From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio, PBS Kansas presents Hatteberg's People.

The Richest Lives are not measured by the years we accumulate, but by the precious connections we leave behind.

Coming up on this edition of Hatteberg's People, we uncover a century of wisdom waiting just next door with a 102 year old neighbor.

Then we're going to travel to Augusta to witness a remarkable 75 year love story that started in childhood.

Plus, we share the story of a sweet Kansas woman who proves you don't need to have children of your own to possess a true mother's heart.

And we're going to head out to Harper County to meet the retired mechanic who became the hometown hero for every kid on two wheels.

Yeah, to see those stories and more as another half hour of Hatteberg's People starts right now.

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.

It is so easy to get caught up in our daily routines and completely overlook the people living right next door.

But as this first story demonstrates, a simple introduction can change your entire perspective.

When many Shel celebrated her 102nd birthday, her neighbor Marilyn reflected on how much wisdom and love was sitting right across the fence.

I'm this little country girl and that's all I can make out of me.

There she was, 102 year old Mini Shel, sitting in a big, overstuffed chair surrounded by 87 of her dolls.

Three of her many daughters and a former neighbor, Marilyn Haeg.

How can you touch someone else to let them know that there may be someone living right next door to them?

That's really a wonderful person.

If they just said hi.

How do you do that?

They pay for lives here.

There's a lot of young folks that work on a Harley.

Some days I don't see anybody, so I got to get lonely sometimes for over a year.

Maryland live next door to many.

They shared their lives, talked about life, and many at 102 became an inspiration to her younger neighbor.

I felt many you told me off when I needed to be told off and you gave me advice and and you know that I don't have to tell you that.

Yeah.

There was.

Yeah, she straightened me out, and that's what it was.

I think you become a family, and I don't think you're you're really just a neighbor or just an unconcerned individual.

You become a member of the person's family.

And there was a lot of family.

They were scared of us children.

And whereas all poor and farmers and America, poor man, farmer, a boy and black lives have been loved each other and we live together.

We have shared the six years or maybe longer.

Oh lordy, things has changed so much.

She's not a lazy bone in her body.

Picked cotton and, at home and, plowed and, milk cows and churned.

She doesn't make excuses.

She doesn't say, oh, I'm getting old.

Therefore I can't do this.

She's saying, maybe I'm getting old.

Therefore I better do this so I will have the time right now to do it.

She doesn't make excuses.

She produces.

But I'm happy I can that I'm worth a little.

So her daughters bring her dolls from garage sales and in these old hands, Minnie makes the dolls young again, where she looks more like a baby.

She's able to play more like children, like my children.

Minnie's adult daughters are her support system.

Many lives in her own apartment, and her girls, as she calls them, surround themselves with family memories.

And a mother whose religion is her guiding force.

My Savior, he guides me every step I take.

Never miss rest, I draw, I don't know nothing.

And I'm ready for going anytime.

And if he called me before that happens.

She's touching lives.

Lives like Marilyn Haig's Marilyn, who was first a stranger, then a neighbor, and finally a friend.

I would say God gave me my grandmother, which I had never known when I was a child.

Now is an adult who has a child in her.

At times the good Lord gave me a neighbor who was also my grandmother.

I just love everybody.

I don't have no budget.

I don't love.

You know, some people are just full of love.

I mean, you you meet them and you think that is not only a lovely woman, but that's a woman who I'd like to know because she's full of love and she loves.

And it's that love for other people.

Ain't nobody I don't love that probably kept her alive.

I'm all those years, I'm guessing, at there.

And we don't have enough of those people.

We sure to work.

Okay.

In a world where so much feels temporary, a promise that lasts a lifetime is truly something to marvel at.

Back in 1990, I met a couple in Augusta who knew the true meaning of commitment.

Jim and VI Dennett first crossed paths when they were just children and really never left each other's side.

We just traveled together everywhere we went, and they had.

They've been living together longer than most folks have been alive.

When Jim met VI, she was five.

He was 11 when we were married, the judge said marriage.

Was it something that had to be worked at from boots up?

And that kind of thing and stick with them?

It did.

Jim is 97, VI is 92 and they're still sweethearts.

They've been married nearly 75 years.

Their secret, I would say that's working together.

And if you're working with the public, you've got to stay good.

That I don't know any secret door.

We just done it, that's all.

I know.

Your tan, Jim and VI are not homebodies.

They love to go to the Augusta Senior Center every day.

Here's the segue here.

The seven or the eight?

Oh, look up right here.

It's here.

They see friends they've known for decades.

I don't think Kim applied their age is relative, and Jim and VI are relatively ageless.

Oh, I like to go, but anything that comes along, I'm great.

Go.

One of the most brilliant minds the world has ever known.

Think about it.

These folks were married the year Einstein announced his theory of relativity and World War one was a year old.

He's a pancake cookery.

You have people that's come here, but it's the simple things.

The Jim and VI remember the good times and the bad times, and they all.

But the key is they went through them together and always kept a sense of humor, a true story, and then it just finish.

You love it, girl.

What food on spinach?

I ain't no rabbit.

I don't I don't eat weeds any.

In his younger years, Jim ran a Western auto store and then a grocery store.

Now he lived to be 105.

He lived to be 100 and 505.

All of us should be so wow.

Now.

VI died four years earlier at age 96, but obviously they were enjoying life.

And and they were they were blessed with great genes, living to 105 and 96.

You know, it's not about, literally how like how much you get out of a marriage, but it's about a commitment and that's it.

I don't want to get on my soapbox, but that's what it's all about.

Oh, please.

Go on, go on.

Now that's true.

I truly admire, though.

That's true.

I think some people get married because, well, it's kind of the thing to do.

Yeah, yeah.

And then later on, you're not married anymore.

Yeah.

For them it was a commitment.

It was a true commitment.

Okay, well, this next story proves you do not need to have children of your own to possess a true mother's heart.

Yeah.

We go back to 1987 to meet Mary Nagle.

Now, she never had a family of her own, but her love for children was absolutely boundless.

Rather than keeping that warmth to herself, Mary turned her quiet time into a beautiful mission, handcrafting clothing for needy kids she would likely never even meet.

I am your child.

Tijuana, Mexico.

Children living in a garbage dump.

Children needing help.

I am your child.

Wichita, Kansas Mary Nagle sits in her living room working, knitting and thinking.

Although she's never met these children of poverty, she's close to them.

This year, she made over 100 dresses for Project Concern and International Health Organization.

I've got to keep busy as long as I'm Lord lets me live, and I can't sit here and hold my hands and grow crazy.

So I make little dresses and I make half again and I make baby quilts, you name it.

Now, Megan, some of Mary's friends showed us a small sampling of the dresses she's made so far this year, all for children primarily living in Mexico.

The Lord never let me have a daughter of my own.

And when he called me to this work, I said, Lord, give me money to buy the prettiest material I can find in all of Wichita.

The prettiest buyers binding and let these little things go out to May the daughters of the world.

And I just love children.

I think when I get to have money, if the Lord don't give me a family of 50 children, I'll be happy to stand under my own fig tree and sing to my beloved children.

Mary Nagle is a remarkable woman for many reasons.

The fact that she cares enough to make 100 dresses for needy children is special.

But add to it this fact a few days ago, Mary turned 100 years old.

Well, you know, Sir Larry, I've been so busy all my life, I've never had a chance to grow old.

And I wouldn't know what it felt like, so don't ask me, Rhonda.

I've got so many things to finish before I die.

I'll never get them all done.

So Mary Nagle keeps working, working for children.

She'll never see clothing, children she never had.

And she is living proof.

Not all the saints are in heaven.

I am your child.

You know, working for people, children you will never see.

That is another commitment.

Yeah.

And people who do that and you know, they're selfless, they're self.

They don't work for anybody else.

They don't work for themselves.

They work for that child.

Right.

That child.

And can you imagine, though, what it did to her mother's heart?

I mean, her heart as, mother with no children, but she was still a mother, so it had to have warmed her mother's heart as well.

And everybody else around him.

Okay, we're going to go to Rush Center, and there's a woman there they called Aunt Effie.

For many years, every crawl slung some of the best hash anywhere.

Boy, she did.

But it wasn't just the food that kept customers coming back.

I knew everybody.

There was about 175 of us probably live here in town, and people move in and move out, and you don't even know who they are in your.

I just describe it as a place everybody needs to come to.

Yeah.

Nobody's a stranger here.

Yeah, we eat here at least four times a week.

That's what I did all my life.

How would I sit down now?

This is a crowd like you did.

Oh, what?

Like you.

Oh, she runs Effie's in Rush Center.

If it was work, I'd quit.

You know?

And it's like I can't stand to stay home.

Kids didn't want me to work anymore.

And my daughter, my son don't care.

But he said, you stay at it as long as you want to.

Mom.

You know, spring chicken.

She's a worker.

Well, I was 83 in July, and I'm.

I'm proud to be an 83 year old.

I can get up and do what I want to do.

Since 1965, she is owned and been the sole cook for this little place.

And the next thing, just a gravy by itself.

And if a stranger comes in, I usually find out who they are and I. There are no strangers anymore.

I mean, they're oh, you okay?

That one.

We're going to go on a plate and water.

Yeah.

Okay.

Maybe half a gravy.

Okay.

Gotcha.

That's real gravy made like my mom used to make it.

It's the people.

Exactly.

If I didn't have those people, I wouldn't be working.

Like I said, I wouldn't even care to.

It's my people out there.

I would get to see all the neighbors and visit.

And we're just sitting at home anyhow.

So we just.

We'll sit down here and visit.

They're all retired lawyers and dentists and doctors, and they all come out for their hamburger on as.

I wouldn't be happy anyplace else.

So when I get to heaven, I'm still going to be cooking hamburgers.

Now, after they finally retired in 2016, the restaurant unfortunately no longer open and she passed away in 2023 at age 97.

And I think she lived so long because she enjoyed what she was.

She loved cooking for other, loved cooking and ash and the interaction of customers when they came.

And she just died a few years ago, just going to heaven a few years ago.

But she lives on in Hattiesburg.

She does.

Okay, let's go to Harper County now, where every kid in Anthony knew Bob Jackson.

Yeah.

Now, Bob was technically retired when I visited him in 1990, but he didn't have much time for taking it easy because there were chains to fix, tires to patch, gears to calibrate, and a lot of people depending on it.

Take a look right now, work up a good appetite.

The peppers are ripe.

The garden still needs tilling, flowers are blooming and Bob Jackson of Anthony is retired.

But this man's retirement is a lifestyle that leaves no time to sit in retirement.

He's still working mighty hard.

To sweat what's left?

Oh, you thought his garden was his retirement hobby?

Wrong.

Oh, he's got bikes.

Oh, I've got a bunch.

Maybe between 800 and 1000 bicycles.

As a matter of fact, he's got bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes and more bikes.

Guy.

No.

Retire.

When you're in work on bicycles, there are no stop.

Get done with no.

You just start another one.

For 25 years, Bob has been collecting bicycles for his retirement.

He's worked on them part time for the towns folks.

Now it's full time.

I just associate with people and helping kids out.

Just something keep busy and it's fun.

Has no trick to these work and they just step up as you shift them.

This bicycle made in Holland with hundreds and hundreds of bikes and parts and fenders and wheels and chains scattered out over his storage areas, one could feel a little overwhelmed.

But not Bob.

No, not really.

It's pretty simple.

Just kind of dig to find some of it.

You know where most a part time, there's a certain way to take them apart and certainly put them back together.

I got too many parts, but that's all.

I ride about four miles a day and walk a mile a mile and a half day.

Me and my wife kind of talk things over and visit and visit with the people walking.

Yeah, that's my last place.

Rocking chair.

Oh, I watch sports, but I don't care if you're rocking chair.

I'll just be out here working when I find something to do.

I mean, sit down.

You just quit.

If you got good health, you might as well enjoy it.

Now, prior to this, Bob had attended school for watchmaking and fixed timepieces for several years that, in addition to working at Beech Aircraft and then as a heavy equipment operator.

But my guess is what he really enjoyed was fixing the bicycle tires for the kids.

I mean, he's done everything.

Oh yeah, he has.

And the bike repairs, kept him busy for many years.

Finally, in 2013, Bob passed away at age 85.

Yeah, he lived he lived a great life and helped a lot and helped a lot of kids.

Okay, the heartbeat of a small town is rarely measured in population.

It is measured by the stories its people chose to share with one another.

And in 1987, I met a woman who took responsibility seriously.

Nancy Crumb was the proud editor of her local newspaper.

She understood that in a close knit community, the headlines are more than just information.

They are the ties that bind everyone in that community together.

Find is try to do my best.

I grew up around here, so I kind of know what people, you know, we try to get in the paper what people around here would enjoy reading.

I worked here when I was in high school.

But I've been editor since about July.

I just try to get the most recent news on the front page.

There's a lot of times there's not much going on.

A lot of times it'll fill the front page.

Plus more.

You know, some of the meetings that were going on or some they've already had.

Mostly around here.

It's like agriculture and farming and different things like that.

So like we have a farming news and the extension news, which a lot of them are interested in.

The Cook's two by two ad is on car page.

Okay.

Okay.

Genie free.

Jack.

It's up there at the it's on Howard Moline page.

Okay.

Winston insurance.

I do a lot of the books and everything.

I send out the bills, plus I go sell ads.

I've, I've read I've written a few articles, not too many, but I've went and covered the different things they've asked me to cover.

I mean, I do a lot of different things.

This community is lot mostly senior citizens, really, but they look forward to seeing the paper every week.

I mean, we get calls if something's not in the paper, they get a little disgusted with this.

You know, that we didn't get it in because they expected it to be in there.

But they, a lot of the older people look forward to our paper.

I mean, you know, we don't want to let them down.

Just because we're small does not mean a thing.

I mean, you know, we're just like the larger communities.

I mean, things happen, the things that need to be reported on.

I think, you know, people need to know.

And that's what we're here for.

Our small town paper.

Is there any paper to let people know what is going on in the community?

They wouldn't know if.

You know a lot of them wouldn't know what's going on if we didn't see it in the paper.

I enjoy working with the people and helping the community out.

I try I mean, you know, I don't know what they expect from me, but I try to do my best.

Now, nearly 40 years later, Nancy has long given up the news business.

She is now the owner and operations manager for C Cross Custom Welding in Howard, Kansas.

The newspaper went out of business a long time ago, and I regret that because so many, so many newspapers and men across the state, across every state, are going out of business.

And I miss those newspapers.

I miss having the Wichita Eagle in my hand as a newspaper.

I know you can still get it, but it's not that easy to get anymore.

But the smaller newspapers really had a purpose in their community.

You know who else is going to cover your son as he makes the only winning shot in the basketball game?

No, but nobody.

But in a small town, they.

Do you like to see his name in print or your name in print?

And at the risk of sounding a little bit older.

Okay, so, miss, holding a newspaper in your hand every morning.

But I mean, not that we don't read it online anymore but I'm sorry.

There's something about holding it in your hand.

Don't you guys agree.

Yeah I'm sure they agree.

My daughters would have the newspaper in the morning before they went to school, spread out, and they were reading stories or the comics or a puzzle or something.

That was wonderful.

It was a tradition.

That's, darn it, long gone, unfortunately, but it lives on in how it works, people.

It does.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, that is a wrap for this week.

We want to remind you now that federal funding has been taken away, PBS Kansas needs your help to continue producing programs like Harrisburg's People now, Susan and I volunteer our time, but producing television shows is very expensive.

And if you would like to support the ongoing production of Harrisburg's people, you can go to kpt.org and make a $100 donation to help keep this show funded.

As a thank you for your donation, your name will appear before and after future shows.

As a valued supporter, thank you for watching.

This week I'm Susan Peters and I'm Laurie at a burg.

We hope to see you again very soon.