Author: Museum Staff

The Kearny County Historical Society’s Annual Meeting was held April 18th at the Veterans Memorial Building. Seventy-five people signed the guest book, and four signed up for memberships that evening.

President Linda Peters welcomed everyone in attendance. The crowd stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the blessing was given by Bob Price, second vice-president. Next, a delicious meal of pulled pork, New Orleans potatoes, baked beans, rolls, coleslaw and cupcakes was enjoyed. The meal was catered by Webbs BBQ.

Following the meal, Peters introduced the board members and Museum employees. Minutes from the 2025 Annual Meeting were included in the program and approved as read. Treasurer Marilyn Wolfe presented the 2025 year-end financial report, and the financial report was approved as read.

Peters announced that the KCHS will probably start charging a minimal fee for the meal in 2027 due to budget cuts. She also gave a review of museum activities in 2025 which included school tours, Night @ the Museum, work on the White House porches, replacement of the lights in front of the Main Building, the award of a Western Kansas Community Foundation grant, the receipt of an antique truck from the Joe Tarbett estate, and the continuation of newsletters and Julie’s weekly article in The Lakin Independent. The Museum had 865 guests from 19 states and seven different countries sign the register in 2025.

Next order of business was the election of board members. Karen Burden, Robbie McCombs, Bob Price, Brenda Rios and Marilyn Wolfe were all up for re-election. Joe Eskelund, long-time board member, opted not to run again. Other names submitted for the ballot were John Craig and Wilma Day.

Following the collection of ballots, Julie McCombs introduced Steve and Suzanne Germes, former Lakin residents who now live in Topeka. Steve portrayed Fred Harvey, and his eldest son, Ford, while Suzanne portrayed Harvey’s personnel manager, Alice Steele. Their program covered how Harvey came to be known as the “Father of Hospitality” and the “Civilizer of the American Southwest.” Following Harvey’s death, his children continued in their father’s shoes expanding the Fred Harvey Company into other venues with Fred’s signature style of excellence.

McCombs announced election results. All incumbents were returned to office, and Craig was elected to fill the vacancy. Karen Burden, Kelley McCormick and Lisa Grant won the door prizes.

In celebration of the nation’s 200th birthday in 1976, Americans across the country took part in a very unique road trip, the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Described as a replay of history in reverse, five trains of covered wagons crossed the country from West to East adhering as closely as possible to original pioneer trails and wagon routes. The event was sponsored and planned by the Bicentennial Commission of Pennsylvania which provided an authentic Conestoga or prairie schooner for each state as well as a Pennsylvanian Conestoga and chuck wagon to accompany each of the main caravans. Citizens were also encouraged to join the trek on horseback or in their own wagons for all or part of the journey.

When the covered wagons made evening camp, singers, dancers and musicians in buckskins and ginghams entertained with ballads, reels and other early American songs and dances. Reenactments and local celebrations in towns along the routes also took place.

A caravan of four covered wagons kicked off the first leg of their journey at the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, CA, on New Year’s Day. The train traveled through Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, picking up official wagons from each of those states along with several privately owned wagons and numerous riders on horseback. The train arrived at Coolidge, KS April 5 and was joined by a prairie schooner representing Kansas.

The wagons rolled into Kearny County shortly before noon on April 7. They stopped for a short noonday repast and were greeted by the official nine-member welcoming committee. Also present were Lakin students Sonja Smith and Rob Jaeger and Deerfield student Pete Ramirez. Smith won the local Bicentennial essay contest for high school students while Jaeger and Ramirez won the poster contests for grade schoolers. These three were invited by the wagon master to ride in the wagons to Loucks Park.

Elsie Heisinger joined the group at Kendall, and Dick Grusing, driving his wagon loaded with the local folks, welcomed Jack Pepper who kept the entire wagon train entertained with his guitar playing and singing as they made their way the last 12 miles. Twenty wagons and some 75 to 100 trail riders were in the train when it arrived.

A crowd estimated at over 500 persons greeted the wagoneers as they entered Loucks Park and the rodeo grounds. The Lakin High School marching band, dressed in full uniform, played while the wagons made their circle for the night’s encampment.

The job of feeding around 225 hungry wagon train members, workers and visiting dignitaries began about 5 p.m. The meal was prepared by volunteers with the Kearny County Saddle Club donating and barbecuing the beef. Some 35 pounds of pinto beans grown in Wichita County and donated by Bryant Holmes of the Leoti Standard were consumed along with gallons of potato salad and pans of piping hot cornbread made by USD 215 lunchroom cooks. Karen Burden was chairman of the committee to arrange a reception, overnight stay, and a place to present the show put on by the troupe traveling with the wagon train.

Also as part of the festivities, Pony Express riders presented scrolls bearing the names of Deerfield and Wichita and Grant county residents to the wagon master of the Bicentennial Wagon Train. These scrolls, Pledges of Rededication reaffirming the people’s belief in American principles, were relayed from rider to rider. Kearny County Saddle Club President Butch Anderson arranged the ride and coordinated the efforts of the Lakin riders with those of the Leoti Rough Riders Saddle Club and the Easy Riders Saddle Club of Ulysses. The transfer point for the Grant county group was the Menno Road. Kearny County riders making the run from Menno Road to Lakin were Bret Tate, Wade Berlier, James Davis and John Moore. Brian Dumler, Tammy Hammons, Troy Hammons, Jack Coyne and Neil Schibbelhut rode the route from the Wichita-Kearny County line, and Gary Patton, Teal Burrows and Bill Jennings brought the Deerfield scrolls to Lakin.

The Bicentennial Wagon Train had special meaning for all of Kansas. As it traversed the Santa Fe Trail, the old gateway to the southwest, the prairie schooners and Conestogas were reminiscent of early Kansans coming from the east to settle a new land. The wagoneers were experienced trail riders and teamsters. Students, craftsmen, professional people, housewives and even some grandparents joined the train in the spirit of patriotism. The train crossed into Missouri May 5, and a few days later met up with more wagons from the Oregon Trail wagon train. They were loaded onto river barges and floated to Pittsburgh by way of the Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio rivers. All the caravans that were spaced across the US converged at Valley Forge for an encampment and Bicentennial festivities July 4th.

SOURCES: Ford Presidential Library; Museum archives; and archives of The Lakin Independent, South Pasadena Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle. Photo credits: Vivian Fletcher Fankhauser and Lakin Independent.

Fred Harvey’s business ventures in Kearny County were not limited to Lakin’s two-story railroad dining hall. He also owned one of the largest ranches in the area. When Harvey learned a herd of 10,000 cattle had been put up for sale, he reached out to William Strong of the A,T & SF Railroad, and offered him the chance to be his partner in ranching. Soon, Harvey and Strong partnered up with another Santa Fe executive. Harvey spent $4,000 for his share with an option to purchase the rest, and the men established the XY Ranch about six miles east of Lakin. Headquarters were north of the tracks near Deerfield while the range sat south of the railroad. Eventually Harvey and his partners bought so much land that the XY range spread over 4,000 square miles, extending down through the Oklahoma Panhandle and into Texas. This made the XY almost as big as the state of Connecticut.

Major Falls was in charge of the ranch, but quite a number of hands were needed to operate the enterprise among whom was Samuel Harris Corbett. During the four years Corbett was employed, he traversed the Harvey range from Garden City west to Hartland, and the spring roundups brought him in contact with almost every hill and vale within a radius of 250 miles.

Another ranch hand was a young lad by the name of Eli Hall. Eli left Chicago at the age of 18 in 1882 to seek his fortune as a cowboy in the West. He promised his childhood sweetheart that he would return to Illinois in a few years and marry her. Eli quickly earned the nickname “Romeo” from the other cowboys while working for the XY. In the fall of 1885, the young cowpoke came down with the fever and was eventually taken to Deerfield’s railroad section house to receive medical care, but sadly Eli lived only a few more days. A casket was made from boxcar doors, and the young man’s body was interred on the hill on the south side of the Eastern ditch at Deerfield where he often sat upon his pony gazing over the broad expanse of prairie, river and sandhills. In 1886, a schoolhouse was built near his grave, and the grassed-over mound of Eli “Romeo” Hall’s final resting place was visible in the school yard for years to come.

Ranch life was dangerous but also exciting. The boys had to continually be on the lookout for hostile Indians and cattle rustlers. Those were the days of the open range before barbed wire fencing. During roundup time, there were often more than 200 cowboys roaming Harvey’s land looking for XY cattle or others that had strayed from nearby herds. At night, there would be huge campouts where cowboys would drink and share stories.

Each cowboy had a favorite pony which he dearly loved. One such horse was Gyp. Gyp was not only the favorite steed of his rider, Jim Mahoney, but of every cowboy who knew of the horse. Gyp was born, branded and raised on the XY and was said to have run in 100 races, winning every time. One night during a roundup, some horse traders camped with the cowboys.  The traders had a racehorse that had been raking in the money, and they soon let it be known they wanted to arrange a race. The cowboys kept quiet about Gyp’s record, allowing the strangers to think Gyp would be easy prey. The strangers would not race for less than a $100 purse which sort of took the cowboys’ breath away at first as money was mighty scarce. Five dollars looked like a big stake at that time. The more the Missourians bragged, the more anxious the cowboys were to back up Gyp, and finally the money was made up.

The strangers wouldn’t let their horse run on the prairie; they insisted on going where there was a hard track. Mahoney finally agreed, and with the foreman’s consent, took Gyp to Lakin where there was a smooth hard stretch of the Santa Fe Trail reaching from the old depot eastward to the east ford of the Arkansas. Gyp‘s quick pace gave him the initial lead against the longer strides of his opponent, a glossy black horse by the name of Prince, but soon Gyp’s lead was shortened with every second. Mahoney felt desperate. While touching Gyp on his shoulder, he managed to strike with much more force than usual in a seemingly accidental way. At the same time, he spoke to Gyp in the loving voice he always used on the range, yet with a strong note of urgency, “Come Gyp. Do your best, old boy.” Gyp seemed electrified. He leaped forward, fairly spurning the ground with his swift, light hoof beats and exultingly reached the wire a full body length ahead of Prince amid shouting and rejoicing from spectators. Mahoney stood at his horse’s head patting him, and Gyp bent his knee and dropped his head for the audience like a little bow of acknowledgement.

Fred Harvey always stopped at the XY to check up on his cowboys and the livestock during eating house inspection trips. He loved the cattle business, and about 1882, Harvey took full ownership of the ranch. Even though he owned several thousand head of cattle, they did not provide Harvey easier access to meat for his restaurants. Since the West had few slaughterhouses and scant refrigeration, cattle were still shipped live on the railroad cars back to Chicago or Kansas City to be butchered.

An increasing number of settlers in southwest Kansas led Harvey to move the XY farther west in 1885. The May 30, 1885 Kearny County Advocate reported, “Major Falls, XY manager, of Granada, was on our streets Tuesday morning. The major has moved the XY ranch from Deerfield to Granada, Col., where they now have permanent quarters. Lakin will miss the boys very much.” Harvey’s Colorado operation expanded into raising dairy cattle and chickens for his eating houses, and with much of the acreage under irrigation, produce was grown for Harvey’s dining halls as well. Harvey’s ranch was one of the most successful in the valley.

Fred Harvey died in 1901, and that same year, The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Illinois reported that D.H. Bane and Owen Bassett, two wealthy Illinois capitalists, had purchased the XY for $250,000. The expansive acreage of choice Arkansas Valley land was to be broken up into 20 and 40-acre tracts. Decades later, a portion of the XY was used for the Granada Relocation Center (also known as Amache) during World War II.

The program for the Kearny County Historical Society Annual Meeting will be about Fred Harvey, his Harvey Houses, and the entrepreneur’s role in civilizing the West. Harvey will be portrayed by Steve Germes, and Steve’s wife, Suzanne, will take on the role of Alice Steele, Harvey’s head of personnel. This April 18^th event promises to be entertaining and educational. If you haven’t placed your reservation yet, please do so by 3 p.m. April 9 by calling the Museum at 620-355-7448.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. I; Appetite for America by Stephen Fried; National Park Service; and Archives of the Kearny County Advocate, Lamar Register, Rocky Ford Enterprise, and The Pantagraph. Photo courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society.

Missionaries began visiting Kearny County in 1888 to preach to Lutheran settlers here. The first was the Rev. J.H. Hamm of Bellefont, Kansas who was followed by seven others over the next several years. Although the times and conditions were not ideal, the missionaries and the Lutheran families did not mind. Services were conducted in school houses, private residences or whatever place was best suited for them. Some services were conducted in Deerfield and others in Lakin. During these years, “the little flock of Lutherans” steadily grew and were anxious to organize into a congregation.

In 1906, the services of the Rev. Theo Arndt of Lydia were acquired. Since Rev. Arndt was able to come more often than the missionaries before him, new hope filled the members and they could envision the possibilities that lie ahead. On April 15, 1906, a constitution was accepted and signed by 15 charter members with Henry Entz, William Meyer and Peter Schroeder serving as the first elders.

Desiring a suitable church home, the decision to build was made at the May 27 meeting that year. At first the congregation decided to erect a school, but in a meeting held that fall, they opted instead to build a church. The congregation was given additional encouragement to take this step when the U.S. Sugar and Land Company offered an acre of land ½ mile north of Deerfield and $100 in cash towards construction. Using the name, “Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Immanuels Gemeinde U.A.C.” which means Lutheran Immanuel Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the congregation incorporated on May 20, 1908. (The name was later listed with the Secretary of State as the Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel Church.)

With additional financial help from the Mission Board of the Kansas District and a number of Christians outside of Deerfield who were endeared to the community, the church became a reality and was dedicated October 18, 1908. The first resident pastor, the Rev. A.C. Dubberstein, was welcomed in the fall of 1909. For many years, services were conducted alternately in German and in English in the small wooden frame church which was heated by a pot belly stove. In 1934, the church was wired for electricity, and lights were installed. Due to World War II and the political climate of that time, the decision was made in 1942 to conduct all Sunday services only in English.

As the years passed by, weather and time took its toll on the church building, and the congregation outgrew the little church. Henry and Emma Molz donated a church site east of City Park on Deerfield’s Main Street in 1946.  Work began on a new church in 1949, and cornerstone laying ceremonies were held June 25, 1950. Lovely springtime weather prevailed on Sunday, April 8, 1951, when a large crowd attended a full day of dedication festivities.

The new church featured Gothic-style open rafters with an exterior finish of light brick veneer. Seating capacity of the main auditorium was approximately 125 persons. A kitchen, assembly room and rest rooms were located in the basement. Members of the building committee included chairman Leland Waechter, August Kettler, Arnold Kettler, William Kueker, Elmer Bisterfelt, Henry Molz, Clarence Ploeger and Pastor P.H.C. Stengel, ex officio. Mel Krebs of Garden City was the contractor and V. Preston Terrill of Kansas City the architect. A building committee made up of Eldor Bentrup, Otis Molz, Clarence Meyers, Alvin Coerber and Harold Purdy were put in charge of a new educational wing which was added in 1964.

Late in 1990, a proposal to sell the church and build in Lakin passed by a 2-to-1 margin. This action was not only to satisfy Lakin members who made up the majority of the congregation but also in hopes that a larger community would provide a better opportunity for future growth. While the move was not welcomed by all members of the church, the project hinged on whether or not the church building at Deerfield sold. It did.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the third and current Lutheran Church were held at the Mattie Street and Bopp Boulevard location in Lakin on Sunday, April 12, 1992. Keith Fillmore of Garden City was the architect, and Laborers For Christ, a Lutheran organization of volunteers who dedicated themselves to doing missionary work for minimum wage, did much of the construction work alongside congregation members and other local volunteers. Together with their spouses, nine LFC workers from all over the Midwest helped with the Lakin project.

Immanuel Lutheran Church was dedicated Dec. 6, 1992, St. Nicholas Day. Featuring beautiful limestone work, the church offers 8,378 square feet of space on the main floor and seating for approximately 176 in the sanctuary. A choir loft overlooking the sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen and education wing are also part of the facility. In addition to the Lutheran congregation, Grace Church of Lakin is also currently using the church for worship.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; archives of The Lakin Independent, Lakin Investigator, Kearny County Advocate and Garden City Telegram; lcms.org, and Museum archives.

Women’s basketball is a far cry from the early days when girls wore dresses and were banned from district and state tournaments. Massachusetts YMCA PE instructor James Naismith invented the game in 1891 as an indoor activity for youth to play during the brutal Northeastern winters. The next year, Senda Berenson brought basketball to women at Smith College. Concerned that women’s frailty and poor health would contribute to them receiving lower wages in comparison to men, the physical culture director believed basketball could improve the stamina and physical ability of female students.

Bersenson made the rules more ladylike. The court was split into three sections, and each player was assigned to a section to minimize movement. (In 1938, courts were reduced to two sections.) Women were only allowed three dribbles and three seconds of holding the ball, and they were forbidden from grabbing or hitting the ball away from another player. Players were either offensive or defensive only. Some games were played 9-on-9, but a 6-on-6 half-court format was used for much of the 20th Century.

By 1895, women across the nation were shooting hoops. On the home front, the first mention of the sport was in a 1904 Investigator. “The young ladies at school have organized a basket ball team with Helen Browne and Jennie Millyard as captains.” By the fall of 1905, basketball was all the rage. With no gym at Lakin to play in, games were held outdoors. The boys bought a ball and put up goals, and the girls “marked the basket ball grounds at the school house.”

There were two girls’ teams in 1905, and they held a box social to raise money for uniforms. Maroon and blue were chosen for team colors. Teams played against each other, alumni, teachers, Syracuse and the boys’ team. By 1914, Deerfield was added to the mix.

In November 1915, local papers reported that changes were made to the school’s Primary Room to have an indoor basketball court with the Girls Athletic Association donating $5 to help with costs. An indoor gym was prioritized when a new school was completed in 1921.

Girls eventually played more out-of-town teams; however, their schedule was never as full as the boys’. In January of 1922 at the meeting of the state’s athletic association, a new rule was enacted banning girls from district and state tournament play. Undaunted, Lakin’s girls’ teams continued to fare well in league play and invitational tournaments.

One of the hot shots on the early-day teams was team captain Victoria Beaty. In February 1925, Beaty established a new record by scoring 53 points in a game against Syracuse. The next year, she made the freshman basketball team at Boulder, Colorado and scored 63 of the team’s 99 points in their season opener.

In March of 1930, Lakin girls captured the Southwest Kansas League championship by defeating Moscow. According to the Independent article, there were nine teams in the league. In 1931, Lakin’s first year in the Western Arkansas Valley League, the girls took the league title and repeated in 1933 and 1935.

Throughout the 40s, girls’ teams were seldom mentioned in the papers. Some years there was no team or they only played a few out-of-town teams while other years they played intramural-style ball, exhibition games and fundraisers against alumni or women in the community.

Lakin joined the Hi-Plains League in 1950, but girls’ basketball continued to lag behind boys’ with ladies relegated to playing hoops in PE. In the late 60s, however, there was a push for more women’s sports. According to the 1970 Bronc yearbook, basketball was part of the extracurricular program which gave girls “a chance to participate in competitive sports against other schools.”

Lakin ladies began playing league ball during the 1971-1972 school year, and games were played by “basically boys’ rules” with 5-on-5 full-court play. The season ran September to December that year, and Lakin won first place in the first Hi-Plains League Tournament for girls. They repeated as tournament champs the following year then again in 1978, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2026.

In 1973, the Kansas State High School Athletic Association opened up the state tournament to girls. Since then, Lady Bronc teams have made eight state tourney appearances. Lakin earned second place finishes in 1993, 1996, and 1997. The Broncs captured 4^th place in 2000, but they were defeated in first-round play in 1978, 1985, 1994, and 2004.

Lady Bronc Basketball has definitely rebounded from humble beginnings and is more than deserving of recognition as we wrap up Women’s History Month 2026.

SOURCES: Investigator, Advocate, Independent & Girard Press archives; Museum archives; KSHSAA; Bronc yearbooks; Sports in Kansas; Heinonline.org; WNBA, & Thought.com.

We would be remiss if we let this week pass by without a little write-up about Lakin’s most famous Irishman, John O’Loughlin. Those familiar with his story know that O’Loughlin was the first permanent settler of Lakin, but he had already made a name for himself prior to his arrival here in the spring of 1873.

O’Loughlin was born in 1842 at Ennistymon, County Clare, Ireland. He was one of five children born to Peter and Margaret (Considine) O’Loughlin. John lost his father and two of his siblings during Ireland’s great potato famine. His mother re-married, and the family moved to America when John was six years old. He attended Catholic Parochial school in Dubuque, Iowa. John’s stepfather, Andrew White, began a freighting business but was killed by lightning shortly afterwards.

When John was big enough to harness up the horses, he went to work, and he was out on his own by the age of 17. When the Civil War began, O’Loughlin freighted for the Army as a government teamster in the department of quartermaster at Fort Leavenworth. After the war, he continued with the Army, driving wagons to all the western outposts. John was along on several expeditions against the Plains Indians serving beside Generals Hancock, Sheridan and Custer. The experiences were certainly dark spots in his life, and he never spoke about them. John left government service in 1869.

After years of traveling the trails, O’Loughlin knew that both Army and civilian wagons on the military road had trouble crossing Pawnee Creek about 40 miles north of Dodge City. After he left government service, O’Loughlin built a toll bridge from poles cut along the creek. The crossing was an important part of history before the Santa Fe Trail became the artery to the Southwest. In O’Loughlin’s stockade, he had a well and a collection of dugouts which were used for a store, bedrooms and eating rooms. John sold a range of groceries and served meals at all hours, night and day. The first white settler in what was later named Hodgeman County, John thrived by doing business with the Army, buffalo hunters and trail travelers. Well-known names such as President Hayes, “Wild Bill” Hickock, “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Jesse James were recorded in his register.

O’Loughlin sold his lucrative little business to George Duncan after the railroad reached Dodge City in 1872, and the site on Pawnee Creek became known as “Duncan’s Crossing.” With the arrival of a new proprietor, the trading post took on a new look. Log buildings replaced dugouts, and a 10’ high stockade was built to enclose the buildings. A secret tunnel to a dugout some distance away provided a last stand should the stockade be overtaken by the Indians. Eventually Duncan was appointed postmaster for the crossing, and the toll bridge continued in operation until a flood washed the structure away. Duncan increased the acreage of his homestead to completely encompass the stockade, but by 1879, he had abandoned the homestead. The Duncan family moved to Topeka, and workers from the Mudge Ranch west of Hanston hauled away the stockade for firewood. So went the rest of the buildings in time.

In October of 1929, a granite marker was placed at the site by the Hodgeman Community Ladies Aide Society. George Duncan was the featured speaker, and several members of the O’Loughlin family including John’s wife, Mary, and four of their children were present at the dedication. In 1989, a group of volunteers repaired and restored the marker, and in August of that year, a group of 250 to 300 people assembled at the site for a re-dedication of the monument. Third, fourth and fifth generations of the O’Loughlins attended as did descendants of the Duncan family. Both families were recognized.

SOURCES: Archives of the High Plains Journal, Jetmore Republican, and Lakin Independent; santafetrailresearch.com, and Museum archives.

The Kansas Legislature established the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature in 1982 as a unicameral body of representatives ages 60 or older who advocate for the 60+ demographic. The KSHL is composed of 125 representatives from all 105 Kansas counties with extra delegates for the larger counties of Shawnee, Sedgwick, Wyandotte and Johnson. Legislators are elected by peers in their county, and they serve on a volunteer basis. Annual sessions are held at the Statehouse in Topeka to discuss and propose legislation regarding healthcare, property taxes, transportation, and other topics relevant to senior citizens. Legislators develop bills and resolutions to address identified concerns, present those resolutions to the Kansas Legislature and Governor as recommendations for state policy, and testify at hearings held regarding proposed KSHL Legislation.

Joann Wiley was Kearny County’s second Silver Haired Legislator and first female SHL. She began her service at the organization’s fourth annual session in November of 1986, taking over for Harold Walker who was killed in an automobile accident. Public service was always in Joann’s blood. Her father was an attorney and spent much of his working career either as a county attorney or county judge. “My own interest in politics may have come from experiencing the excitement of campaigning, the speeches, the pie suppers and meeting lots of people,” Wiley said. “My father’s favorite opening speech was always, “All of these candidates are asking for your support. I’m asking for your vote. If I’m elected, I will support myself.”

Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in 1924 to Arthur Evans Robertson and Jennie Lind Bailey, Joann was nine years old when her family moved to Hulbert, Oklahoma. She graduated first in her high school class at the age of 16. Joann worked at Camp Gruber Training Base in 1943 during the war effort, and she attended Northeastern State College where she graduated in 1945 with a degree in business education.

“On looking for a teaching job, I found Kansas to be paying high salaries. Margaret Coder and I came to Lakin in 1946 as members of the high school staff. Kay Loeppke was also on staff at that time. We were Miss Robertson, Miss Cate and Miss Crowder, not Ms.,” Joann reminisced. “That year also began my life as a Kansas Jayhawk.”

At Lakin, Joann met her future husband, Clyde Coder Wiley, Jr. Clyde’s parents were pioneer homesteaders in Kansas, and he was born, reared, educated and lived in Lakin all of his life. Clyde and Joann made their home with their two children, Linda and Rob. Rob was 20 years old when he was killed in an automobile accident in 1953. Linda married Howard Hasler, also a Lakin graduate. Joann and Clyde had 39 years together as husband and wife until his death in 1986.

Joann began working as a social worker in June of 1966. At that time, the County Commissioners served as the welfare board, and Harold Walker was the welfare director. Later, the welfare office became part of the State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Joann did a lot of traveling and provided services to three counties during her tenure with SRS. Beginning in 1982, she was based out of the Garden City office as the Adult Service Worker.

“I officially retired on June 30, 1987. Looking back over the years, I can’t believe I did all the things I did. I only hope there were some lives I made a little better with the services I provided,” Joann reflected.

Anyone who knew Joann knew she gave of her time unselfishly to make life better for others, and she continued to do so in retirement. One way was through her dedication to local seniors as their Silver Haired Legislator. She was re-elected to this position in the spring of 1987 and was appointed to the Kearny County Council on Aging by virtue of her KSHL office.

Joann later moved to Lawrence where she also served in the Silver Haired Legislature including a stint as Speaker Pro Tem. As a Silver Haired Legislator there, she testified before both House and Senate committees. Joann also became active in multiple clubs at Lawrence including Kiwanis, Lions, Town and Country Republican Women, and the New Horizons Band. She enjoyed bowling and golfing into her 90s and was a haiku master. Joann Robertson Wiley died at the age of 99 in April of 2024. Women’s History Month is a perfect time to remember Joann for her service to others and particularly to Kearny County.

SOURCES: August 1987 Meadowlark Notes, newsletter of the Kearny County Senior Center; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; History of Kearny County Vol. I; archives of The Lakin Independent, Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Chieftain, and The Mercury; kslegislature.gov; and kansas-shl.org.