It's time for Positively Kansas.

Coming up, this Wichita native for the first time reveals details of how he helped save the world from nuclear war.

Also meet the Wichita Restauranteur.

Who doesn't just feed her customers?

She shares the highs and lows of life with them and creates memories.

Plus is 72 the new 22?

Maybe if you're Dale Bing, he continues doing extreme sports and competing to win And we explore the lives of some great women of Kansas, and see how they've impacted life across the country and around the world.

Im Sierra Scott.

A half hour of information and Inspiration is cued up and ready to roll on this edition of Positively Kansas.

A few things have impacted world affairs more than the atomic bomb.

For decades, a Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union created an underlying feeling of unease that led some people to fear the end of the world.

Ralph Hollis experienced this fear as a young man here in Kansas, and it influenced the course of his life.

Jim Grawe shows us how Hollis, his work on rockets and computers helped protect our world from the unthinkable.

In the 1950s and 60s, an undercurrent of fear consumed the consciousness of everyday Americans.

Among them Ralph Hollis.

I was scared to death that we would be nuked.

As a teenager growing up on a farm near Wichita.

Hollis wondered if he'd ever lived to see adulthood.

We were kind of in some sense, one of the ground zeros for possible attack because of Boeing and the aircraft industry at McConnell Air Force Base and all of that.

when I grew up in Wichita, it was clear that that this place was a target.

In 1955, Hollis and some classmates at Wichita Southeast High School felt compelled to do something.

So they started developing and testing their own rockets.

Rocketry was a new technology, and these young Kansans realized it could be the key to protecting the United States from a Soviet attack.

Hollis writes about it in his memoir, Countdown to Launch Rockets, computers, and Coming of Age in the Cold War.

The first half of the book as Wichita centric.

I told my story of launching rockets on the farm and then analyzing their flight.

Using early digital computers at the University of Wichita.

Even when I was in high school, and, and then later, because of that experience and analyzing my rockets flights using computers, I was assigned the job at North American Aviation Automatics division to, write software for the Minuteman three intercontinental ballistic missile.

The original Minuteman missile was first deployed in 1962.

1000 were located across the central U.S..

Unlike earlier missiles, the Minuteman used solid fuel that meant it could be placed in a silo and kept there ready to launch for years without any maintenance.

By 1970, the US was ready to deploy an updated version.

The Minuteman three could carry three warheads at a time and drop each one on a different target.

So suddenly the United States, starting in 1970, had, had like three times as many warheads, with the same number of missiles.

As a computer engineer at North American Aviation in Anaheim, California.

He wrote the software for the Minuteman Three's flight simulator.

That simulator was essential to proving the Minuteman three would work as designed, since there was no physical way to fully test such a destructive device.

More than half a century later, 400 of those Minuteman threes are still in place, ready to be launched.

Ralph Hollis, meanwhile, went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics and become a college professor.

But from 1955 to 1970, he was a critical player in the life and death cause of protecting America from a nuclear attack.

And it all began on a Sedgwick County farm with model rockets and a determined curiosity to do something about the dangerous predicament the world was facing.

In Wichita for Positively Kansas.

I'm Jim Gray.

In recent years, Hollis has focused his career on robotics.

He currently serves as professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, where he's helping develop the next generation of robots for use in medicine and manufacturing, among other things.

Now, an update on a Wichita man who proves age is definitely just a number.

Back in 2019, we profiled Dale Bing as he prepared to compete in Hawaii's grueling Ironman Triathlon at the age of 67.

Now closing in on 72, Dale shows us his latest fitness, passion and challenge.

Gravel bike racing Anthony Powell has the story at a time when most people his age are taking it easy.

Dale Bing is hard at work practicing his gravel bike racing skills.

My, all my friends know that I don't like the old or old.

I, you know, some people just dwell on it, you know, and I try to just forget it.

I'm a person.

I'm going to race with the 40 year olds.

You know, I just try to ignore it and just keep right on going.

Gravel bike racing is Dell's latest fitness challenge.

Already a strong rider from competing in triathlons, including the king of them all, Hawaii's Ironman when he was 67.

Some of Dale's friends convinced him to try a different kind of biking, even for someone as fit as Dale.

Gravel racing is tough.

There's a lot of control of the bike.

You have to you have to get accustomed to, you're just not as steady on.

It is slower.

It's harder.

Not to mention the balancing.

In Butler County, I've done several races over there.

They have those white rocks.

It's about like this.

And I tell you, Anthony, it's about like being on marbles sometimes when they put down fresh gravel.

As much as Dale enjoys the workout and competition he gets from gravel racing, he admits, I like the beer afterwards.

You know, probably the best.

But hey, at least you're on it.

Yeah.

Dale also tells us he's met a new group of friends who cheer each other on, and later reflect on their rides.

Well, it's a sense of accomplishment.

I mean, you know, you're just tuckered out afterwards, and everybody can sit around and talk about the hills that we climbed and the rough roads.

But it's not just biking that keeps Dale in shape.

He also spent many hours at the northwest YMCA doing strength and cardio work.

That's because in addition to gravel racing, Dale continues to do some triathlons, a grueling combination of swimming, biking, and the long run.

To top it off.

Dale considers himself a slow swimmer, but once he gets on the bike, his confidence soars and he starts zeroing in on the competition like he did at a Tulsa Triathlon.

And when I got on the bike, I started counting.

And, just something to do.

It's 56 mile bike and, passed 136 people on the bike.

So, so.

Oh, yeah.

probably 99% of them younger than me.

But it's folks his own age and older that Dale really hopes to reach about exercise being so important to improve quality of life.

You feel much better.

You sleep much better.

Your attitude is much better.

You worry less as you get older.

You know, worries start to creep into your mind, you know, because quite frankly, you're kind of like at the end of your life and doing this blocks that out makes you feel better.

In his 70s, Dale Bing has never felt better about life, and he plans to keep on pushing for many years to come.

For Positively Kansas, I'm Anthony Powell.

In case anybody wants to try gravel bike racing, Dale suggests getting real comfortable on pavement trails first.

Gravel, he says, makes it tough to control a bike, so learning how to do so on other surfaces first is essential.

For all the attention that famous men have received through the generations.

The impact of women, particularly Kansas women, have had on the world is nothing short of astounding.

From government to aviation to world exploration and beyond, Kansas women to blaze trails that have transformed life around the globe.

Here's Chris Frank with the story.

Kansas has a rich history of great women making notable contributions in various fields.

Now consider Amelia Earhart, the great aviatrix born in Atchison.

The mystery over the disappearance of Amelia Earhart continues more than 87 years later.

However, a recent sonar image might be that of her missing plane and may yet bring closure to the mystery.

Earhart, with her navigator Fred Noonan, captured the world's attention back in 1937.

In their quest to fly around the globe in Earhart's Lockheed electric plane, OSA Johnson, a friend of their hearts, was a famous Kansas filmmaker and author.

The Chanute native gained fame exploring South Pacific islands and African jungles.

So you think you know about Carrie Nation.

Most people only know about the saloon smashing the woman from Medicine Lodge did with her hatchets while holding a Bible in her other hand.

But Carrie was a lot more than just attacking bars with hatchets.

There are many stories about great women of Kansas to tell.

For example, one can pass through the small Sumner County town of Argonian without having any reason to think history was made here.

So many years ago.

This is her at 27 years of age when she became mayor.

Mayor Susanna medora Salter, a Kansas small town homemaker, broke a glass ceiling to become the first woman ever elected mayor in an American community.

She gained worldwide fame being that first elected woman mayor.

The salt, her home Museum in Our Gona has several congratulatory letters written to Susanna.

Back in 1887, those include letters for such notables as abolitionist and women's rights advocate Susan B Anthony, praising Salter for her electoral breakthrough.

And the letter says perfect equality of rights for women, civil and political, is a demand of.

Yours sincerely, Susan B Anthony.

What really stands out about the Salter story is this Salter had no political ambitions.

She wasn't seeking the mayoral position.

The job was thrust upon her.

The actions by a group of men bullies trying to shame Salter instead backfired on them.

The men put her name on the ballot, hoping she would lose badly instead.

Salter won, shaming the men from all appearances.

She was happy to be in the role of a traditional, loving wife to husband Lewis Salter.

She was most interested in raising their children, keeping their home while Lewis ran a local hardware store.

Now, the name OSA Johnson might not jump out to many Kansans unless they grew up in Chanute in southeast Kansas.

That's where the Martin and OSA Johnson Safari Museum is.

There you can learn all about those great pioneers of documentary filmmaking, which captivated worldwide attention from the 1920s into the 1950s.

Martin Johnson of Independence, Kansas, started the adventurous work.

OSA married Martin and they became a great team, introducing the world to peoples in places outsiders had never seen at that time.

I do think, oh, says one of the great women.

I actually think she's one of the great women of the United States, because of the things that she did from all over.

Johnson was a fearless pioneer in a man's world.

The team of Martin and Louisa Johnson captured the untamed beauty of the wild and brought the mysteries of distant lands into the hearts and homes of millions.

At times, Rosa stood guard with her rifle while Martin filmed wildlife.

And she had to protect Martin and herself from lions and rampaging rhino.

At other times, OSA worked behind the camera or became the camera's subject as she interacted with animal subjects.

She was the star.

Yeah.

She was.

This the the actress, if you will, the star of their documentary films.

And they each authored ten books and Kansas schoolchildren read them.

Her book primarily venture in 1943 64, was reading Required in Kansas Schools because it had been such a hit worldwide.

But also it was a woman, a famous woman, that did this and was a role model.

As mentioned earlier, OSA was friends with Amelia Earhart.

Both were pilots.

Johnson not on the level with Earhart's flying, but the Johnsons pioneered aerial filming in their African safaris.

Johnson the Earhart each funded their adventures by authoring books.

Both use their fame with their own lines of clothing and endorsing products.

Earhart had a line of luggage.

Earhart lived in many different states in her lifetime.

She always thought, though highly, of her birthplace of Atchison, in her grandparents house.

She always looked at Atchison as her home.

It's her birthplace and her home, and I. I believe that some of her happiest days were when she was living with the Odysseus.

This is the Otis's home.

Amelia's maternal grandparents, Alfred and Amelia Otis.

This is the house that Amelia Earhart was born in July 24th, 1897.

Earhart struggled to earn enough money to pay for flying lessons.

Yet she became the 16th woman to earn her pilot's license in the U.S.. Years later, publisher George Putman was hired to search for an appropriate woman to fly across the Atlantic in a plane piloted by two men.

Earhart was selected.

I think her break to be asked to fly across the Atlantic with the gentleman pilots was her big break.

Amelia again was Dalton.

Gordon is giving up big city welcome.

Wilmer Stoltz did all the flying.

Louis Gordon was a mechanic.

Earhart likened her presence on the plane to being dead weight baggage.

Yet the flight propelled her into the limelight with ticker tape parades, and inspired Earhart to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a solo flight a few years later.

But what most remember is the ill fated world flight ending in the Central Pacific with navigator Fred Noonan in January 2024.

Sonar images perhaps recorded the Lockheed Electra plane not confirmed at this story's production date.

Earhart's disappearance mystery has always been part of her legacy.

Now, another great woman of Kansas will also forever be connected to her role in aviation.

Ollie Van Beach in later life became known as the First Lady of Aviation.

Ollie, then Miller, started out life in Waverly, Kansas.

The family moved to payola and later to Wichita.

Miller skipped high school to attend secretarial and business college.

At the age of 21.

All.

He then got a job opportunity that started her on a path of greatness.

A new fledgling Wichita aviation startup company by the name of Travel there in the delay.

No neighborhood needed a secretary.

Clyde Cessna hired Miller to manage the front office.

Walter Beach was part of the Cessna Lloyd Stearman Beach executive team.

Beach laid eyes on Miller and it was love at first sight.

The world may see Mrs. Beach as a trailblazer and glass ceiling breaker for other women, but perhaps oblivion never thought there was a ceiling for her to even break.

I don't think she believed in glass ceilings.

I don't think she believed in impediments.

I don't know whether she was just blessed with an arm wheel and you know, strong enough to make her way.

I don't know, I mean, she never talked about being Henriette.

Anything she wanted to do.

Another woman determined not to be stopped by obstacles was Carrie Nation.

Now, many states can lay claim to a nation connection.

Kentucky.

Missouri.

Texas.

Arkansas and Kansas.

But Carrie came to fame while living in Medicine Lodge, where her home museum is located.

Nation saw firsthand how alcohol abuse destroyed individuals and families.

She made it her mission to counter alcohol abuse.

What many don't know about is how benevolent she was when she saw a person in need.

Lyda Connelly is unique, being the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lyda and her two sisters, Lina and Ida, fought to protect the former Huron Indian Cemetery in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.

It's now called the Wyandotte National Burying Ground.

Back in the early 1900s, Kansas City developers wanted to remove the cemetery and put a new city hall there.

The Connelly sisters lived in a shack on the grounds, and with their shotgun, kept developers away until they won federal protection.

There are great stories of Kansas women fighting for the rights of southeast Kansas coal miners.

They were dubbed the Amazon Army by the New York Times.

Local authorities back then thought of them as terrorists.

Kansas women standing out in our history, enduring the hardships while pioneering the state.

They answered the call to work in factories doing so-called men's work during World War Two.

And although they were marginalized in so many ways, Kansas women worked to overcome barriers to earn women's rights for future generations.

This is Chris Frank for Positively Kansas.

There's much more to see and discover.

And the new PBS Kansas documentary Great Women of Kansas.

Learn more about it at CPGs, dawg.

The remarkable design of nature and the amazing ways all the parts work together make the Kansas outdoors so fascinating.

And this week's Kansas Wild Edge Report.

Mike Blair focuses his camera on wildflowers and the amazing little critters always hovering around them.

Wildflowers are the glory of each growing season.

Colorful and fruitful, they fill the land with beauty and food.

They're always ready to occupy open niches with Bountiful growth.

They get important help from pollinators.

Various insects and birds that feed on flowers are an important part of flower reproduction.

Flowers have sweet nectar.

Attracted to these feeders.

Some visitors come solely for this high energy drink full of carbohydrates.

Others like these gather flower pollen for food.

Pollen has essential proteins that are mixed into honey to help feed the hive.

These have specialized hairs on their hind legs where pollen is stored and transported.

When full, these are quite noticeable, containing the yellow or orange pollen grains.

Busy as a bee has meaning since these and other feeders work tirelessly throughout their lives, moving from flower to flower.

And this unwittingly helps wildflowers create healthy seeds.

As insects feed and gather pollen, grains stick to their bodies.

Pollen is the male gamete needed to fertilize the female flower structure.

When a visitor moves to a similar flower, some pollen is brushed off where it helps the receiver plant reproduce.

Genetically, this makes strong and vibrant seeds ready to grow for the next season.

Butterflies and moths, though they don't actively gather pollen, are common accidental couriers in this process.

Pollen dust rides on their bodies as they go.

Here you can see pollen grains stuck to the butterfly's feeding tube.

Butterflies and moths can travel and pollinate flowers over long distances in a day.

These wasps, beetles, even hummingbirds, help wildflowers produce strong and healthy seed crops.

It's another fascinating process that marks the Kansas outdoors.

I'm Mike Blair for Positively Kansas.

Next time Mike explores water and some creatures that can get ornery if you don't respect their space.

The next story is about a woman named Kay.

She's a creative visionary behind walk, a beloved restaurant in the heart of Wichita where culinary artistry meets heartfelt hospitality.

For over three decades, Kay is delighted in capturing the vibrant moments of their patrons dining experiences, immortalizing them as snapshots adorning the walls of her restaurant.

Each photograph tells a story, a testament to the enduring connections fostered within the walls of Mana Walk, with a passion for both food and community.

Kay has created a space where every visit is not just a meal, but a cherished memory captured in time.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

PositivelyKansas@KPTS.ORG, is our email address if you want to write.

I'm Sierra Scott.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you again soon.