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Author: Hays Post

Paul F. Schmidtberger

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Paul F. Schmidtberger, age 89, of Great Bend, Kansas died Saturday, April 20, 2019, at the River Bend Assisted Living Center, Great Bend, Kansas. He was born July 24, 1929, at Gorham, Kansas to John Frank and Albina (Frank) Schmidtberger. He married Vera (Romme) on December 27, 1951 at Victoria, Kansas.

He was an electrical lineman for Western-Aquila Electrical Company for 25 years and retired in 1995. He was a U S Army veteran and served during the Korean conflict. He grew up at Gorham, attended Gorham Grade School and was a 1947 graduate of Gorham High School. Paul was a member of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus, Eagles and has lived in Great Bend since 1951. Paul and his wife Vera raised Vera’s two brothers Leon and Tom Romme after their mother died.

Survivors include his wife, Vera Schmidtberger, Great Bend, KS; one son, Mark and wife, Dianna, Schmidtberger, Cheney, KS; one sister, Lila Bollig, Hays, KS; one brother-in-law, Leon Romme and wife, Jolene, Lawrence, KS; five grandchildren, Aaron (Elizabeth) Schmidtberger, Jamie (Trent) Peters, Jessica Tomlinson, Kyle Schmidtberger his fiancé, (Christina Bulcao) and Andy Schmidtberger; 11 great grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one son, Steven Schmidtberger; three brothers, Lewis Schmidtberger and wife, Armella; Elmer Schmidtberger and wives, Jean, Norma and Velma; Robert Schmidtberger and wife, Marie; two brothers-in-law Edwin Bollig and Tom Romme.

Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 25, 2019, at The Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria, Kansas. Burial will be in St. Fidelis Cemetery, Victoria, Kansas with military honors by the Victoria V.F.W. Post No. 1751.

A vigil service and a Knights of Columbus rosary will be at 7:00 P.M. Wednesday at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary, Victoria, Kansas.

Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Wednesday, at Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary, Victoria, Kansas and from 10:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. Thursday, at The Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria, Kansas.

The family suggests memorials to the Victoria V.F.W. Post No. 1751.

Services are entrusted to Cline’s-Keithley Mortuary, 412 Main Street, Victoria, Kansas 67671. Condolences can be left by guestbook at www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com or can be send via e-mail to [email protected]

Eleanor Aileen Swank

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Eleanor Aileen Swank, age 92, WaKeeney, passed away April 17, 2019, at WaKeeney Trego County Lemke Memorial Hospital Long Term Care. She was born November 24, 1926, in Trego County to Palmer E. and Caroline (Massier) Deines. She was baptized at Christ Lutheran Church, Ellis, KS, on December 22, 1926.

Eleanor was united in marriage to Ray R. Swank on January 27, 1945. She graduated from Trego Community High School in 1945. She was confirmed into the membership of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, WaKeeney, KS on February 3, 1952, where she has been an active member.

Eleanor and Ray enjoyed 52 years of marriage until Ray passed away on December 19, 1997. To this union one daughter, Linda Kay Swank was born.

She was a homemaker all her life and worked outside the home as a clerk at the grocery store and several stores in WaKeeney. Eleanor was a member of the VFW Auxiliary #3449 for 64 years.

Eleanor is survived by her daughter Linda Kay and husband Lloyd Pfeifer of Morland; three grandsons, Loren and wife Jennifer Pfeifer, WaKeeney, Lance and wife Suzann Pfeifer of Firestone, CO, and LeRay Pfeifer of Schoenchen; two great-grandsons Alexander Pfeifer and Jonah Pfeifer; brother Don and wife Helen Deines of WaKeeney; sister Dona Smith, Great Bend; nieces, nephews and a host of relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Palmer E. and Caroline Deines and husband, Ray R. Swank.

Funeral services will be 10:30 am Wednesday, April 24, 2019, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, WaKeeney. Burial will follow in the WaKeeney City Cemetery.

Visitation will be Tuesday evening from 5 to 7, at Schmitt Funeral Home, WaKeeney.

Memorial contributions are suggested to the VFW Auxiliary #3449 and Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Donations may be left at the visitation, service or sent to Schmitt Funeral Home, 336 North 12th WaKeeney, KS 67672.

Delores Irene Glendening

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Delores Irene Glendening passed away on April 19, 2019 at the Rooks County Health Center in Plainville, Kansas at the age of 85. She was born on June 17, 1933 to Boyd and Ollie (Lafferty) Vose. While growing up on her parents’ farm in Phillips County, she attended school in Stockton, and graduated with the class of 1951 from Stockton High School.

On June 24, 1951, Delores was united in marriage to John Glendening. During their marriage, John and Delores formed an extensive, loving family with four children, eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. In addition to raising her family, Delores was bookkeeper for her husband’s auto body repair shop and Treasurer for the United Methodist Church. She was active with many other functions of the church and volunteered for several other community groups.

Delores loved quilting, shopping, and being involved in her children and grandchildren’s activities. She could cook up a great pork roast which she did often for family gatherings.

Delores is survived by her husband of 68 years, John Glendening of Stockton; four children, Bob and wife Teresa of Stockton, Brad and wife Alice of Haven, Deena Lighty and husband Greg of Augusta, and Todd and partner Vernon of San Diego, CA; eight grandchildren, Adam of Wichita, Jason of Philipsburg, Aaron of McPherson, Nathan of Stockton, Amy of Wichita, Charles Lighty of Augusta, Jordan Carpenter of Stockton, and Jeremy Hrabe of Dodge City; and several great-grandchildren.

Delores had a love for God, family, and community. She cherished her family and had an unending love for them. She will be gone, but this unending love for her family and others will always be present in the hearts of those who knew her.

A funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, 2019, at Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home with Delbert Stanton officiating. Visitation will be on Monday 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Solomon Valley Manor or the Stockton United Methodist Church and may be sent in care of Plumer-Overlease Funeral Home, 723 N. 1st, Stockton, KS 67669. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.plumeroverlease.com

Marc E. Huslig, DDS

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Marc E. Huslig, DDS, 55, passed away Friday April 19, 2019, in Great Bend. Marc was born September 9, 1963 in Great Bend the son of Marcus and Caraleta (Lonnon) Huslig. He married Teri Turkle on June 7, 1986 at Mulvane. She survives.

Marc was a Great Bend resident since 1997, coming from Mulvane. He owned Marc E. Huslig, DDS, Chartered. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, American Dental Association, Kansas Dental Association, Central District Dental Society and Academy of General Dentistry. He enjoyed hunting, biking, gardening, playing video games, fly-fishing, coaching his children, and watching Wichita State Shocker basketball. He was an accomplished musician.

Survivors include, wife Teri of the home; his mother, Caraleta Huslig; one son, Matthew Huslig of Great Bend; three daughters, Taylor Huslig, Madison Huslig and Reagan Huslig, all of Great Bend; one brother, Aaron Huslig and wife Becky of Andover; one sister, Valerie Chancellor and husband Tom of Mulvane; 5 nieces and 10 nephews. He was preceded in death by his father; and a brother, Matthew Huslig; and one niece.

Visitation will be held from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at Bryant Funeral Home, with Vigil and Knights of Columbus Rosary at 7:00 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at St. Patrick Catholic Church, with Father Don Bedore presiding. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Wounded Warrior Project or Holy Family School Endowment, in care of Bryant Funeral Home.

Marianne Remschner

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Marianne Remschner, age 76, died on Thursday, April 18, 2019, at St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City, Kansas. She was born April 26, 1942, in Garden City to Edward “Lee” Hebrlee and Bonnie “Ruth” (Smith) Hebrlee.

Marianne was born and raised in Garden City, graduating with the GCHS class of 1960. She was active in the First Christian Church’s Guild and Navajo Taco Committee. She enjoyed playing cards at the Finney County Senior Center, and was a SW Kansas Live on Stage season ticket holder and rarely missed a performance. Her most favorite past time was spending time with her family, especially her grands and greats – and – the grandkids all loved their “Grams”.

She was preceded in death by her parents and an infant brother. She is survived by her daughters, Bonnie Hughes, Oklahoma City, and Callie Dyer and husband, Steve. Three grandchildren, Dusti Sikes and husband Jake, Richmond Hills, Georgia, Michael Hughes, Oklahoma City, Steven Hughes and fiance’, Mariah Cook, Newcastle, Oklahoma, and three great grandchildren, Weston, Charlotte “Charli”, and Arlo Sikes. The only daughter of Lee and Ruth, she is survived by three brothers, Edward Lee, Jr. “Bud” and wife, Judith, The Villages, Florida, James Michael “Mike” and wife, Dolly, Casper, Wyoming, and William Scott “Bill” and wife, Johnetta, Garden City.

Funeral services will be held at the First Christian Church, 306 North 7th Street, in Garden City on Saturday, April 27, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Leave a Legacy Foundation, c/o Price and Sons Funeral Home, 620 North Main Street, Garden City, Kansas 67846.

FHSU’s University Activities Board to host carnival for the community

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FHSU University Relations

A spring carnival will take over the Gross Memorial Coliseum parking lot during the evening of Saturday, April 27, courtesy of Fort Hays State University’s University Activities Board.

“The mission behind Jammin’ Into Summer is to create a stronger connection between the campus and the public in order to better showcase what the City of Hays as well as the FHSU campus has to offer,” said Jacob Schoenfeld, president of UAB.

Six different carnival rides, booths hosted by campus organizations, food, magician Brian Miller and a concert by Parmalee will all be a part of the carnival.

Parmalee is a nationally recognized country band, known for their hit single “Carolina.”

Admission is free, the only thing that must be paid for is the carnival booths or food.

“Last year 800 people attended and we are planning on a much larger turn out this year,” said Schoenfeld.
The carnival begins at 5 p.m. and the concert will start at 7:30.

This event is open to the public.

Exploring Outdoors Kansas: Golden eagle restoration project

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Steve Gilliland

High on a barren windy bluff overlooking Kanopolis Lake stands the weathered remnants of a project never heard of by most Kansans. Known as the eagle “hack tower,” it’s all that remains of a fourteen year endeavor to augment the population of nesting pairs of wild Golden Eagles in Kansas.

“Hacking” is a term created by falconers to encompass the entire process of rearing young birds in the wild, while giving them no visual contact with their handlers, then releasing them with hopes they will someday return to nest where they themselves were fledged.

This joint project between the KDWP and other agencies operated from 1986 through 1996 at Wilson reservoir during which time 33 young golden eagles were fledged and released into the wild. During those years, a nearby prairie dog town was destroyed, eliminating a major source of prey for the young eagles. In 1997 a group of Westar current and retired employees known as the Green Team became interested in the project’s proposed move to Kanopolis and donated time, labor and materials to construct the hacking tower that stands there in ruins today.

The hack tower stood 7 feet off the ground and consisted of 3 separate units 8 feet x 9 feet square and 6 feet tall. The units were built 4 feet apart from each other allowing an attendant to feed, water and observe the eagles while remaining unseen. The back of each cage was enclosed, but the front of each was constructed of rows of pipe, enabling the eaglets to become familiar with their surroundings and to see each other. The pipe fronts of the cages simply hinged downward when the time came to release the eagles into the wild. A sliding door in each unit allowed for watering and a large PVC pipe through the wall of each allowed for meat to be inconspicuously slipped into the cage. In 1997, when the project moved to Kanopolis, a 30 to 35 acre prairie dog town thrived adjacent to the tower.

Over the 14 years of the project, wild golden eagle chicks were obtained from Colorado and Wyoming, and captive-hatched chicks were obtained from zoos in Kansas and Alabama. The goal was to get chicks that were 7 to 8 weeks old and to open the cages when the chicks reached 11 weeks. Newly procured golden eagle chicks were put into the cages, sometimes 2 to a cage depending on the number obtained.

Each unit contained sticks and limbs for perches and a makeshift nest in the corner to keep their surroundings as natural as possible. Summer volunteers fed them chunks of domestic rabbit meat through the PVC pipe chutes and gave them water through the sliding doors, always vigilant to remain unseen so the eaglets would never associate humans with being fed. While the chicks remained confined they were closely observed either from a walkway along the back of the tower or from a blind set up nearby.

When all the birds were deemed ready for their freedom, radio transmitters were attached to each and the cage fronts lowered so the young eagles could then come and go as they pleased. Feeding was still maintained after the birds were released in hopes of keeping them in the area a little longer and to augment their diets while they learned to fend for themselves.

At this point since the eagles were no longer confined, it became a little trickier to provide food for them at the hack tower while still remaining inconspicuous. I contacted one of the guys who worked as an intern one summer during the project, and he told me stories of hiking through the prairie dog town each night after dark carrying road-killed carcasses because the domestic rabbit meat had run out. He would sneak as close to the tower as possible, fling the carcasses up onto the tower platform and retreat the way he had arrived.

This is yet another story in an amazing journal of adventures that never in a million years would I have associated with the state of Kansas. According to reports I read and participants with whom I spoke, this golden eagle reintroduction program appears to have fledged 39 young eagles into the wild during its fourteen year existence. For reasons unexplainable, and to the best of anyone’s knowledge, none of those golden eagles ever returned to nest in Kansas. The program ceased for several reasons, but the clincher seemed to be an increased difficulty in obtaining golden eagle chicks.

Today, the hacking tower stands empty, quiet and falling down and the nearby prairie dog town barely survives if at all. Even though it didn’t give the desired results, can any project that added 39 more of those majestic birds to our skies ever be called a failure? …Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

FHSU professor honored at FATE conference

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Schmierbach

FHSU University Relations

Amy Schmierbach, professor of art and design at Fort Hays State University, was honored with the Master Educator Award at the recent Foundations in Art Theory and Education Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

FATE is a national conference that focuses on first year courses in college art programs.

“If I am a good teacher it is because I have great students,” Schmierbach said.

“I want to dedicate this award for each of my students over the past 20 years who was excited to try a new project,” she said, “who didn’t run away when I asked them to trust me, who didn’t complain when one of our projects failed and for the students who ventured out into my community to help me on my latest social practice project. I am truly honored.”

To see Schmierbach’s award, visit https://www.foundations-art.org/awards.

Hays native will delve into history of Wyoming’s Yellowstone archives

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An artist’s rendition of Yellowstone Lake is one of the many items the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, in Cody, Wyoming, has on file relating to the national park. Image courtesy Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Billings Gazette

CODY, Wyo. — Samantha Harper and Karen Roles of the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West will provide an overview of the library’s Yellowstone archives on April 29.

The presentation will be part of the meeting of the Pahaska Corral of Westerners at the Governors Room in the Irma Hotel in Cody. For more information on the presentation, email Lynn Houze at [email protected].

The McCracken’s Yellowstone National Park Collection came from various sources, but what the items all have in common is that they are primary sources that depict the Yellowstone story, be they stagecoach passes, photographs, promotional brochures, government reports, or postcards.

Harper and Roles will be highlighting the Greater Yellowstone Sights and Sounds Collection: more than 18,000 video clips including footage of moose, grizzlies, and other charismatic megafauna. The collection also includes video of rangers, biologists, and community members discussing their feelings about, among other things, wolf reintroduction, grizzly bears, and incidents of human-wildlife conflict.

Harper came by her interest in the American West naturally. She originates from Hays. Not only was it once the wildest of cow towns, it was at one point the home to Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, and others.

“In in a way I’m retracing Cody’s steps through life,” she said. “The Hays City Crest consists of busts of Cody, Hickok, and Custer, so I just grew up with this history all around me.”

Roles, a former Powell High School history teacher, was born and raised in the Bighorn Basin. A skilled genealogist she assists patrons at the McCracken with research inquiries.

“We have buried treasures here, and when you do a little bit of digging, you find we have an abundance of materials that are deeply related to Yellowstone National Park,” Harper said.

The Pahaska Corral of Westerners is the local chapter of Westerner International, an organization headquartered at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (formerly the Cowboy Hall of Fame) in Oklahoma City. The Westerners International, founded in 1944, is dedicated to stimulating interest and research in the history of the American West.

— Republished with permission

Partly sunny, breezy Monday

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Monday Partly sunny, with a high near 67. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 17 to 20 mph.

Monday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 42. North wind 11 to 17 mph.

TuesdayPartly sunny, with a high near 65. Northeast wind around 11 mph.

Tuesday NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 40. East northeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming light and variable in the evening.

WednesdaySunny, with a high near 73.

Wednesday NightMostly clear, with a low around 45.

ThursdaySunny, with a high near 78.

FHSU grad who bought out Payless will appear on ‘Ellen’ show Monday

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Addy Tritt, FHSU grad, stands in the Hays Payless with some of the shoes she bought for Nebraska flood victims.

By HANNAH BRANDT
KSNT

A Kansas woman got viral attention for donating 204 pairs of shoes to Nebraska flood victims after buying all the remaining shoes at a Payless store that was closing.

On Monday, Addy Tritt will be featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” A show spokeswoman said that while Tritt generously gives back to her community, she is actually in debt herself with student loan and even relies on family support to buy groceries.

Tritt, a Fort Hays State graduate, said she wanted to help others because so many people have helped her in the past. When the price at a Hays store dropped to $1 per pair, Tritt negotiated with the business to buy the remaining shoes for $100.

They included 162 pairs of baby shoes, two pairs of men’s shoes, and the rest were women’s shoes.The retail price of the shoes would have been more than $6,000.

— Republished with permission

Tritt’s story, which was originally published by Hays Post, went viral, being distributed by news outlets globally.

“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is scheduled to air at 4 p.m. Monday on Eagle Cable on CBS Chs. 10 and 610.

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