Doris Meder Pfannenstiel, age 94, died July 30, 2019. She was born April 22, 1925 in Pfeifer, KS. She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Barbara Meder, Brothers Gilbert (Helen) Meder, Elmer (Mary Ann) Meder and Edward Meder, and Sisters Florentine (Adolf) Degenhardt, Helen Duay, and Irene (Paul) Benda; and her Husband Edward M.
She is survived by her daughter Christy (Quentin) Garlets of Minnesota, her son Gerard (Molly Davies) Pfannenstiel of Nebraska, and four grandchildren: Michael, Charles, Lucille, Leland, and sister-in law’s Lena Meder and Rita Bieker.
Funeral services will be 10 AM Saturday, August 3, 2019 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Hays. Burial will follow in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Hays.
Visitation will be Friday 4 PM – 8 PM with a combined parish vigil and rosary at 7 PM at Brock’s – Keithley Funeral Chapel and Crematory, 2509 Vine Hays, KS 67601 and Saturday visitation will be 9 AM – 9:30 AM prior to services at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 1805 Vine Hays, KS 67601.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Sisters of St Joseph – Concordia, KS
Donald F. Clouston, 86, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, passed away Tuesday July 23, 2019. He will be interred in the Ness City, Kansas, cemetery with military honors at a graveside service on August 16, 2019 at 10 am. Fitzgerald Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
Survivors include his wife of 24 years, BJ Clouston, his children: Leslie Atchison and David Clouston of Pueblo, Colorado; Daniel Clouston of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Recheal Daniels of Coolidge, Arizona; Patti Weber Jakoubek (Michael Teply) and Tony Weber (Lisa) of Marion, Iowa; his siblings, Jeanne MacDonald (Clif) of Johnstown, Colorado; Mary Lee DeShazo of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Robert Clouston (Marye) of Manhattan, Kansas; and brother-in-law Gayle Garrelts of Hays, Kansas. Also surviving are 9 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, sister Ann Clouston Garrelts, daughter Tracy Clouston, and son-in-law John Atchison.
Don was born June 20, 1933, in Ransom, Kansas, the son of Jessee and Helen (Doty) Clouston. He married BJ Weber on May 24, 1995, in Meriden, Kansas. He was a district manager for an oil trucking company and a member of Noelridge Christian Church. He served in the Navy during the Korean War on the USS Boxer. Please leave a message for the family in the guestbook.
Memorials may be directed to the American Cancer Society in memory of Don.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old Wichita man is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting that killed a McConnell Air Force Base Airman from South Carolina and injured three others.
Markeithen McClaine photo Sedgwick Co.
Markeithen McClaine made his first court appearance Wednesday. He is also charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Officers responding to an apartment complex early Saturday found 20-year-old Chancelor Williams unresponsive in the parking lot. He died at the scene. Two other men and a woman were injured.
Officer Kevin Wheeler said a disturbance erupted in the parking lot after a party at one of the apartments. Investigators say McClaine fired several shots into the crowd.
Williams was an Airman 1st Class from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
McClaine’s next court date is Aug. 15. He remains jailed on $500,000 bond.
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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation of Saturday’s fatal shooting at a Wichita apartment complex party.
On Saturday afternoon, police arrested 25-year-old Markeithen McClaine on requested charges of 1st Degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery in connection the shooting of 20-year-old Chancelor Williams of Spartanburg, South Carolina and three other shooting victims, according to officer Kevin Wheeler.
McClaine was scheduled to make a first appearance in court Wednesday afternoon, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney.
According to police, Williams was fatally shot during a disturbance in the parking lot of Horizons East Apartments located in the 500 block of North Rock Road.
A 21-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were transported from the scene by EMS to a local hospital where they were treated and released for non-life threatening injuries. The fourth victim, a 19-year-old woman, arrived at a local hospital by private vehicle with a gunshot wound. She remains hospitalized but was expected to survive, according to Wheeler.
HPD Lt. Ron Rounkles (Ret.) mans the grill at the 2018 Community Night Out.
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
With Thursday’s forecast calling for a daytime high temperature in the mid-90s in Hays, Police Chief Don Scheibler is expecting a good turnout for tonight’s fourth annual “Community Night Out.”
The event, 5-8 pm. Thursday at the Hays Aquatic Park, includes free admission to the swimming pool for everyone and free hot dogs and hamburgers to the first 1,000 people served up by Hays police officers. Free T-shirts will also be handed out.
It’s a way to show thanks to the community for their support of the police department, says Sgt. Chris Hancock, and it’s just as much fun for the officers as it is for the public.
“They enjoy it a lot. It helps to humanize police officers when you see them out of uniform,” Hancock said.
Attendees will also get to check out HPD patrol cars, the SSRT (Special Situation Response Team) van and some of the gear used by the police.
Many officers will be there with their families.
“Seeing us interact with our families makes it easier to relate to us later on if we have to help you out on a call,” Hancock said.
“Community Night Out” is sponsored by the city of Hays, Walmart, Hays Recreation Commission, Pepsi of Hays, Heartland Building Center, Fraternal Order of Police Hays Lodge 48, Phaze 2 and Nex-Tech.
Hays city commissioners will continue discussion of the proposed 2020 budget during their work session this evening.
At last week’s regular meeting the commission set August 8 for the budget’s public hearing after which the budget will be formally adopted.
“We have to have the budget certified and to the Ellis County Clerk by Aug. 23, which means the city commission needs to get it adopted at the Aug. 8 meeting,” explained Toby Dougherty, city manager.
A public hearing is required by state law.
“The public is welcome to come and comment on the proposed budget. This week will be the city commission’s last opportunity to make significant changes if they want.”
The other agenda item for Aug. 1 is consideration of several amendments to the residential and electrical codes.
The two issues involve smoke alarms and arc-fault interrupted electrical outlets.
“There are a couple of provision that are a little bit punitive and a little bit retroactive in the opinion of public works staff,” Dougherty said. The scenarios were brought to the attention of the city by local electrical contractors.
BRAYMER, Mo. (AP) — Authorities who had been searching a Northwest Missouri farm for two missing Wisconsin brothers announced Wednesday that human remains have been found there, more than a week after the pair disappeared during a trip for their livestock business.
Garland Nelson photo Caldwell Co.
Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish said the remains were found Tuesday on a farm in Braymer that was operated by Garland Nelson, who is accused of tampering with a vehicle that authorities say was rented by Nicholas Diemel, 35, and his 24-year-old brother, Justin Diemel.
The brothers haven’t been seen since they missed a flight back to Wisconsin after visiting northwest Missouri on a trip for the business they operate in Bonduel, Wisconsin.
Fish said during a brief news conference Wednesday that the remains haven’t been positively identified and no cause of death has been determined. He said a forensic pathologist determined the remains were human.
Authorities said shortly after the brothers disappeared that the case was a “long-term death investigation” but they have not said why they believe the brothers are dead.
Fish said on Monday the brothers went to the farm for a business deal that “has been going on for a few months” and authorities were trying to determine what occurred during that visit to the farm in Braymer, which is about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City.
Nicholas Diemel’s wife, Lisa Diemel, filed a petition Tuesday in Shawano County, Wisconsin, Circuit Court asking a judge to appoint her as a special administrator for the estates. It lists the brothers’ date of death as July 21.
Authorities on Monday charged Nelson, 25, of Braymer, with tampering with a vehicle. Charging documents say Nelson abandoned the Diemel brothers’ rental truck in a commuter parking lot near Holt after they visited the farm near Braymer. GPS data showed the truck arriving at the Braymer farm and then leaving about two hours later with only one driver. Deputies found the truck in the lot on July 22. The court documents say Nelson admitted to leaving the truck there.
The event will be 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, in downtown Hays.
Barrels and Bites is replacing Wines and Steins. This year the event will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, wine and spirits.
The event is replacing Wines and Steins. This year, the event will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, wine and spirits.
“Wines and Steins has been going on for almost a decade, and if DHDC is known for anything, it is known for change and new things, so we have decided we’re going to say goodbye to Wines and Steins and create a completely new event called Barrels and Bites,” Sara Bloom, DHDC director, said.
DHDC also sponsors Brews on the Bricks, a beer festival. People had approached DHDC about having a wine festival. DHDC was also approached by a local distillery about offering its products at a downtown event.
There still will be a stroll of downtown businesses, but DHDC is limiting that stroll to 12 businesses. Inside each business, event goers will have several choices of drinks. Each business will feature either a winery or distillery. This will include whiskies, bourbons and vodkas.
“We will have wineries and distilleries that will be coming to Hays, and they will be pouring their products and talking about their products and giving tastings of their products and telling you about their process,” Bloom said.
She added, “We are really excited to be featuring some of those local and regional wineries and distilleries because, just like craft beer, vineyards and distilleries are popping up and becoming more popular. We are excited to explore that world as well.”
Bloom said event goers will enjoy wonderful hors d’oeuvres as part of the event.
“Everything from salmon and pork sliders, a charcuterie table … bacon-wrapped chicken, crab rangoon pizza, meatballs and cheeseballs,” Bloom said.
Desserts will be served after the stroll at an after party from 9 to 11 p.m., weather permitting, at the Downtown Pavilion. Some of the items on that menu will include, cookies, brownies, truffles and a chocolate fountain.
The after party will host live and silent auctions. With every auction item purchased, you will take home an additional dessert item.
Some of the auction items include tickets to the FHSU Encore series, autographed memorabilia from Nathan Shepherd, art pieces, all-season FHSU sport passes, and dinner and vacation packages.
All proceeds from the event benefit DHDC. Barrels and Bites is one of only two fundraisers for the organization, with the other being Brews on the Bricks.
Only 300 tickets will be sold. Tickets are $65 each, $70 for individual tickets online and $450 for a table of eight or $460 for a table of eight online.
“It is always really exciting for us to host an inaugural event such as this,” Bloom said. “We hope the community can get excited along with us. We want to continue to thank the community for their support of downtown Hays and our organization Downtown Hays Development Corporation. Through these events we’re able to continue to be able to follow our mission, which is to be able to bring awareness of downtown Hays and continue to develop and revitalize it, so thank you all for your support.”
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects in connection with a weekend shooting.
Rogers Gomez photo Sedgwick Co.
Just after 8 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a walk-in shooting call at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, according to office Charley Davidson.
The investigation revealed that a 17-year-old boy and his 19-year-old brother were outside of their residence in the 2300 block of N. Mascot in Wichita.
A white Chrysler 300 approached the residence occupied by four individuals that included 20-year-old Rogers Gomez and a 17-year-old. Gomez and the teen exited the vehicle; shots were fired shots toward the brothers, striking the 17-year-old victim in the abdomen and the second victim in the foot. Both were treated at a local hospital for non-life-threating injuries.
On Wednesday, police reported they had arrested Gomez on requested charges of aggravated battery and the 17-year-old on requested charges of aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm by a juvenile. Gomez remains jailed on a $50,000 bond, according to online jail records.
Richard Schleicher, Stockton, competes at the 2019 Cheyenne Frontier Days. The bull rider will ride in Phillipsburg on Saturday, Aug. 3, at Kansas Biggest Rodeo. Photo by Hubbell Photos.
PHILLIPSBURG – Over 425 cowboys and cowgirls will make the trek to Phillipsburg, Kansas, this weekend, for the annual Kansas Biggest Rodeo.
They hail from 22 states and a Canadian province, from Oregon to Florida to Alberta.
But one bull rider won’t have far to travel.
Richard Schleicher, of Stockton, started his bull riding career as a kid, mutton busting and riding steers, and competing at Little Britches Rodeos and junior high rodeos.
But by the age of twelve, he quit. He was burned out and tired of the travel.
After graduation from Stockton High School in 2015, he decided to start back up.
Two months shy of his nineteenth birthday, he got his PRCA permit, and, since then, he’s been competing at as many rodeos as he can get to.
Schleicher, a graduate of a welding program, is an employee at the New Holland dealership in Plainville, and is able to take off to rodeo most weekends, except during harvest, when he’s needed.
And he’s having the best year of his four year pro rodeo career.
Much of the winter he spent in practice pens, getting on five or more bulls a week. Friends like PBR bull rider Cooper Kanngiesser and stock contractor Mark Ward helped him, as he practiced in Garden City, Medicine Lodge, and North Platte, Neb.
After each ride, he and his mentors would assess what went right and what didn’t, and he’d get on again “When you make a mistake, you get on another one till you get the problem figured out,” Schleicher said.
Injuries have plagued him, too. He’s torn ankle ligaments, broken the radius and ulna bones in his right wrist, torn his groin, and had concussions. This winter, he took time off for surgery on his riding hand. The injuries kept him from riding well. “I was trying to ride and I wasn’t healthy,” he said. “You keep trying and you dig yourself into a hole.”
Schleicher is pleased, because he’s finally making money at riding bulls.
But whether he was making money or not, he loves it. He thrives on the competition. “I hate losing,” he said. The adrenaline rush is still there, but after four years of competition, it’s lessened. “When I started riding better,” he said, “I got a lot more calm.”
And he loves the rodeo atmosphere and the camaraderie. His favorite part? “The people, honestly,” he said. “They’re like family, pretty much. I go to a rodeo and see all my friends.”
This week is one of his busiest so far, with several Kansas and Prairie Circuit rodeos going on. He competed in Manhattan, Kan. and Burwell, Neb. last weekend, and this week he’ll be in Hill City, Dodge City, Abilene, and on Saturday night, Phillipsburg. He’s entered the Phillipsburg rodeo three times but only competed there twice. Last year, Phillipsburg was his last rodeo before he was out due to a torn abductor muscle from his groin to his pelvis. This winter, he’ll have surgery on his other wrist, to repair damage done from bone chips from the ulna.
Schleicher, who is 22 years old, is the son of Harold and Deb Schleicher.
Six of the nine champions from last year’s rodeo will be in town to defend their titles. They include bareback rider Blaine Kaufman, Pretty Prairie, Kan.; steer wrestler Blake Knowles, Heppner, Ore.; team ropers Clay Tryan, Lipan, Texas and Travis Graves, Bluff Dale, Texas; saddle bronc rider Colt Gordon, Comanche, Okla. and all-around champion Marcus Theriot, Poplarville, Miss.
Seven of the reigning world champions will be on hand to compete. They are bareback rider Tim O’Connell, Zwingle, Iowa; steer wrestler Tyler Waguespack, Gonzales, La.; team ropers Clay Smith, Bowie, Texas and Paul Eaves, Millsap, Texas; saddle bronc rider Wade Sundell, Boxholm, Iowa; tie-down roper Caleb Smidt, Bellville, Texas; and bull rider Sage Kimzey, Salado, Texas.
Performances are August 1-3 at 8 pm each night.
Tickets start at $15 for adults and $11 for children ages 3-12 and can be purchased at Heritage Insurance Co. in Phillipsburg (685 Third Street) or over the phone at 785.543.2448. They are also available at the gate.
For more information, call 785.543.2448 or visit the website at www.KansasBiggestRodeo.com.
One of the things I love most about being president of Fort Hays State University is that I get to hear stories from our alumni about the life-changing power of a college education and the caring, hard-working people of this amazing institution.
This week, I want to share alumnus Michael Durall’s personal story of transformation. It is a story that begins in the 1960s with a “shy, uncertain young man” who credits the people of our university with encouraging him to persist and discover the person he was meant to be.
Fort Hays Kansas State College changed my life forever
By Michael Durall, B.A. ’70
I enrolled at Fort Hays Kansas State College in the fall of 1964. At that time, tuition was $125 per semester, and many students paid in cash. I remember standing in line at the Registrar’s Office in the Coliseum to pay. I could hear the basketball team practicing on the nearby court, where the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center is today.
I worked various jobs that paid $1.25 per hour. At first, I lived at home to save money. When I eventually shared an apartment, the going rate was about $30 per guy, per month. We shared one landline phone and divvied up the cost.
I was a naïve, shy and uncertain young man. I hadn’t studied much in high school and shouldn’t have gone to college, but I just didn’t know what else to do. I flunked out my freshman year. I worked construction for about eighteen months, and when I returned most of my beer-drinking and poker-playing buddies had moved on.
I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I changed majors a number of times, trying to find a path.
But by then, the Vietnam War was heating up, with body counts increasing daily. The civil rights and the women’s liberation movements were also gaining momentum. No one realized that the ’60s would be one of the most tumultuous eras in American history.
I remember a silent anti-war vigil on the corner of 12th and Main on a Saturday morning, led by a number of local clergy. They stood silently for an hour while police with sniper rifles were on the roof of the bank building across the street. Things like that weren’t supposed to happen in Hays, Kansas. A poll revealed that about 60 percent of Americans believed the National Guard did the right thing by killing four unarmed students at Kent State.
The once peaceful world I knew evaporated forever, lost in an alarming, unpredictable, and surrealistic turn of events.
Amidst this turbulence, one seemingly innocuous event at Fort Hays State remains etched in my memory. It falls into the category of late-night conversations that many college students remember as life altering, more than anything they learned academically.
I was a student in the late Bob Lowen’s journalism class. I was seated next to a married female student who was a few years older than I. By any imaginable calculation, she was out of my league. She told me she had gotten straight A’s, then added, “It’s not so much my grades that are important. Rather, I’m becoming a person who is increasingly interested in the world and the people who inhabit it.”
I felt like I had been struck by lightning. This was the person I wanted to be. I began to take my education more seriously. I looked at my professors in a new light, and realized how much time, effort and skill was required to teach effectively at the college level. Being an English major, I was exposed to the world’s great literature. In art history classes, the late John Thorns opened a visual world of art and sculpture that I hadn’t known even existed.
I also realized that if I wanted to become more knowledgeable about the world and its people, there were certain requirements. These included not making snap judgments about people based on their appearance; being a reliable friend; becoming strong enough to stand against prejudice when I encountered it; and being slow to criticize and quick to forgive.
Fortunately, in the years since I was a student, I’ve been able to travel. In gratefulness, I funded a travel fellowship at Fort Hays for about five years that allowed students from small Kansas towns to travel anywhere in the world. Since I had been given much, I felt an obligation to give in return.
Looking back to the days I was a student, I don’t even remember my classmate’s name. But I am eternally grateful for Fort Hays Kansas State College giving me the opportunity to be in that particular place and time. Becoming curious about the world and the people in it helped me become who I am today.
Doris Meder Pfannenstiel, age 94, died July 30, 2019. She was born April 22, 1925 in Pfeifer, KS. She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Barbara Meder, Brothers Gilbert (Helen) Meder, Elmer (Mary Ann) Meder and Edward Meder, and Sisters Florentine (Adolf) Degenhardt, Helen Duay, and Irene (Paul) Benda; and her Husband Edward M.
