The artists of the 2008 Read Across America poster for Kansas contest were asked to answer two questions: 

Why do you think people will want to read more after seeing the pictures and words on your poster?
and
What in your poster really helps people understand the importance of being able to read well and read often? 

Here are the answers the artists gave:

Kindergarten – 2nd Grade Category

Mason Muto - Lincoln Elementary, Junction City, Grade 1
  The Cat in the hat likes to juggle books. I think it is better to read books. I do chores, football practice and keep my room clean that is hard to juggle. But it is good to read books.

Carlos Marquez - Wilroads Gardens Elementary, Dodge City, Grade 2
  People will want to read more because they will know how to spell the words. I chose to draw a computer because we read them too. The words in the poster show that it is important to be able to read.

Devon  Saylor - South Hutchinson After School Kids and Preschool, South Hutchinson, Grade 2
  They see a shelf of books! They can follow the example of the cat in the hat!

3rd – 4th Grade Category

Brenna Bunch - Country View Elementary, Winfield, Grade 3
  It might make them like books because it’s a cheerful picture.
  Reading  is a treasure. That’s why I wrote that on my poster.

Cole Emerson, Tyler Zentner, Anthonie Snyder - Tecumseh South Elementary, Tecumseh, Grade 3
  Where ever you are you can read. People can learn about different places in books and then go there.
  If you read often you will get smarter. Everybody can read like ghosts, goblins, cowboys, cheerleaders, little boys, old men, little girls, old ladies and you.

Andrew Everett -Irving Elementary, Winfield, Grade 3
  People will want to read more after seeing my poster because it is colorful and has a great message.
  It will help people understand reading because some people like cars.

Jaedon Gardner -Irving Elementary, Winfield, Grade 3
  People will want to read more because the poster inspires them and because of how we made them.
  People will want to read because I used important words.

Roxanna Hamidpour - Overland Trail Elementary, Overland Park, Grade 3
 I am showing that people can dream and imagine all areas and countries around the world by reading about them. They don’t have to travel and see the other places to know what is going on everywhere.
  They can simply sit in their room and study a book or an article and acquire all those information, like they have gone there by hot air balloons or airplanes. In other words it seems like all the world is raining in their rooms by hot air balloons or airplanes.

Jairus Anderson - Washington School, Junction City, Grade 4
  People would want to read more after seeing my poster because my poster encourages anyone around Kansas  maybe around the world, to read no matter where you are. Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, New York, Anywhere! The people in the world should know the job of having the ability to read and write. Also, it has one picture actually from the book: I put the bird there for laughs. I put a nighttime July 4th scene to make the poster cool plus, a crescent moon.
  What in my poster will help the people understand the importance of being able to read well and read often is basically what you’ll find in a book. Joy, mysteries, adventures, frights, romance, danger, action and animals. Something you’ll find in lots of books! Plus, so much more it makes you want to read all the time. So pick up a book, novel, newspaper or a magazine! (With appropriate words, if you’re a kid.) Find the best thing about the book and one day you’ll never put the book down.

Kelsey Geerdes -Hoxie Grade School, Hoxie, Grade 4
  I picked the lady reading because it shows the importance of reading and it’s important to read because it helps you grow as a person.

Rigo Guerrero - McCandless Elementary, Hutchinson, Grade 4
  So they can get a good education and have a better life.
  To pass collage and to read so you can get smart at all things.

Page Palmberg - Linn Elementary, Dodge City, Grade 4
  I chose this topic as it is important to learn of all the wonderful places in our world. Places some of us can’t go to especially the moon and the stars. The pictures are exciting places to learn and not mater the age of a person we can always learn about the importance of our world around us. These pictures are just a minor part of our world so if we start reading at an early age and keep reading we’ll learn so many things in our world, one is never too young or too old to start reading.

Dekel Pope - McCandless Elementary, Hutchinson, Grade 4
  Because it is a big library that has people reading and the old ladies name is Mrs. Frank. And it has lots of colors. Hopefully people will like it because people should go to the library and learn how to read.
  Because if you go somewhere and someone says read this so you won’t make yourself look crazy. And so you can go to college and have a good career and be able to encourage other people to do good too.

Mia Salazar - McCandless Elementary, Hutchinson, Grade 4
  They might see you can read on your spear time.
  The poem I put down, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

Brenden Weathers - Meadowlark Elementary, Andover, Grade 4
  I think people will want to read more after seeing my poster because they have the freedom to read when they want, where they want and what they read.
  The hats represent that anyone can learn how to read; a trucker, a skateboarder, a fisherman, an artist and businessman, etc. Reading  helps Kertle with his talents of speaking and singing.

Melissa White - Northview Elementary, Olathe, Grade 4
  People will want to read more when they look at the globe and see that anyone can read no matter where they live. Reading  across America and all over the world will make you smarter as you learn from what you read.
  The poster helps people understand the importance of reading with the pictures of the books and the words Read, and D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read) plus the globe shows a focus to everyone.

5th – 6th Grade Category

Bethany Anne Bleil -Shawnee Heights Elementary, Topeka, Grade 5
  I chose my symbols and words because I would feel left out no matter how old I was if I didn’t know how to read.
  It will help young children and adults because I put, “if you don’t know   how to read all you will be able to do is wait for fish to bide to time to pass by.” That should be enough

Samantha Ekberg -Ogden Elementary, Ogden, Grade 5
  I think people will want to read more after seeing my poster because it explains what you can read, and to follow your dreams. My poster also shows that there are other things to read besides books! There are signs, newspapers and so on.
  I think people will want to read well and often because my poster shows you can read almost anywhere! My poster shows if you can read, it will help you in other subjects too including math, writing and spelling! In math you have to be able to read numbers and words! Have fun, READ!!!

Madayln Talor Gazda - Sunflower Elementary, Andover, Grade 5
  I chose them because it makes reading sound fun like I told them they could learn more things like you could learn more words so you would do well on a spelling test.
  I put my favorite books on there and math and science books telling them that you can read all different kinds of books.

Lauren King -Rhein Benninghoven Elementary School, Shawnee Mission, Grade 5
  The reason why I picked this picture is because it reminds me that all books are different and all of them will take you on a journey beyond your wildest imagination!

Flor Mercado -Comanche Intermediate Center, Dodge City, Grade 5
  I drew an old man and a little boy because you could read at any age. And also I drew the old man reading a newspaper because you don’t have to read a book to count it as reading. You could read a newspaper, instructions, even bulletin boards! Try too read everyday you could read a newspaper in the morning and then you have free time after you finish schoolwork to try to read your favorite book.

Ashley Moore -Comanche Intermediate Center, Dodge City, Grade 5
  I think people would want to read more because the picture is the Cat in the Hat and Cat in the Hat is the greatest book anybody could ever read. I choose the symbols to represent how important it is to read. The words really help you understand because reading is really for believing and believing is really for reading any way.

Aidan O’Brien - St. George Elementary, St. George, Grade 5
  It makes you want to find a book and read about interesting things that you like.
  It helps because you wouldn’t be able to go on a plane or train or boat or even drive a car without reading.

Niallan O’Brien - St. George Elementary, St. George, Grade 5
  People will want to read more because to me, my poster says the sky is not the limit and that you can go anywhere if they read more.
  The rocket helps people understand the importance because if you can read well you can be anything from a doctor to an astronaut. The rocket symbolizes that a book can take you anywhere.

Mackenzie Penny - Sunflower Elementary, Andover, Grade 5
  I think a smaller kid will read more because characters he might like are reading on this poster and when smaller kids see someone they like doing something, they do it too.
  I think the clouds help people understand the importance of reading, because the clouds have the words, math, social studies, science and English. I think that means if you read and study hard your dreams will reach the sky.

Angel Ramon Romero - St. George Elementary, St. George, Grade 5
  I think the kid flipping off the ramp because if you can’t read well you will not be able to read instructions and you might get hurt.

Andrea Sanchez -Comanche Intermediate  Center, Dodge City, Grade 5
  Because the poster shows you can read anywhere.
  If you want some information and you can’t read well, Google or any other computer Web sites won’t help you much.

Becca Schulte - Meadowlark Elementary, Andover, Grade 5
  What I think shows the importance of reading in my poster is the funny picture of the ant and some books are funny, reading is everywhere and you can learn about stuff in the newspapers and learning will help you be successful in life.

Brooke Slayton -Comanche  Intermediate Center, Dodge City, Grade 5
  The cat in the Hat was one of my favorite books when I was younger. My mom would read it to me at night. I hope other kids will want to read it too when they see my poster. I used red, white and blue to stand for the colors of America  . Everyone in America should learn to read. One day I want to be a teacher so I can teach kids how to read because READING IS FUN!

Casandra Trynzolyn -Ogden Elementary, Ogden, Grade 5
  In the poster there is signs everywhere and if you can’t read you probably would not be able to live because you need to read food packages, newspapers, instructions, numbers, bill boards, medicine bottles, game instructions, folders, files, computers and more.

Bailey Votipka, SeungYun Lee, Sydney Kampshroder, Katelyn Chapman - Walnut Grove Elementary, Olathe, Grade 5
  In the poster I drew two children sitting on the books and they are reading books, in the books the rainbow is coming out, it is creative so my poster helps people to understand if you read a book, you will be creative.

Samantha Johnson - St. George Elementary, St. George, Grade 6
  What will help people understand the importance of being able to read is so they don’t crash or go the wrong way.

Michaela Matthews - St. George Elementary, St. George, Grade 6
  If you are trying to buy orange juice you can’t just go to the library. You have to read to know where to get things that can be very important to you.
  The importance of being able to read in my poster is where there is a sign saying “Get Honey HERE” and the two girls don’t know where to go to get their honey!

Ashtyn Mentzer - Overbrook Attendance Center, Overbrook, Grade 6
  My theme I was going for with my poster was humor. So when they see my poster they’ll hopefully laugh, like it and start or continue to read.
  Reading often and reading well can help you in school and after-school activities. My poster doesn’t exactly show that but, it does show that you can read anywhere. So whenever you want to pay a video game pick up a good book and read!

Scarlett Real -Comanche Intermediate Center, Dodge City, Grade 6
  Because they will see that reading isn’t boring, it could be fun if you wanted it to be. I chose a train to show that reading a book could be fun, the train carts represent that you could read different things like letters, maps, newspapers and magazines and I drew signs to show where different ages of people could go to read or go on a ride.
  That you need to be able to read well in order to get anywhere is what the moving train is representing.

7th – 8th Grade Category

Corinne Andresen -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think that people will read more after seeing my poster, because the pictures show all the fun and interesting things in books and they are coming to life. I think that this will inspire people by showing them how much fun books can be.
  I think my poster shows that the importance of reading by showing what it can reveal to you. I think the fun graphics will excite people to read by showing what fun books can be.

Mason Caudle -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 7
  I thought Dr. Seuss bird was funny looking. The frying pan goes along with the cookbook. The colors I choose were from the bird in the book, they were bright and fun looking.
  If you can’t read words recipes and directions it will make it hard for you to learn to cook. Can’t read-can’t feed.

Katee Damashek -Burlington Middle School, Burlington, Grade 7
  I think people want to read more after seeing my poster because it sends a message that reading is important.
  I think the picture of the “Nook” reading a cookbook will help people understand that if you don’t read then you can’t cook.

Mallery Davenport  - Lebo Junior High, Lebo, Grade 7
  I chose people thinking and imagining things because I want people to know that they can escape their boring world. They can also fight a dragon, go to school at Hogwarts and many other things using their imagination.
  The bubbles showing people thinking and the stacks of books play a key role in making people understand more about reading.

Aislinn Davis -Oxford  Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think people will want to read more after seeing my poster because the bright colors and artwork will grab their attention. My poster encourages kids to read with, “A good book is waiting for you to dive into.” And, “You can read anything, anywhere”. Most of the artwork are copies of characters from Dr. Seuss’ books, I drew cat in the hat because it is a widely known character of Dr. Seuss and I believe demonstrates reading.
  My poster also shows the importance of reading with, “Oh, the places you’ll go, when you read” (and the globe picture) because that demonstrates that when you read you can go far in the world. It also says, “Read for fun and learn” which shows that even though reading is fun it is also an important learning experience. It encourages reading often with, “You can read anything, anywhere” because it lists different ways or things to read, and kids might like to try new ways of reading so that they can find a way they enjoy and then, read more often.

Corey Dingess -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think the book around the circle explains a lot and the ocean refers to the metaphor “reading is an endless ocean of words”.
  Because it states reading is very important to succeed in life.

Claire Duke -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think people will read more after they see my poster because it shows them some places that are fun to read!
  It really will show people that if you want to be able to play a computer game or check the latest stats on your favorite team, you need to be able to read.

Rowena Forbes -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I showed Dr. Seuss’s character holding a book because kids are drawn to his characters so by having the Cat in the Hat holding the book I hoped they would be drawn to books through reading his series. I called it “The Book in the Hat Comes Back” because I wanted people to know that they read everyday, but there are many great books to read so they should just reach out their hand for one (In the Hat) and they would find that it is fun to read. I made the book come out of the hat because in the book multiple cats come out of one hat. I meant it to stand for someone who, when finished reading one book, would think of simply taking another book out of the hat to read even more. I wanted to say “Comes Back” because it symbolized that they can read books and then reread the same books and they will have just as much fun, or more.
  In the book “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” they had to go through all the cats in alphabetical order until they got to the last one. Meanwhile all these cats get to one place and then when Cat Z draws his hat everything is clean. That is the same way with books. Books help kid’s knowledge grow and the more they read the further they will get in having a successful life.

Ivy Lynn Garcia -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 7
  Because my picture is trying to say that you can go and imagine different things just by reading a book.
  The boy with a book and the boy has different things in his head because he is reading a book that gives him pictures in his head.

Jennifer Hodges - Lebo Junior High, Lebo, Grade 7
  Because I believe that not only explains the way of life but it is in all of the world not only English but Chinese and many, many more.
  “So B It” I could read that not only once but dozens of times. I learn something new every time I read it.

Dillon King -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 7
  Because your imagination will grow and you will challenge yourself to read different books that will put you in a new setting. You also had to read on my poster to understand what was happening. If you didn’t read the name of the boat it would have been almost useless. It also relates to real life, if you don’t read you won’t be able to go to many places.
  If you read well you won’t need to struggle on the words so much that you will be able to understand the plot. And if you read often it will help you to read better. And now the person reading in the poster is in the setting, shows how he understands the plot. If you can’t use your imagination then you won’t be going very far in life.

Chase Knighton -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 7
  I choose the words and graphics because they match together and are vibrant color to catch the person’s eye.
  It shows the importance of reading when it says “Read and you’ll be on your way up”. When I say up I mean by getting a better education, job and most important your life because it depends on reading.

Rachel Pfau -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think people will want to read more after seeing my poster because it shows that reading stimulated the mind, and you can read with a parent or friend. It shows that reading opens up your eyes to other places. These places can be explored alone, with a friend or sibling, or with parents.
  My poster helps people understand the importance of reading by showing what kids want to be someday. Reading  helps them understand these jobs in stories, the newspaper, magazines, or posters. My poster also shows that reading may help you be more creative in your thinking.

John Rillos -Oxford Middle School, Overland Park, Grade 7
  I think that people will want to read more after seeing my poster because my poster tells people about how reading can introduce you to millions of new things (example: On my poster, the Cat in the Hat says, “With reading, oh the places you’ll go! Half of the world you’ll know!).
  In my poster, I think that the sign that says “if you can read this, you are on your way up!” really helps people understand the importance of reading well. Also, what the child says while sitting on a pole in my drawing encourages reading.

Rebecca Simkins -Antioch Middle School, Shawnee Mission, Grade 7
  I think people will want to read more after seeing my poster because it has a nifty saying which might make them want to read and it has to do with Dr. Seuss which they might have already liked. They might have liked the characters I drew.
  On my poster, it says, “read in the morning, and read at night” so they will think they should read in the morning and at night and if they do that, they will get more practice which will help them become a better reader.

Karla Valdez -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 7
  I chose some pop-up books as images so people might think its fun. Also some pictures to describe certain things and I included the key to succeed which I thought was to Read!
  How fun it could be. What subjects might interest them. Some examples of what you might find in books and where books can take you.

Joe Diaz -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 8
  My Dr. Seuss people are on their way to Reading  Land. A place where they can find out all kind of information from books and having fun doing it.
  Reading  is like driving. You need to know how to read for navigating a map or learning about driving rules. Reading is important because it gives me the opportunity to go places in life, no matter where I choose to go.

Sarah Krueger - Lebo Junior High, Lebo, Grade 8
  I think that they will want to read more because, hopefully, more kids will start thinking about what profession they want to have. They’ll see what types of opportunities that reading offers and think that they’d have a better life and profession ahead of them if they read.
  All the types of jobs inspire them to read and the bright and different colors catch your attention.

Christina Nguyan -Pioneer Ridge Middle School, Gardner, Grade 8
  I think that people will want to read more after seeing my poster because I tried to make it fun and appealing to them and show them how important reading is and should be to everyone. I used Dr. Seuss graphics to tie him into my poster because it is his 104th birthday anniversary. I used a picture of the top rated books so that they could recognize the book by the cover and want to see what is so good about it. I wrote a quote by Dr. Seuss that was about reading because it was his 104th birthday anniversary and the poster is about reading.
  The quote I put my Dr. Seuss “The more you read the more you will know and the more you know the more places you’ll go” explains a lot of the importance of reading and I think is very true because if you can’t read then you will never get a job, drive, or even order food at a drive-thru. Because you use reading every single day of your life if you don’t know how you will hardly be able to go on. If you don’t know how to read I think you should learn because life will become a lot easier.

Erick Perez -Pioneer Ridge Middle School, Gardner, Grade 8
  They will see that even football players read, not only children have to.
  You can’t get nowhere in life without knowing how to read; if they want to be a football player they have to go to school and to go to school you have to read.

Ramon Zamora -Turner Middle School, Kansas City, Grade 8
  The fish I choose looked like he enjoyed reading. The glasses make the fish funny and studious. He looks like a first-class reader.
  It’s important to learn how to read because every thing in life revolves around reading. If you want to be a cook, fix a car or just enjoy a story, it all evolves reading. So, enjoy a good book and learn new things.

9th – And Above Category

Annelise Masters -Burlington High School, Burlington, Grade 11
  Reading  is so important for nearly everything we do from the youngest age up until now and on into the future. Dr. Seuss established his credibility for truly understanding this. He made reading so much fun. That same exciting, bold and intriguing quality is what I’ve tried to emulate. The characters from his books and bright colors appeal to younger children, while the bold quality and patriotic nature draws the older eye in as well. Dr. Seuss’s quote from the featured book backs up the importance of reading while keeping to rhyming, an appealing attribute of books for all ages.
  Again, the cheeriness proves reading not to be merely drudgery, but actually something to be enjoyed. The quote that connects how we can steer ourselves any direction we choose with reading is what can really make people think. If reading can be enjoyed and help their future out, what is holding them back, right?

Shayla Niermeier -Hoxie High School, Hoxie, Grade 11
  People will want to read more because my drawing is different and unique. The Key in Life is Read. I thought it as a cool saying. My poster gives you a sense of knowing that the only way in life is to get better is read. You learn a lot by reading and its fun.

Jessica Campbell -Hoxie High School, Hoxie, Grade 12
  The phrase I used on my poster was from the book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. It is one of my favorite books because it is a little bit wacky. The quote always makes me laugh and it has stuck in my memory and I want other people to share in my joy. I also used bright colors because I, personally, would rather look at an exciting colorful poster rather than a dull black and white one.
  The children in the book like to read and are happy to do so, so the people who look at this poster should want to share in their pleasure. The girl in the pink shirt has a look of shock and excitement and the boy is smiling so I think this poster could convey a sense of happiness that reading provides people.

Sarah Samuelson - Burlington High School, Burlington, Grade 12
  It is important for people to read because it helps the brain to develop. Simply stated, reading makes your brain smarter. And not just because what you read provides new information, but because reading is like a form of exercise to make your brain stronger and faster. It “Fuels your brain” so that it can do more. Since cars and “fuel” are universal to everyone in our culture and all understand the connections between them, the message will be clear to all readers why reading is important.

The idea was simple. Back in 1997 the National Education Association created a national day to celebrate reading by encouraging people to stop what they're doing and share a book with a child. Why? Because reading is the key to lifelong learning.

For Kansas NEA leaders and members, dreaming up the idea of a reading day was easy. The question: how do we get the public engaged? With members, local communitites and the media, KNEA's Read Across Kansas encourages the public to read and learn.

In celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday every March, KNEA encourages everyone to look at Kansas in a different way.  "Architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, music, customs, geography, history, people... Kansas - It's as big as you think and it's definitely worth reading about," said KNEA President Blake West.

The theme for 2008: Parents. Parnterships. The Power of Reading. KNEA is challenging Kansas public schools students to create a poster about reading.

KNEA asks everyone to take a literary tour of Kansas. (See resources at right ) Read about the people and places of the Sunflower State. To help do that, KNEA partnered with the Kansas Department of Tourism, area reenactors, various local Chambers of Commerce and museums.

KNEA has worked with the musicians across the state, local museums and chambers of commerce, the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, NASA, Kansas State University, George Brett, University of Kansas, the Kansas High School Rodeo Association, among others.  Supporting our efforts are Cox Communications, the Kansas Association of Broadcasters, school and local libraries and many community groups.

From Elkhart to Atchison and St. Francis to Baxter Springs, readers all over Kansas rev up for the largest statewide reading event. Thousands of kids and adults participate every year in everything from poetry slams and reader theaters to reading parades and community leader "read-ins". There are events like the "infamous" Bodacious Book-Cart Drill Team. Organized by KNEA member and librarian Christie Snyder, this highly acclaimed drill team of teachers, two bankers and a local business owner performed for the St. John Jubilee Parade, "booging" their carts adorned in READ posters around the town square in astoundingly meticulous form.

"It's events like this that show our students that we adults think reading is important…and fun," West said.

Sponsored by the NEA and Dr. Seuss Enterprises along with 45 national partner organizations, "Read Across" asks Americans, young and old, to open a book and celebrate reading. NEA's Read Across America is a year-long program designed to get kids excited about reading that culminates every year on Dr. Theodor "Ted" Seuss' birthday. Reading events take place in literally every school district in Kansas every year. Events in all 50 states annually attracted more than 45 million readers of all ages.

Find information and links on the NEA Web site: www.nea.org/readacross. You can also pledge to participate and sign up for NEA's free E-newsletter. You'll also find "Lea con NEA," a new program designed to reach out to Spanish-speaking students.

KNEA appreciates the support of all its partners in this project. We especially appreciate the photos provided by the Kansas Department of Tourism. Photos of Martin and Osa Johnson, George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, James Naismith, Dwight Eisenhower and Eva Jessye are courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society.

The photo of Vivian Vance is courtesy of The Other Side of Ethel Mertz by Frank Castelluccio and Alvin Walker.

The photo of Emmett Kelly is courtesy of the Emmett Kelly Museum, http://www.emmettkellymuseum.com.

The Garden of Eden photo is courtesy of Jon Blumb, www.jonblumb.com.

Other photos were provided by Mark Desetti, Joyce Reid and Cynthia Menzel.

Beginning with 1 on the left side of the photo

1 - Osa Johnson (1894-1953) and Martin Johnson (1884-1937)
Chanute native Osa Johnson and her husband, Martin, wrote books and produced movies during a life of adventure in Africa. From 1918's Among the Cannibals of the South Pacific to 1932's Congorilla, the Johnsons created films for armchair adventurers. After Martin's death in a plane crash in 1937, Osa continued on the lecture circuit and returned to the jungle.

2 - Emmett Kelley (1898-1979)
Emmett Kelley of Sedan, Kansas, was one of the world's most recognizable circus clowns. His work has inspired future generations of entertainers.

3 - George Washington Carver (1864-1943)
One of the world's most important scientists, Carver, the son of slaves, lived in Fort Scott, Paola, Olathe, and Spring Hill, Kansas, before moving to Minneapolis, Kansas, where he attended high school. Carver later homesteaded in western Ness County near the town of Beeler. He later went on to teach at Iowa State University and then at the
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Most school children recall that George Washington Carver found nearly 300
uses for the peanut.

4 - Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Langston Hughes spent his childhood in Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a regular visitor to the Carnegie Library. During the 1920s and 30s Hughes was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry is familiar to all students of literature. He traveled extensively and even worked as a journalist reporting on the Spanish Civil War.

5 - Vivian Vance (1912-1979)
Actress Vivian Vance was a native of Cherryvale, Kansas. While having starred in a variety of movies, Vance is best known as Lucy Ricardo's friend and neighbor, Ethel Mertz, in the classic television show I Love Lucy.

6 - James Naismith (1861-1939)
A native of Canada, Naismith moved to the United States where he invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts. He joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 1898, where he served as a member of the physical education faculty, chaplain and basketball coach. He lived in Lawrence until his death in 1939.

7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Dwight David Eisenhower grew up in Abilene, Kansas, and later attended the United States Military Academy. During World War II he rose to Supreme Allied Commander in the European Theater. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 and served two terms in the White House.

8 - Eva Jessye (1895-1992)
Eva Jessye, a singer, actress, composer, choral director, author and poet lived in Coffeyville, Caney, Iola and Pittsburg, Kansas. Jessye saw the opportunity to preserve African American music by arranging and recording spirituals in concert tradition. She published a collection of traditional songs, My Spirituals, in the late 1920s. Jessye marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her choir was the official choir for King's 1963 civil rights march.

Kansas Places

10,000-acre Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve - Strong City
The Tallgrass Reserve is the only unit of the National Park system dedicated to the rich natural and cultural history of the tallgrass prairie.
http://www.parktrust.org/zb-exp.html

Amish Community - Yoder
Folks in Yoder still live the life of simpler times. The town was established in 1889 and is today an exciting mix of the past and present, where horses compete with cars on the roads.
http://www.yoderkansas.com/

Big Basin - Ashland
This nearly 2,000 acre prairie preserve on the edge of the Red Hills region in southwestern Kansas is a little known treasure. A National Natural Landmark, it is a very beautiful, peaceful and unique place.
http://www.kansasphototour.com/bigbasin.htm

Big Brutus - West Mineral
The giant Big Brutus is the second largest shovel in the world. It stands as a reminder of the past and a tribute to the region's mining heritage. The museum is open year-round.
http://www.bigbrutus.org

Big Pool - Finnup Park, Garden City
Take a dip in the "World's Largest Municipal Concrete Swimming Pool. The "Big Dipper" opened in 1922 and was renovated in 1979. It matches a football field in size and holds approximately 2.6 million gallons of water.
http://www.garden-city.org/pool.html

Black Jack Battlefield - Baldwin City
While the Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, the Battle of Black Jack was the first of several skirmishes occurring prior to the official opening of the war. Through a concerted effort, the Battlefield was saved from residential development in 2003. Through an equally concerted effort, a dedicated group of individuals is working to have the park ready to be dedicated on June 2, 2006, the 150th anniversary of the Battle.
http://www.blackjackbattlefield.org/

Boot Hill Museum - Dodge City
Miss Kitty still runs the Longbranch Saloon and gunslingers still have high-noon shootouts. The museum is an educational, historical institution with just enough fun added for the whole family to enjoy.
http://www.boothill.org/

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site - Topeka
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court announced the decision that forever changed race relations in the United States. Today, there is a national historic site to commemorate the landmark decision. There are lots of teacher resources and hands-on activities for students.
http://brownvboard.org

Buffalo Soldier Memorial - Fort Leavenworth
In 1866 two black regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, were formed at Fort Leavenworth. Today, a monument stands in tribute to the Buffalo Soldiers.
http://garrison.leavenworth.army.mil/sites/about/Buffalo.asp

Castle Rock - Quinter
One of the big attractions of these chalk formations is that they are undeveloped. It almost feels like you have discovered them. However, they are fragile and may not last many more years.
http://www.kansastravel.org/castlerock.htm

Chalk Pyramids - Oakley
Oakley's 70 feet tall chalk formations and pyramids were created 80 million years ago when this area was part of a vast inland sea.
http://www.kansastravel.org/monumentrocks.htm

Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Refuge - east of Great Bend
Great Bend is a birding and wildlife paradise; the refuge is home for 320 of the 650 bird species living in the country. The area is considered the largest marsh in the interior of the United States and is the most important ecosystem in Kansas.
http://www.cheyennebottoms.net/

Cimarron National Grassland - Elkhart
A 108,000-acre preserve that is a complete ecosystem of native wildlife and plants and is the largest area of public land in Kansas.
http://www.lasr.net/pages/park.php?Park_ID=KS10sp001

Coronado Heights Park - Lindsborg
The Coronado Heights is a dominant geological feature of the Smoky Valley, rising 300 feet above the surrounding plains. The park is a historic place and a treasure for residents and visitors.
http://www.lindsborg.org/coronado_heights.htm

Dalton Gang Museum - Meade
Visit the house where The Dalton Gang hid out from the law. The home belonged to their sister and it had a tunnel running from the house to the barn. The barn holds a small museum of Dalton Gang history.
http://www.travelks.com/destfindcity.asp?region=6&city=161&x=13&y=13

Dorothy's Yellow Brick Road - Liberal
In the Land of Oz Museum, guides dressed as Dorothy offer tours down the Yellow Brick Road through 5,000 square feet of animated entertainment - good and bad witches, the Munchkins, talking trees, winged monkeys, and of course, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion are all there to enthrall children of all ages.
http://www.cityofliberal.com/thingstodo/attractions/Dorothy.html

Dwight D Eisenhower Library and Museum - Abilene
The Eisenhower Library and museum is located about 2 miles south of I-70 on K-15. The complex consists of five buildings located on 22 acres. They include the Family Home, Museum, Library, Place of Meditation and Visitors Center.
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/travel.htm

El Quartelejo Ruins - Lake Scott State Park, 12 miles north on Hwy 83
El Quartelejo was the northern most Indian pueblo and the only known pueblo in Kansas. The ruins are a National Historic Landmark and contain a reconstruction and historical information.
http://www.wildwestcountry.com/countylistings/scott.html

Emmett Kelly Museum - Sedan
The Emmett Kelly Museum is dedicated to the fond memory of Emmett Kelly Sr., a native son of Sedan, Kansas. The Emmett Kelly Museum was established in June of 1967. In September the same year Emmett Kelly himself made a special trip to Sedan for the official opening to commemorate the occasion.
http://www.emmettkellymuseum.com/menu.html

Fick Fossil & History Museum - Oakley
The museum is free and has a number of interesting large fossils from the area, many old tools, mineral specimens and folk art.
http://www.discoveroakley.com/Document.aspx?Mode=Vies&id=1353

First Territorial Capitol - Fort Riley
Step inside this wonderful stone warehouse where proslavery forces tried to guide the fate of Kansas Territory when the first Territorial legislature convened in July 1855. Contemplate the territorial and national conflict over slavery and see how people lived on the Kansas frontier. It takes very little imagination to step back to the 1850s and get a feel of what it must have been like here.
http://www.kshs.org/places/firstterritorial/

Fort Larned National Historic Site - Larned
This military outpost was established in 1859 on the vast prairie in western Kansas near the midpoint of the Santa Fe Trail. Plains Indians, alarmed by the stream of caravans disrupting their way of life, resisted passage through their homelands. The fort served as a bureau for the Indian Agency during much of the 1860s and was a key military base of operations during the Indian War of 1868-1869. Today, with nine restored buildings, it is the best preserved Indian Wars military post on the Santa Fe Trail.
http://larned.org/tourism/ftlarned.html

Fort Leavenworth - Leavenworth
The fort was established in 1827 by Col. Henry Leavenworth to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The oldest U.S. military prison (est. 1874) and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College are at the fort. The Buffalo Soldier Monument honors the post-Civil War African-American regiments that served in the West.
http://www.leavenworth.army.mil/

Fort Scott - Downtown, Fort Scott
The thirty-one year span of history interpreted at Fort Scott National Historic Site is perhaps the most significant era of our nation's history. Fort Scott National Historic Site consists of 20 historic structures, a parade ground and five acres of restored tallgrass prairie.
http://www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/ Kansas/national_parks/Fort_Scott.html

Garden of Eden - Lucas
Samuel Perry Dinsmoor had been a Civil War soldier, schoolteacher and farmer when he moved to Lucas, in 1905. The Garden of Eden is a bizarre collection of sculptures he created on his property, illustrating his views on religion and politics. Built with a combination of limestone and cement "logs," the cabin consists of 11 rooms and serves today as a museum where visitors can see old photographs and newspaper clippings of Dinsmoor and his family and examine several pieces of furniture he made.
http://discoverypub.com/columns/ken/twk_2004_10.html

George Washington Carver Homestead - 1 mile south of Beeler
George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, was one of the great scientists of America. He rose from slavery to fame as his discoveries revolutionized agriculture in the south.
http://www.kansasphototour.com/carver.htm

Hollenberg Pony Express Station - Hanover
You can almost hear the thundering of horse hooves and the creak of wagons as Pony Express riders and hundreds of pioneers made a stop at historic Hollenberg Pony Express Station. Hollenberg is the only unaltered Pony Express station remaining in its original location.
https://www.kshs.org/places/hollenberg/index.htm

Horace Greeley Museum - Tribune
The museum was once the Greeley County Courthouse and is built of native stone in 1890. One of three of the oldest courthouses in Kansas, it became a museum in 1975 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July, 1976.
http://www.wildwestcountry.com/countylistings/greeley.html

Hot and Cold Water Towers - Canton
The town's hot and cold water towers always make good pictures.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Canton/

John Brown Historic Site - Osawatomie
Witness pioneer life where Reverend Samuel and Florella Adair struggled to survive on the Kansas frontier while maintaining their Abolitionist principles.
http://www.kshs.org/places/johnbrown/
http://www.osawatomieks.org/attractions.html

Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center - Hutchinson
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center inspires interest in space exploration by providing exhibits and hands-on experiences that are educational and entertaining.
http://www.cosmo.org/

Keystone Gallery - Oakley
The Keystone Gallery is a fossil museum and art gallery. Visitors can go on fossil hunting tours and view rock and mineral specimens. The site is surrounded by a 400-head buffalo herd and has a great view of Monument Rocks, eight miles to the east in Gove County.
http://www.keystonegallery.com/

Laura Ingalls Wilder's home - Independence
The Little House on the Prairie Historical Site is located 13 miles southwest of Independence, just off Highway 75. It has an authentic log cabin located near the original site where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived as a child. It also includes an 1872 schoolhouse, post office and gift shop. Little House on the Prairie is open March 22 through October 31.
http://www.littlehouseontheprairie.com/

Little Pyramids - north of Scott City
The Pyramids are outstanding geological formations created 80 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. Fossil shark teeth may be found in the area.
http://www.kansastravel.org/littlepyramids.htm

Little Sweden USA - Lindsborg
Lindsborg is a blend of Swedish and American culture. Its unique shops, restaurants, museums, galleries and festivals create a charming atmosphere.
http://www.lindsborg.org/

Madonna of the (Oregon) Trail - Council Grove
This monument stands on the east bank of the Neosho River at Main Street (U.S. Route 56). "Here east meets west, when the 'Old Santa Fe Trail' was established August 10, 1825, at a council between the United States Commissioners and Osage Indians."
http://www.baxtercountyonline.com/arkdar/madonna.htm

Marais des Cygnes Massacre - 6 miles north of Pleasanton on Hwy. US 69
This Kansas Historical Site is just off the beaten path, but worthy of a visit. At this site in 1858, 11 Free-State men were herded into a ravine, lined up and shot in cold blood by a group of 30 or so Pro-Slavery raiders. Five were killed, five were wounded and one escaped injury by pretending to be dead. It fueled the image of "Bleeding Kansas."
http://www.kansasphototour.com/massacre.htm
http://www.kshs.org/places/marais/

Martin and Osa Johnson Museum - Chanute
A national and state award winning museum in a beautifully renovated depot features the adventurers Martin and Osa Johnson. An exhibit and program recount the Johnson's numerous travels to Africa, Borneo and the South Seas. The museum also includes an exhibit of West African ethnographic art and items from daily life, a large natural history library and art collection, temporary exhibits and the popular Museum Store.
http://www.safarimuseum.com/

Maxwell Game Preserve - Canton
In Battlehill township of McPherson County lies a piece of preserved natural prairie comprised of rolling hills, creeks, springs and beautiful prairie grasses and wildflowers. It is the only location in Kansas where public herds of both bison and elk can be viewed in a native prairie environment. It is home to the State's largest public herd of bison and is located in the very southeastern tip of the scenic Smoky Hills.
http://www.cyberkraft.com/maxwell/

Mennonite Museums - Hillsboro, North Newton, Goessel and Halstead
Settlers on the region are documented in museums that preserve the artifacts from early households, farms, schools, churches and the hospital in the Mennonite community.
Goessel:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/museums/Goessel/
Halstead:
http://historicalsociety.halsteadkansas.com/
Hillsboro:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Hillsboro/museum.html
North Newton:
http://www.bethelks.edu/kauffman/

Mine Creek Battlefield - Pleasanton
The Battle of Mine Creek was fought on Oct. 25, 1864, between the rear guard of the Confederate Army and an advance of about 3,000 Union horsemen. Nearly 7,000 soldiers formed a defensive line more than a half-mile long in one of the largest cavalry battles of the Civil War. It was the largest battle fought in Kansas.
http://www.minecreek.org/
http://www.kshs.org/places/minecreek/

Monument Rocks - Scott City
Traveling through Kansas presents an opportunity to see many natural landmarks that remain as they were when pioneers made their way west. One of the more unique sites is Monument Rocks, sometimes referred to as Chalk, Smoky or Little Pyramids.
http://www.uncommondays.com/states/ks/places/monumentrocks.htm

Mushroom Rock State Park - Kanopolis Lake
The strangely shaped rocks are made of sandstone deposited along the edge of a Cretaceous sea about 100 million years ago. From the caves and crevices of Horsethief Canyon to giant stone "mushrooms" rising from the prairie, Kanopolis and nearby Mushroom Rocks state parks are places of rugged beauty.
http://www.naturalkansas.org/kanopolis.htm
http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/state_parks/locations/mushroom_rock

National Teacher Hall of Fame - Emporia
The Hall of Fame Museum features old school desks, class attendance records, teacher contracts, antique textbooks and other artifacts representing the early days of teaching. The exhibition center tells the "story" of teaching from its beginnings to the present and a look to the future. Nominate an outstanding teacher!
http://www.nthf.org/index.htm

Nicodemus Historical Site - Nicodemus
Nicodemus was named for a legendary figure who came to America on a slave ship and later purchased his freedom. The town symbolizes the pioneering spirit of African Americans who dared to leave the war-torn south to experience freedom and self government. It is the only western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OZ-Nicodemus.html

Old Cowtown Museum - Wichita
Located on 25 acres off the Chisholm Trail, Old Cowtown Museum is a unique, open-air living history museum which re-creates Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas from 1865 to 1880.
http://oldcowtown.org/

Old Shawnee Town - Shawnee
Old Shawnee Town contains a combination of original historic structures and replicas of buildings from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including the first structure, the 1843 territorial jail and the Trading Post, which serves as the main entrance and houses traveling historical exhibits.
http://www.cityofshawnee.org/ShawneeTown/shawneetown.htm

Pawnee Indian Village - Republic
As many as 2,000 Pawnees lived in this village of more than 40 lodges. The museum enclosed the excavated floor of one of the largest lodges, with the remains of other houses dotting the grounds. Imagine what life could have been as you explore the earth lodges and objects that were left behind.
http://www.nckcn.com/homepage/republic_co/pawnee.htm
http://www.kshs.org/places/pawneeindian/

Pawnee Rock - Pawnee Rock
For travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, this sandstone citadel, Pawnee Rock, was one of the most prominent landmarks on their long journey.
http://www.kshs.org/places/pawneerock/index.htm

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge - Stafford
The Quivira National Wildlife Refuge lies in a transition zone between the eastern and western prairies. Quivira is a quiet, almost-never-see-a-human experience enjoyed by naturalists, photographers and wildlife lovers.
http://www.lasr.net/pages/park.php?Park_ID=KS02sp002
http://www.cheyennebottoms.net/about_quivira.html

Rock City - Minneapolis
The rocks at Rock City are huge sandstone concretions. In an area about the size of two football fields, 200 rocks, some as large as houses, dot the landscape. There is no other place in the world where there are so many concretions of such giant size.
http://www.minneapolisksorg.org/untitled3.html

Rolling Hills Refuge Wildlife Conservation Center - Salina
Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure is a wildlife encounter that includes a rare white rhino, four massive polar bears and a giant walrus. It is both a world-class zoo with over 300 animals and an immersive museum with seven world regions from the tropical rainforest to the polar regions. Rolling Hills is open year round and located just west of Salina on I-70.
http://www.rollinghillswildlife.com/

Sandsage Bison Range and Wildlife Area - Garden City
Formerly known as the Finney Game Refuge, the 3,670-acre bison range is home to the oldest publicly-owned bison herd in Kansas.
http://www.naturalkansas.org/sandsage.htm
http://www.fosbr.com/index.htm

Santa Fe Trail - Council Grove
For many years Council Grove was the only trading post between Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail. The rendezvous of westward bound travelers and traders who were crossing the plains, the region from Council Grove to Santa Fe was the most hazardous part of the trail.
http://www.ku.edu/heritage/trails/sfthist.html
http://www.stjohnks.net/santafetrail/flint/cgtimeline.html

Sternberg Museum of Natural History - Hays
The Sternberg Museum recreates the Cretaceous period through dioramas of life-size dinosaurs. A highlight is the collection of fossilized prehistoric flying reptiles. The Discovery Room contains a giant spider model, computer work stations, live animals and hands-on activities.
http://www.kansastravel.org/sternbergmuseum.htm

Twin Peaks - Medicine Lodge, Barber County
Take a guided tour of the Gypsum Hills, once roamed by Native Americans, as you view area legends such as the 1,785 feet tall Twin Peaks and Flower Pot Mountain.
http://www.medicinelodge.com/tourism.html

U.S. Cavalry Museum - Fort Riley
The building that houses the Museum was once the headquarters used by General George Armstrong Custer. It chronicles the colorful history of the American Mounted Horse Soldier from the Revolutionary War to 1950.
http://www.uscavalry.org

William Allen White House - Emporia
Visit the showplace home of William Allen White, nationally known newspaperman and author. From the 1890s through World War II, White influenced state and national politics through his writings from the heartland town of Emporia.
http://www.kshs.org/places/white

William Inge Collection - Independence
The boyhood home of William Inge, the playwright whose works include "Bus Stop" and "Picnic," is located at 514 N. 4th Street. The William Inge Collection began in 1965 with the gathering of press clippings, memorabilia and books.
http://www.ingefestival.org/ingecollection.htm
http://www.indkschamber.org/things_to_do_in_independence.htm

World's Largest Atomic Cannon - Junction City
The cannon was designed to provide heavy fire support to the field army and also to project nuclear rounds with great accuracy on the battlefield. It was in service from 1952-1963.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/KSJUNatomic.html

World's Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City
Frank Stoeber started this ball of twine on his farm in 1953. By 1957 it weighed 5,000 pounds, stood 8 feet high and had 1,175,180 feet of twine on it. Stoeber gave the ball to Cawker City in 1961 before his death in 1974. Today it weighs almost 9 tons.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/towns/Cawker/twine.html

World's Largest Hand-Dug Well - Greensburg
The story of the World's Largest Hand-Dug Well began in the 1880s when both the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads were laying tracks across the plains of Kansas. A large supply of water was needed for the steam locomotives and for the people of the area. The only dependable source of water was from a well.
http://www.bigwell.org/bigwell.html

World's Largest Easel - Goodland
Driving to Goodland on I-70, you can't miss the Van Gogh Sunflower Project. This 24x32 foot painting is displayed on an 80-foot high easel.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/KSGOOeasel.html

To enhance your Kansas journeys, check out these links (Thanks to Kansas Explorers Club).

Amazing 100 Miles

http://www.amazing100miles.com

Flyover People

http://www.flyoverpeople.net

Kansas Art

http://www.discoverkansasarts.com
http://www.ku.edu/heritage/artists

I-70 Association

http://www.visitkansas-i70.com

Kansas Cowboys

http://www.kansascattletowns.com
http://www.droversmercantile.com

Kansas Wildlife & Parks

http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us

Kansas Genealogy

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb

Kansas on the Net

http://kotn.org

Kansas Photo Tour

http://www.kansasphototour.com

Kansas RV Campgrounds

http://www.kansasrvparks.org
http://www.ksrvparks.com

Kansas Scenic Byways

http://www.ksbyways.org

Kansas State Historical Society

http://www.kshs.org

Kansas Travel & Tourism

http://www.travelks.com

Natural Kansas

http://www.naturalkansas.org

Solomon Valley Highway 24 Heritage Alliance

http://hwy24.org

South Central Kansas

http://www.sckstourims.com

Southeast Kansas

http://www.sekinc.org/tourism/attractions.htm

Wild West Country (southwest Kansas)

http://www.wildwestcountry.com

Kansas Sampler Foundation

http://www.kansassampler.org

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle - 1887 -1933
Roscoe, one of nine children, was the baby of the family who weighed a reported 16 pounds at birth. Born in Smith Center, Kansas, his family moved to California when he was a year old. At 8, he would appear on the stage. His first part was that of a picaninny kid with the Webster-Brown Stock Company. From then until 1913, Roscoe was on the stage performing everything from acrobatic acts, to clown, to singer.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000779/

John R. "Doc" Brinkley, 1885-1941
Brinkley, of Milford, famous for his goat gland transplants, was also a gubernatorial candidate and pioneer radio broadcaster He was both a controversial medical doctor who experimented with goat glands as a means of curing male impotence and as a radio pioneer who created the age of Mexican border blasters.
http://www.biologydaily.com/biology/John_R._Brinkley

Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917 - 2000
Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917 and raised in Chicago. She is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, including Annie Allen (1949), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/165

Blanche K. Bruce, 1841-1898
Bruce was born into slavery in Virginia in 1841. He moved with his master to Missouri before the Civil War. By 1861 Bruce had escaped from slavery and made his way to Lawrence, Kansas, where he survived Quantrill's raid. Blanche Bruce was credited with organizing the first school in the country for Negroes. Moving on to Mississippi by 1868, Bruce became the first Black U.S. Senator elected to a full term, 1875-1881
http://www.csusm.edu/Black_Excellence/documents/pg-b-bruce.html

George Washington Carver, 1864 - 1943
George Washington Carver was an American educator and an outstanding innovator in the agricultural sciences. Carver was born of slave parents near Diamond, Missouri. He left the farm where he was born when he was about ten years old and eventually settled in Minneapolis, Kansas, where he worked his way through high school.
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/carver.htm

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, 1944-Present
Pope John Paul II named Bishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap., of Rapid City, South Dakota, to be Archbishop of Denver. He succeeds Archbishop J. Francis Stafford who last August was appointed President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Laity. Charles Joseph Chaput was born in Concordia, Kansas, on September 26, 1944. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help school in Concordia and St. Francis Seminary High School in Victoria, Kansas. Archbishop-designate Chaput took final vows as a Capuchin Friar on July 14, 1968, and was ordained a priest on August 29, 1970, in Victoria, Kansas.
http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/1997/97-036.shtml

Mabel Chase, 1876-1962
Mabel Chase, Haviland and Greensburg, was the first woman in the United States to be elected sheriff. She kept up with the latest crime-fighting equipment: She owned a Thompson submachine gun and drove an armor-plated Hudson "Super Six" patrol car with bullet-proof glass
http://cjonline.com/stories/033003/our_colorful.shtml

Nick Chiles, ????
Nick Chiles was born in South Carolina and moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1886. There he founded and edited the Plaindealer, a newspaper that ran from January 1899 to November 1958. Chiles's Plaindealer was said to be the most successful Black-owned newspapers in Kansas and one of the strongest in the nation. It also became the longest running Black newspaper in the United States.
http://www.kshs.org/people/african_americans.htm#c

Walter P. Chrysler, 1875-1940
Walter Chrysler was born in Wamego but grew up in Ellis. He purchased his first automobile not to drive, but to take apart and put back together again. Chrysler trained as a master mechanic with the Union Pacific Railroad and shifted his focus to automobiles in 1912. Within a year after his departure from General Motors Chrysler returned to the automobile business and took on the ailing Maxwell Motor Car Company. His vision was to develop a line of high-styled automobiles priced for people with medium incomes. In 1925 Maxwell Motor Car Company took the name of its president and became the Chrysler Corporation. When Walter Chrysler finally retired, his company was one of the three top automobile companies in the country.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/skpowell/wpc.htm

Clark Clifford, 1906-1998
Clifford was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, on 25 December 1906, took both bachelor and law degrees at Washington University, and practiced law in St. Louis between 1928 and 1943. He served as an officer with the Navy from 1944 to 1946, including assignment as assistant naval aide and naval aide to the president. After separation from the Navy, he held the position of special counsel to the president from 1946 to 1950. During this period he participated extensively in the legislative efforts that resulted in the National Security Act of 1947 and its 1949 amendments. Clifford was widely known and respected in Washington and knowledgeable on defense matters when he became secretary of defense on 1 March 1968.
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/clifford.htm

Nellie Cline - ????
Nellie Cline, Larned, was an early woman Kansas Legislator and is credited with being the first woman lawyer to appear before the US Supreme Court. After serving in the Kansas legislature she married John Steenson and moved to Idaho. She was also served as a legislator in Idaho until 1962 as Nellie Cline Steenson.
http://www.kshs.org/people/women.htm

Buffalo Bill Cody, 1846-1917
Born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1846, Cody grew up on the prairie. When his father died in 1857, his mother moved to Kansas, where Cody worked for a wagon-freight company as a mounted messenger and wrangler. During the Civil War, Cody served first as a Union scout in campaigns against the Kiowa and Comanche, and then in 1863 he enlisted with the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, which saw action in Missouri and Tennessee. After the war, he married Louisa Frederici in St. Louis and continued to work for the Army as a scout and dispatch carrier, operating out of Fort Ellsworth, Kansas. Finally, in 1867, Cody took up the trade that gave him his nickname, hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. By his own count, he killed 4,280 head of buffalo in seventeen months.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/buffalobill.htm

William C. Coleman, 1870 - 1957
The brilliant white light produced by gas lamps impressed William Coleman. He found gas lamps to be a profitable venture only after he redesigned the lamps and devised a plan to rent and service the lamps himself. Coleman's first successful business venture with lamps was the Hydro-Carbon Light Company in Wichita. Coleman turned inventor to refine his lamps, producing the first instant-light gasoline lamp. Coleman lamps, stoves, coolers, and other products have been used by thousands of American soldiers, farmers, campers, and emergency workers.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/coleman_w_c.htm

Samuel Crumbine, 1862 - 1954
Believed prevention was important in fighting disease. He crusaded to change public ideas about health with such sayings as "Don't Spit On The Sidewalk" and "Swat The Fly." He started his medical practice in Ford County, where he had purchased half interest in a drugstore business. His 1899 appointment to the Kansas State Board of Health made him the state's first full-time public health officer. He warned against the use of the common drinking cup, the hazards of the housefly and the use of a common towel in public restrooms.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/crumbine_samuel.htm

Glenn Cunningham, 1909 - 1988
Six years after he was born in Atlanta, Kansas, Glenn's legs were so badly burned it was feared he would never walk again. After several weeks in bed, he was able to walk on crutches. Finally, he got rid of the crutches but, as he said later, "It hurt like thunder to walk, but it didn't hurt at all when I ran. So for five or six years, about all I did was run." Cunningham became a miler in high school and set an interscholastic record of 4:24.7. He won the NCAA 1,500-meter championships in 1932 competing for the University of Kansas. He was also in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. Then in 1938 Cunningham became the world's fastest miler as he set a new record at Dartmouth College.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/cunningham_glenn.htm

John Steuart Curry, 1897-1946
His teacher at the Hickory Point school in Jefferson County scolded John Steuart Curry for drawing chickens on his slate when the assignment was an arithmetic problem. Curry drew the world as he saw it, and his world began in Kansas. In 1937 the already well-known artist Curry was asked to paint murals on the second floor of the state capitol. His work drew notice and controversy. Curry took the criticism in stride until the legislature denied his request to remove marble so he could expand his canvas. He packed his paintbrushes and left the murals unfinished and unsigned. With Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry captured the spirit of the common man and the Midwest in the art movement of the 1930s and 1940s known as realistic regionalism.
http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/john_steuart_curry_1897.htm

Charles Curtis, 1860-1936
In 1928 he became vice president of the United States, the first of Native American ancestry. As a child, Curtis lived with his grandparents in Topeka attended the common schools; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1881 and commenced practice in Topeka; was prosecuting attorney of Shawnee County 1885-1889; and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and served the six succeeding Congresses.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001008

Len "Bud" Dresslar Jr., 1905-2005
Originally from St. Francis and Topeka this bass-baritone singer was also the voice of the Jolly Green Giant and sang in the "Snap, Crackle and Pop" jingle for Rice Krispies.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/obituariesl/cst-nws-xdres23.html

Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937
Born in Atchison, She was the first woman granted a pilot's license by the National Aeronautics Associate, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932), and the first person to fly solo across the Pacific.
http://ellensplace.net/eae_intr.html

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969
Born in Texas, brought up in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. He excelled in sports in high school, and received an appointment to West Point. In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment. He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France. After the war, he became President of Columbia University, and then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952. He was elected the 34th United States President and served from 1953-1961.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/de34.html

Alfred Fairfax, 1840-????
A Civil War Veteran and the first African American elected to the Kansas State Legislature, he was born a slave in Loudon County, Virginia. Fairfax reportedly was sold after a foiled escape attempt and removed to Louisiana just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1862 he escaped from bondage, joined the Union army, and subsequently learned to read with assistance from "an orderly sergeant." Fairfax became quite influential in the local and state Republican Party during Reconstruction, holding several elective and appointive positions, and receiving a congressional nomination. But, as Southern "redeemers" increasingly tightened their grip on the state, reestablishing white control of the post-Reconstruction South, Fairfax looked north and west for a land in which he might better his condition. Like many thousands of his fellow "freedmen," the Rev. Fairfax chose Kansas, a symbol of hope for many of these political and economic refugees. When Fairfax made his move into the "promised land" in 1880, he took 200 families with him, most of whom located in Chautauqua County. There, Fairfax obtained a 200-acre farm, raised cotton, among other farm products, operated his own cotton gin (the "Fairfax Ginning Company"), and took on the pastorate of the New Hope Baptist Church in Parsons.
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/representatives/fairfax_alfred.htm

Marlin Fitzwater, 1942-Present
Fitzwater was born on a farm in Salina, Kansas He graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 with a degree in journalism. While in school, he worked at newspapers in various Kansas communities before moving to Washington, DC upon graduation. He also served in the United States Air Force. He was White House Press Secretary for six years under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, making him one of the longest-serving press secretaries in history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin_Fitzwater

Lorenzo Dow Fuller, Jr., 1919-Present
Lorenzo Fuller was born in Stockton in 1919. He is the son of Effie Green Fuller, the first Black child to be brought to Rooks County, and the grandson of pioneer homesteaders "Cap'n" Giles Green, a member of the 79th Colored Regiment of Kansas during the Civil War, and Rebecca Green. At age 15 Fuller was accepted as a sponsored student at the University of Kansas - there he received training in opera and other classical forms. Fuller secured a place in KU history when he performed the Ballad for America. While a KU student, Fuller performed monthly on KFKU radio and became the first Black man to sing with the KU Symphony. Upon graduation, more than two thousands people showed up for his solo senior recital, compared with the 75 or so who usually attend this type of event. Lorenzo Fuller was a man of firsts. His show, Van and the Genie, on WPIX in NYC, broke racial barriers: it was the first show in the nation where a Black man starred opposite a white woman. Van and the Genie were so successful that its sponsor's product, Scotty Pops Lollipops, was soon outstripped by demand as 3,300 new distributorships (quite a feat in that day) were created. The show garnered such popularity that Lorenzo and his co-star, Rosamond Vance Kaufman, marched in the Macy's Day Parade, behind that year's Grand Marshall, Jimmy Durante. Another first occurred with the advent of his show Musical Miniatures: Mr. Fuller became the first Black in the nation to have his own show - a few years before Nat King Cole had his show!
http://www.pbs.org/shptv/localproductions/lorenzofuller.html

Robert Merrel Gage, 1892-1981
Gage was a native Topekan, educated in the Topeka public schools and at Washburn College, is a world renowned sculptor of Abraham Lincoln. He left Kansas after graduation to study sculpture in both New York and France with Borglum and Robert Henri, two exponents of the "American Theme" in art. Returning to Topeka in 1916, the young sculptor set up shop in a barn behind his house on Fillmore Street and began his first public commission, the magnificent statue of Lincoln that rests on the Kansas State Capitol grounds. After a stint in the armed services during World War I, Gage began a teaching career at Washburn and at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1924, Gage left the Midwest for a position at the University of Southern California, a post he held until his retirement in 1958.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/gage_robert_m.htm

Isaac T Goodnow, 1814-1894
Goodnow, free-state supporter and the Kansas Superintendent of Public Instruction, was one of the most extensively traveled men in the new state, and was widely acquainted with citizens everywhere. In 1855, at the age of 41, he arrived in Kansas with background experience as an English professor and Natural Sciences from the Academy of Wilbrahan near Springfield Mass., and at providence Seminary at East Greenwich Rhode Island. His motives for coming to Kansas apparently were similar to those of other New England settlers who became state leaders-abolition, land ownership and adventure. During his first eight years in Kansas, Isaac Goodnow had set aside one of the attractive hills for the establishment of the Bluemont Central College. He returned to the east, to raise $15000.00 and 2,000 library books to build the college and served as its president for the first years. In February 1863, under the Morrill Land-Grant College Act it became Kansas State Agricultural College and then later named Kansas State University. As it were, Isaac Goodnow could be named, "The father of formal education" for the new frontier.
http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/cgiwrap/imlskto/
index.php?SCREEN=bio_sketches/goodnow_isaac

Jane Grant, 1892 - 1972
Jane Grant was a woman several steps ahead of her time. Feminist, journalist, gardener, and entrepreneur, Grant moved among these identities with a studied practice of power and grace. She was a survivor who played by her own rules. With little status or economic privilege, she made her way in the world using brains, bravado, and anything else that came her way. In the mythic tradition of the American rags to riches story, it is expected for the farmer's son to leave home to seek his fortune, yet it is quite rare for the farmer's daughter to escape--especially without a husband or doting aunt in tow. In 1908, one week after high school graduation from Girard High School, Grant pointed her compass north towards New York City. She was thrilled to be boarding the train with Miss Willie Warner, the former Girard High School music teacher who had married and moved east. Warner offered Grant the opportunity to live with her in New York. At sixteen years old, Grant had never been further from her father's farm than Kansas City. However, she jumped at the chance to leave home; she was, in her words, "ready to combat the world." Towards the end of Grant's first year in New York, Miss Willie Warner died and in spite of the loss of her friend, Grant decided not to return to her father's farm in Kansas. Eventually, with the help of her landlady, Grant found a steady job answering phones for $10 a week at The New York Times. She insisted on spending her free time drafting news articles, stories culled from her daily experiences. Eventually, her boss realized he could profit by Grant's zealousness and began training her to cover stories.
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/exhibits/JaneGrant/ready/

Georgia Neese Clark Gray, 1900-1995
Kansas women can claim a number of firsts and Georgia Neese Clark Gray is no exception. Born in Richland, Kansas, Gray attended school in Topeka and graduated from Washburn College in 1921. During college, she developed an interest in acting and after graduation attended the Franklin Sargent School of Dramatic Art and eventually acted with various stock companies. She returned to Kansas after the advent of the depression caused acting jobs to be scarce. Gray started working at her father's Richland State Bank as an assistant cashier in 1935 and became president in 1937 following his death. She became active in the state Democratic Party and was elected National Committee Woman in Kansas in 1936, a position she held until 1964. She was an articulate and well-liked representative of the party and an early supporter of Harry Truman. It was this support that brought about her nomination as the first woman to be Treasurer of the United States.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/gray_georgia.htm

Junius Groves, 1859-1925
Groves came to Kansas at the age of nineteen. He worked at the meat packing houses in Armourdale and later moved to Edwardsville. Here he purchased eighty acres of land and began to raise white potatoes. His business prospered and he became known as the "Potato King of the World."
http://www.kshs.org/people/african_americans.htm

Ben Hibbs, 1901-1975
In the fall of 1920, a young man from Pretty Prairie walked into the office of Professor L. N. Flint, head of the department of journalism of Kansas University, and announced he wanted to be a good newspaperman - not a "hack". He applied himself vigorously to his journalistic studies, editing the University Daily Kansan and teaching some journalism classes during the school year. In the summers he worked as a news editor for newspapers in Fort Morgan, Colorado, and Pratt, Kansas. He graduated from K. U. in 1923. The next year was hired as a teacher at Fort Hays State College, where he founded their department of journalism. Between 1926 and 1929, he went back into newspaper work, editing several Kansas newspapers and earning a reputation as one of Kansas' outstanding editors. The Kansas City Star called him "the most quoted young squirt in Kansas." His efforts brought him to the attention of Curtis Publications of Philadelphia, who offered him the job of associate editor of their national monthly magazine, Country Gentleman. The 27-year-old Kansan accepted and over the next 11 years, toured the country, writing editorials and feature articles. In 1940 he was made editor-in-chief of Country Gentleman. In 1942 Curtis executives asked Hibbs to take over the editorship of their faltering weekly, the Saturday Evening Post. During the 20 years he edited that magazine; he modernized its contents, style, and format and doubled its circulation to 7 million by 1961. In 1942 it was Ben Hibbs who published Norman Rockwell's now famous illustrations of the Four Freedoms when every other publisher Rockwell approached turned him down. These illustrations proved instantly popular with the American people and gave them a patriotic shot-in-the-arm that was needed during that point in World War II when things didn't seem to be going our way. In 1962 Hibbs resigned from the Post to become editor of Reader's Digest, a position he held until his retirement in 1972.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/hibbs_ben.htm

James "Wild Bill" Hickok, 1837-1876
James Butler Hickok moved to Kansas in 1855 and at the age of 20 was elected constable of Monticello. In 1861 he was working as a wagon master in Montana. Hickok was also employed as a guide on the Santa Fe Trail and later he worked on the Oregon Trail. During the American Civil War Hickok was employed as a scout for the Union Army. After the war came to an end Hickok became a professional gambler in Springfield, Missouri. Also, for a brief time he served under General George A. Custer in his 7th Cavalry In 1868 Hickok became sheriff of Hays City in Kansas. In April 1871, Hickok was employed as marshal of Abilene. Hickok then toured with Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show (1972-73) before teaming up with Calamity Jane in Deadwood, Dakota. He also married Agnes Lake and for a time tried gold mining. Hickok also spent a lot of time with John Wesley Hardin. On 2nd August, 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was playing cards in Deadwood. Jack McCall, seeking revenge for the death of his brother, shot Hickok in the back of the head.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWhickok.htm

Peggy Hull,1889-1967
Peggy Hull was born on a farm near Bennington, Kansas, on December 30, 1889. She left school at sixteen, got her first newspaper job on the Junction City, Kansas, Sentinel, and between 1909 and 1916 worked for newspapers in Colorado, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Ohio. In June 1917 Peggy persuaded the editor of the Morning Times to send her to France to report on World War I. She sailed for England, survived the submarine-infested Atlantic Ocean, and made her way to Paris-not an easy feat, since she was without benefit of War Department accreditation, which conferred a certain governmental blessing on and aid to war reporters. But no woman had ever been accredited, and it was War Department policy that none ever would be. She became the first woman in the United States to become an official war reporter. She reported on several wars including World War I and II.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/DD/fdetm.html

John J. Ingall, 1833-1900
Kansans, like so many others, take for granted many of those things which are of the most importance to them. Take for instance, the state motto, Ad Astra Per Aspera, "To the stars through difficulty." It was suggested in 1861 by the young secretary to the first Kansas State Senate who later achieved international fame as a writer, wit and consummate politician. His name was John James Ingalls, and he came to Kansas in 1858, lured by a colorful lithograph of a town which was more promise than actuality.
http://www.kshs.org/portraits/ingalls_john.htm

Eva Jessye, 1895- 1992
Eva Jessye was best-known for her work on radio, in movies and on the Broadway stage. Her work pioneered the way for other African Americans in entertainment. She was a talented musician, actress, composer, poet, and author. Eva was born in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1895 and also lived nearby in Caney and Iola as a child. At an early age she showed a talent for writing music and poetry. She was only 12 when she formed her first musical group, a girls' quartet. Eva was the first African American woman to succeed as a professional choir director and is best known as the choral director for the Broadway show Porgy and Bess.
http://www.kshs.org/people/jessye_eva.htm

Walter Johnson, 1887- 1946
With a remarkable amount of integrity, humility and talent never before seen in the Major Leagues, baseball's greatest pitcher truly stood above the rest. Walter Johnson's incredible speed and wholesome demeanor personified the golden age of baseball, earning him the country's gratitude and respect. He was a pitcher for the Washington Senators and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Born in Humboldt, Kansas, Johnson was the second of six children to Frank and Minnie Johnson. Growing up on his parent's farm, Johnson appreciated the lifestyle of a rural community, as he thought the isolation was the best preparation for life and a chance to learn more about himself. When Frank decided to move the family to California in 1901 to try their luck in the oil industry, Johnson decided to try his luck at baseball.
http://www.cmgworldwide.com/baseball/johnson/biography.htm

C. J. "Buffalo" Jones, 1844- 1919
Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones, immortalized by author Zane Gray in his book "The Last of the Plainsmen", is listed in the national archives as one of the "preservers of the American bison" and his colorful many-faceted career spanned several continents. Born January 31, 1844 in Illinois, Jones became fascinated as a youth with the capture of wild animals. He came to Kansas in 1866, where he developed into a skilled plainsman. With his knowledge and love of outdoor life, he made a good living for his wife, two sons and two daughters, hunting buffalo and capturing wild horses. On April 8, 1879, together with John Stevens, W. D. and James R. Fulton, he founded Garden City.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/history/cjjones.html

Buster Keaton, 1895- 1966
Joseph Francis Keaton Jr. was born in Piqua, Kansas to Joe and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were stage comedians and they were very successful especially with the renowned magician Harry Houdini. At one time the Keaton family was at a hotel and Keaton fell down a full flight of stairs and surprisingly he was unharmed and Houdini said 'Some Buster!' and the name stuck. Joe Keaton thought to himself it would be a good name for the boy and so he has been known like that for over 100 years. At age 4 Buster had already began acting with his parents on the stage and for several years his father did all sorts of things to Buster by throwing him all over the stage and the audiences loved it. After several years The Three Keatons as they were now known toured America until some circumstances occurred were the act was then broken up. Buster was a stage veteran at the age of 21. On one wet New York day the successful comedian and director, Roscoe Arbuckle, was walking down the street when he spotted Keaton and invited him to start in films together and so Keaton's reputation was launched forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Keaton

Emmett Kelly, 1898- 1979
Emmett Kelly Sr. was born in Sedan, Kansas on December 9, 1898. His father worked the railroad, and his mother ran the family-owned boarding house. He worked at various jobs, finally seeming to settle down working as a cartoonist for a silent film company in Kansas City. It was there that Emmett Kelly first drew the tramp clown character that he would later portray, Weary Willy. Although gainfully employed, Emmett Kelly had dreamed of joining the circus since he was a young boy, as many of us did. Emmett, however, worked to make that dream a reality by purchasing a trapeze, and learning how to become a circus ... aerialist. His first performing circus job (he had previously worked painting circus wagons) was as a trapeze artist with Howe's Great London Circus -- with Emmett doubling as a clown. Emmett agreed, and began performing, not as Weary Willie, but as a white-face clown.
http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/Emmett-Kelly-Sr.html

Stan Kenton, 1911-1979
Stanley Newcomb Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from high school, he played in several small groups in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas before beginning his own band in 1941. Kenton recorded more than 50 albums and pioneered Third Stream jazz, a mixture of classical music and jazz.
http://kenton.crispen.org/biography.html

Jack Kilby, 1923- 2005
Mr. Kilby grew up in Great Bend, Kansas. With B.S. And M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin respectively, he began his career in 1947 with the Centralab Division of Globe Union Inc. in Milwaukee, developing ceramic-base, silk-screen circuits for consumer electronic products. Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that built both the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented both the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals. Jack Kilby is the recipient of two of the nation's most prestigious honors in science and engineering. In 1970, in a White House ceremony, he received the National Medal of Science. In 1982, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, taking his place alongside Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers in the annals of American innovation. In 2000, Jack Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit
http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/kilbyctr/jackstclair.shtml

Omar Knedlik, 1916-1989
In the late 1950s, a man named Omar Knedlik owned a Dairy Queen in Coffeyville, Kansas. On warm days, Mr. Knedlik would store bottles of coke in his freezer and serve these super-cooled, semi-frozen drinks to his customers. He advertised this unique and refreshing drink as "The Coldest Drink in Town". As the popularity of this new drink grew, Mr. Knedlik felt the need and saw the opportunity to develop a machine that was capable of dispensing the same type of frozen carbonated beverage. Mr. Knedlik felt strongly that any new machine should produce a product that was equal to or better in quality than the product his consumers were currently enjoying. With a clear and unwavering idea of what he wanted, Mr. Knedlik began tinkering with an old ice cream machine and soon had the first primitive working model of the modern ICEE machine. The new machine was an instant hit!!!
http://www.iceedistributors.com/index1.php

Mary Alice Lair, 1938-????
She is first woman to become vice chairman of the state Republican committee and a member of the Kansas State Fair board. She gave up the job of representing Kansas on the Republican National Committee in 2002 at the age of 62. She was also a member of the Kansas and Kansas State Fair Board of Directors.
http://www.kshs.org/people/women.htm

Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1853- 1933
Mary Elizabeth Lease, lecturer, writer, and political agitator, was born in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. In 1868 she graduated from St. Elizabeth's Academy in Allegany, New York. Shortly after her graduation she moved to Osage Mission, Kansas, to teach at St. Anne's Academy. In 1873 she married Charles L. Lease, a pharmacist's clerk, and moved to Kingman County. They lost their farm there and in 1874 moved to Denison, Texas, where four of their five children were born, while Mary took in washing and studied law, her notes pinned above the washtub. Mary joined the temperance movement and began her career of political agitation. She was a naturally gifted speaker with an ability to make the mundane seem dramatic. She probably made her first political speech before the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Charles appears to have attempted to augment his fortunes by buying and selling lots in the infant railroad town. In 1885 Mary was admitted to the Kansas bar and began her activist career in earnest. She made her political debut in 1888 at the state convention of the Union Labor party, ran for office on its ticket, and soon joined the Farmers' Alliance, or Populist, party. She was referred to as the "People's Joan of Arc." In that party's 1890 campaign she made more than 160 speeches and claimed credit for the defeat of Kansas senator John Ingalls. She opposed big business and stated flatly that "Wall Street owns the country." After she allegedly told Kansas farmers to "raise less corn and more hell," she said a newspaper had made it up, but that it "was a good bit of advice."
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/LL/fle97.html

Lutie Lytle, 1875 - 1950
In October 1897 Topekans were buzzing with the news that one of their own was a pioneer in her field. One of only two students in Central Tennessee law school's graduating class of 1897, Lutie A. Lytle was among the first African American women to earn a law degree. In September 1897 Lytle was admitted to the Criminal Court in Memphis, Tennessee, after passing an oral exam. Newspaper accounts said that she was the first African American woman to be licensed to practice in Tennessee, and third in the United States. Later that month, after returning to Topeka, she became the first African American woman admitted to the Kansas bar.
http://www.kshs.org/people/hers_kansas/lytle_lutie.htm

Edward P. McCabe, 1850- 1923
Edward McCabe was one of the early settlers in Nicodemus, Kansas. He began his political career as clerk of Graham County in 1880, making him one of the first Black officials to be appointed in Kansas. In 1882 McCabe became the Kansas state auditor on the Republican ticket, which gave him the distinction of being the first Black to hold a statewide office in a northern state.
https://www.kshs.org/people/african_americans.htm

Jesse McCormack, ????
Jesse McCormack from Moran, the first woman in the United States to pass the examination for bank cashier.
http://www.kshs.org/people/#m

Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy, 1894-1952
She was born near Hays, Kansas, attended the rural schools; was graduated from the Hays High School, from the State Teachers College, Hays, and from the law school of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., in 1920. She was admitted to the bar in 1921 and commenced practice in Chicago, Ill. She returned to Kansas in 1928 and continued the practice of law in Hays and served as a delegate to the State Democratic conventions in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, and 1936, and to the Democratic National Conventions in 1940 and 1944. She was member of the State house of representatives in 1931 and 1932 and elected to the U.S Seventy-third Congress. She was the first woman from Kansas elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
http://www.factmonster.com/biography/us/congress/
o-loughlin-kathryn-ellen.html

Hattie McDaniel, 1895-1952
Hattie was born in Wichita, Kansas, the daughter of a Baptist minister and a spiritual singer. At the age of 15 she won a medal in dramatic art, but later started her career as a band vocalist. She worked as a singer with Professor George Morrison's Orchestra in 1915, touring the country. She became the first African American to sing on network radio in the United States. In 1931, she went to Hollywood to seek a film career and began as an extra before capturing larger roles. When work was not available, she hired herself out as a domestic, a cook, or a washerwoman. In 1939 this actress in Gone With the Wind became the first African American to receive an Academy Award. She was also the first black star ever to attend the ceremonies and the first African American to be buried in Los Angeles' Rosedale Cemetery.
http://members.aol.com/ttelracs/Hattie.htm

Peter Mehringer, 1910-1987
Nicknamed the "Kansas Whirlwind," Kinsley-native Peter J. Mehringer undoubtedly ranks as the greatest wrestler ever to attend the University of Kansas. After learning how to wrestle from a correspondence course, he went on to win two state championships, and three Missouri Valley Conference titles. In 1932, the KU sophomore won a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the first time a KU athlete brought home the gold.
http://www.kuhistory.com/proto/story.asp?id=28

Karl Menninger, 1893-1990
Karl Augustus Menninger was an American Psychiatrist and a member of the famous Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation was also involved with the Topeka State Hospital, which included Capital City School, an alternative school for USD 501. The Capital City School stayed open after the State Hospital closed. The Capital City School building is named after Karl Menninger and a bust of Karl Menninger, along with a collection of his personal books reside in the school library.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Menninger

Dr. James Naismith, 1861- 1939
Dr. James Naismith is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball. Naismith joined the University of Kansas faculty in 1898, beginning a long career as director of teaching physical education and couch and being a chaplain. In addition to the creation of the basketball, James Naismith graduated as a medical doctor, primarily interested in sports physiology and what we would today call sports science and as Presbyterian minister, with a keen interest in philosophy and clean living. Naismith watched his sport, basketball, introduced in many nations by the YMCA movement as early as 1893. Basketball was introduced at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Naismith was flown to Berlin to watch the games. He died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1939.
http://www.ku.edu/heritage/graphics/people/naismith.html

Carry Nation, 1846-1911
In 1877, Carry married David Nation, a preacher, attorney and editor 19 years her senior. They moved to Texas, then to Medicine Lodge, Kansas in 1889, where David became pastor of the Christian Church. Carry taught Sunday School, saw to the needs of poor people, became a jail evangelist and helped to establish a local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She spoke out not only about the evils of drink, but tobacco and women's immodest dress as well. Kansas residents had voted for prohibition, but the law was largely ignored by saloonkeepers. They operated openly, but Nation would change all that. First she prayed in front of an establishment in 1890. She struck at her first saloon on June 1, 1900. Initially, she used rocks, bricks and other objects for these attacks, before turning to the hatchet. Nearly six feet tall and strapping, the determined woman closed the saloons in Medicine Lodge.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1058.html

Laurence Van Cott Niven, 1938 - Present
Laurence van Cott Niven is a US science fiction author. He graduated with a B.A. in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is in hard science fiction, utilizing big science concepts and theoretical physics in his stories. His writing also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven

Charlie Parker, 1920-1955
Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Parker was still a child when his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz, blues and gospel music were flourishing. His first contact with music came from school, where he played baritone horn with the school's band. When he was 15, he showed a great interest in music and a love for the alto saxophone. Soon, Parker was playing with local bands until 1935, when he left school to pursue a music career. From 1935 to 1939, Parker worked in Kansas City with several local jazz and blues bands from which he developed his art. In 1939, Parker visited New York for the first time, and he stayed for nearly a year working as a professional musician and often participating in jam sessions. The New York atmosphere greatly influenced Parker's musical style.
http://www.cmgww.com/music/parker/about/biography.html

Gordon Parks, 1912-Present
Born Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks in Fort Scott, Kansas, he is the youngest of 15 children. At the age of 16, Parks' mother dies and he moves to St. Paul Minnesota to live with his sister and her family. After a disagreement with her husband he is kicked out of the house. He then supports himself by working as a piano player in a brothel, a busboy, basketball player and a Civilian Conservation Corpsman. At the age of 25, Parks begins to seriously pursue photography. Parks becomes the first photographer to receive a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. He begins to closely work with a Farm Services Administration (FSA) photographer by the name of Roy Stryker. He moves his family to Washington D.C. after joining the FSA. It was here that Parks learns from Stryker and takes his first professional photograph titled "American Gothic."
http://www.temple.e