than the stones of time.

There are brushes with greatness.

Yeah.

When the world was at war.

I want to do a job and get home.

Fred repaired General Douglas MacArthur's car.

The General and Fred.

Made a deep impression on each other.

There's the car that we had got for him to drive.

Hey, I got it to run for him.

And he said, You're a farm boy.

I said, Yes, I am.

He might have been a big officer and everything, but I'll tell you, he was more of a kind of like a father to us kids.

Now, this father is only a snapshot away from the past and a stone's throw.

From.

The present.

I just love to do this stuff.

Fred lived another six years.

His son, Glenn, says Fred moved to the Kansas Veterans Home in Winfield in the last year of his life, and he auctioned off all his treasures.

He was 83 when he passed away.

And you know that that happens to all of us.

We all have these treasures that are so important to our life.

And then when we pass, what happens.

When it happens?

Our kids used to want them, but I don't think they do anymore.

But I mean, they're in the hands.

If he auctioned them off, they're in the hands of people.

People who want to.

Really love them and wonderful.

When adventurer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he replied, Of course, because it's there.

Such was the case with a man in Kansas named Joe de Lima.

But in this case, it wasn't a mountain he was climbing.

Just hope the currents and the and the wind and everything are with me Saturday.

In the quiet of a summer morning.

Dreams and reality mix stirred by a rising sun.

I think it's one of the nicer lakes and the surrounding area.

34 year old Joe de Lima knows Lake Cheney well.

It is his Mt.

Everest.

I intend to have a crew of at least six or seven go along with me.

A couple of boats, just in case I should run into trouble out there.

The Lima's challenge was to swim the like.

No one had done it before.

I've been practicing for three years now and I want to get it over with and made it.

As he practiced, only an aggressive snake took notice.

One time I had one wrap around my arm and I think it scared me as much as it scared him.

The morning air gives way to airplanes.

At work, Joe is a pilot for Air Midwest, and he loves challenges.

He used to climb mountains in Utah.

Now his mountain is three miles of lake.

Okay.

We're going to start in about 5 minutes.

De Lima planned a swim across China between Toadstool Loup on the West and Wichita Point on the East Sea.

On the other side.

The three years of training paid off in almost perfect conditions.

Last Saturday, Joe Delmas dream began to turn to reality here.

Yet over halfway halfway on the first Charley horse.

I see him there he is.

That's good.

Nearly one hour and 28 minutes later, Joe de Lima dream came through.

I touched bottom, I guess.

Oh.

Anybody want some champagne?

The best I've ever felt.

I had enough energy to almost go back, I think.

A toast to Teeny Jean, because here.

That was 1989.

And since then, we've lost track of Joe.

His career likely took him to another city.

You know, and it's hard to keep up with people in these times, even though we're connected by the Internet, by a million ways to find people.

We can't always know what happens in people's lives from the left and the right turns that they make in their lives.

We want people to know, though, we make a big effort to track these people down, to tell you where they are right now, because that's a question I get out in the grocery store a lot.

And a compliment.

I love the fact that you tell us where these people are now.

Sometimes we can.

Sometimes we can't.

But we always.

Make enough producers in the world working on this all the time.

And sometimes it works.

Sometimes they're just lost.

They're just lost.

Time for us to hit the road.

Our email is hattebergspeople@kpts.org.

If you have a question or a comment, we thank you so much for watching.

Once again, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Take care.

We will see you again soon.