RCNews April 14

Everyone is invited to attend the Spring Fling Scentsy fundraiser to help support the McCracken Beautificaton project. This display will be at the Boondocks on Sunday, April 17th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Plan on lunch and checking out the latest and greatest.
 
Jim Watkins, Wichita, visited with Norma and Roger McNair this past week. He is a nephew of Roger.
 
Those who attended the golf meeting last Saturday at the golf course were members Roger & Norma McNair, Arky McNair, Tony Harp, Martin Higgins, Allen Hill, Eric Davis, Bruce Davis, Les Diehl, Scott Foos, Richard and Johnny Mac Showalter. The bridges at the course were discussed and it was decided that the old ones will be torn out and replaced with new ones. Those greens that were not re sanded last year will be this year. Practice your long drives as a hole-in-one will net you $209.00. Memorial amount  is $525.00

The High School tournament is scheduled for April 28th.

Clean up dates for the golf course is April 30th and May 7th.

The golf course web site will be up and running again this summer.

Jr. Golf instructional will be the month of June on Tuesdays 10:00 – 11:00. Norma will get information on ads. Ages will be 5-12 years of age.

Dues will remain the same, $50 for a single membership; $90 for a family membership. Green fees $5.00.
Allen Hill is going to check on prices if someone would like to sponsor a hole with a lime stone marker. (just a ball park figure depending on what they want on it).

There will be seven tournaments year with two glow ball tourneys.

There will be rental golf carts again for the Alumni sponsored tournament during the Rodeo. The beer wagon will NOT be selling beer/pop on the course.
 
Congratulations to our two young ladies who were winners in the recent election, Tuesday, April 5; Sandra Jacobs was elected a city commissioner of McCracken as a write-in; Anita Funk Butler won as council woman on the ballot for Solomon, Kansas.
 
Norma McNair spent 3 days in Topeka visiting with her daughter, Dallas and Jamie Dewitt, Mason, Hunter and Maverick.
 
We thank Amy Bickel of the Hutchinson News for the fine article she wrote about Hampton in the Sunday, April 3 issue.
 
Birthdays:  April 14, Trent Timson; April 15, Donna North, Mary Higgins; April 16, Janette Rogers, Kelsi Tomlinson, Tom Prosser; April 17, Jan North, LeRoy Gilbert, Roberta Wierman, Diana Wheat, Callen Nederland; April 28, Wade Hinman; April 19, Ray Wierman, Laura Bookstore; April 20, Tim Wetzel, Sylvester McCormick, Dyan Suppes, Tyler Schwindt, Jami Albers.

Anniversary:  April 20, Sylvester and Jeanette McCormick 

Junior Andrew Casey of the Plainville Cardinals was shown on the front page of the Sports section in the Hays Daily News on Thursday.  He competed in his first high school track meet on Tuesday at Ellis.  Andrew was the top pitcher on the Plainville baseball team the last two seasons, but decided to compete in track this spring. He finished second in the long jump and triple jump.  On Sunday he was named to the 2010-2011 Hays Daily News All Area Basketball Team.  His Cardinal team finished 19-2.  He averaged 17.1 points per game, eight rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.8 steals.

The community and all the area are welcome to begin Holy Week with a special Stations of the Cross on Palm Sunday, April 17, at 3:00 P.M. at the McCracken United Methodist Church. The event is sponsored by McCracken United Methodist Church and St. Mary's Catholic Church parishioners. Both the Youth Chime Choir and the Adult English Handbell Choir will perform using Lenten hymns. You will walk with Jesus from his triumphant entry into Jersuleum through 14 stations to his burial. A reception will be held after the services.

A gold colored key chain of the Kansas Centennial in 1961 has been donated to the Jail/Museum.

Word has been received from Don Wancura that his Grandmother Velma Wancura, 104, suffered a mild stroke on Monday and passed away on Friday.  She was amazing right until the end.  She could remember names, date, and events from 80 years ago.  Over the years the family enjoyed gathering genealogy information from her including many interesting family stories. She was born February 2, 1907, to Henry Fayette and Martha Jane Neal Whipple.  She married Ted V. Wancura on December 25, 1930.  He died September 7, 1954.  Survivors include a son, Eldson Wancura; a daugther, Glenda Bryant, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.  The funeral was held on Tuesday at the First Christian Church in Dighton.  It was a celebration of life.  Burial was in Dighton Memorial Cemetery.

Our thanks to John Zeller and his crew for tearing down the tin building behind the Jail/Museum.

The trees planted in the Fall are budding and blooming.

Our sympathy to the family of Shirley Koreger, 81, Ellis who died April 7, 2011 in Wichita.  Her parents were Emil and Minnie Schaus Massier. She was born April 25, 1929 in Trego County.  She married Erwin Kroeger September 22, 1949 in Ellis.  She was an organist for 40 years at St. John Lutheran Church.  She is survived by her husband Erwin, two sons, Michael and Timothy; two daughters, Julie Schoenberger and her husband Dan and Holly Gilbert and her husband Brett, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.  Burial was in St. John Lutheran Cemetery north of Ellis.

Arline Rues will be extremely busy this week traveling to Lindsborg for the Bethany College Oratorio Society Chorus and Orchestra presentations of Handel's Messiah on Palm Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.; St. Mathew Passion performance at 7:30 p.m. on Good Friday, April 22; and for the Messiah presentation on Easter Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at Presser Hall.  The Dress Rehearsal for the Messiah was held on Sunday, April 10.  Susan Keith and Carolyn Thompson attended.
Billie Slemp had back surgery on Monday.  We wish her a speedy recovery. 

Kansas History Note

In July 1806 Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a young and active officer of the United States army was given the instructions to "to take back to their tribe on the upper waters of the Osage River some Osage Indianas who had been redeemed from captivity among the Pottawatomies; then to push on to the Pawnee Republic on the upper waters of the Republican River, then to go south to the Arkansas, and to the Red River, interviewing on the way the Comanches".  Pike entered Kansas in what is now Linn Conty. He was accompanied by only 16 soldiers.  On a high rise he saw "the prairie rising and falling in beautiful swells as far as the sight can extend". On the 17th of September he reached the Smoky Hill River and two days later the Saline River.  On October 9 he reached the Great Bend of the Arkansas River.  It began to snow but he still headed west (not going to the Red River) and on November 15, 1806, first observed a mountain.  It was in the Great White Mountains of the Spaniards - re-named after Pike - now Pike's Peak in Colorado.

McCracken History Notes

April 1911 Right at the present time it looks as though the wheat crop in Rush County would do well if it averages a fourth of a crop, or in other words if the farmers get an average yield of five bushels per acre.

April 1941 Brownell Grade Notes:  The following pupils have had perfect spelling lessons for the entire seventh month of school; Mary Barnett, Jerry Brown, Gerald Cranston, Esther Musselman, Kenneth Likes, Norbert Urban, Laverne Wyman, Louis Barnett, Eugene Likes, Jean Musselman, Darlene Brown, Deloris Green, Donna Howell, Marlin McGinnis, Alvin Schwartzkopf, Mary Ann Halbleib, Florine Brundage, Roberta Havlovitz, Veta Walker, Alice Urban, Ruthye Keil, Dorothy and Doris Schwartzkopf and Jimmy Sultzer.

April 1961 Linda Morgan, Alexander and a student at Dodge City Collge, is in the opera "Patience" to be presented at the Dodge City senior high school auditorium.  Miss Morgan plays the part of Lady Sapphire.

April 1981 Mildred Anderson, Mabel Irvin, Marie House, Mary Healy, Lucille Lamer, Frances Janke, Katherine Ryan, Mary Barnes and Carolyn Thompson attended the Lenten salad luncheon of all the Rush County churches in the St. Michael's Parish Center in LaCrosse.