Stories from Wednesday, September 4, 2002

The Sen. George Norris State Historical home on Norris Avenue is featuring pre-World War II quilts through the month of September. Nineteen quilts are on display throughout the home. The quilts have been loaned to the home by Southwest Nebraska residents...

Dear Editor, The future of the West Nile virus is uncertain. Health officials have monitored it nationally. Mosquitos have a history of carrying serious diseases, including yellow fever and types of malaria. They are spreading this malady from Africa. It was first detected in New York in 1995. Birds became sick with it and the mosquitos transmit it after biting them...

Starting now, we need to begin a campaign to convince the best candidates possible to place their name on the ballot for the City Council position left vacant by the resignation of Chris Overman. Action must be taken quickly. In order for a candidate's name to appear on the ballot, official papers must be filed with the Red Willow County Clerk before 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13...

HASTINGS -- Todd and Tracy Anderjaska of Hastings announce the birth of a daughter, Shaylee Morgan, born Tuesday (Aug. 20, 2002). She weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces. She has one sister, Kirsten, 10. Grandparents are Tom and Mary Ann Anderjaska of Hayes Center and Janis Nepple of Spalding...

Thomas Gordon is a Nebraska farm boy who learned to fabricate aircraft at a school in Lincoln and then worked for the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Co. in Buffalo, N.Y., before going on to a career in the U.S. Army in World War II. Those facts are identical to the experience of a friend of mine from McCook. Unfortunately, that friend passed away only a couple weeks ago, and I was unable to ask him whether he had crossed paths with Gordon, author of the self-published "Thirty Seconds Over Berlin."...

STRATTON -- An angry summer thunderstorm transformed a normally tame creek, a pastureland canyon and a graveled county road into raging rivers that converged at DeeAnn and Larry Eden's house. In one fell swoop on the afternoon of Aug. 26, the Stratton couple lost their home, most all their belongings and their livelihood...

Mitchell Sis holds the armadillo his dog, "Roosevelt," discovered under a tree at his home three miles south of McCook in early July. Sis said the animal was an accomplished digger, burying itself the length of its body in a few seconds. He speculated that the armadillo came to Nebraska after crawling into a combine in the South. It was released in a safe place after the photo was taken...

The membership drive for the McCook Concert Association will open at 6:30 p.m. Sunday with a meeting of the board of directors and volunteer workers at the Willow Ridge Activity Room. For many years the association has provided world-class entertainment for McCook and the surrounding area and the public has an opportunity to join the many members who enjoyed the last season. ...

The McCook City Council passed the annual budget and cleared the way for a citizen vote to fill a council vacancy Tuesday night. It didn't take long for Chris Overman's absence to make itself felt, however, with the council deadlocked 2-2 on four separate votes...

Public works director Marty Conroy (second from left) chats with Jack Lytle of the Concerned Citizens of McCook during an water informational meeting at the Heritage Senior Center on Tuesday night. Members of the Water Advisory Committee and engineering firm Olsson Associates were on hand...

Red Willow County's new household waste collection building officially opens this week, and staff members will accept products Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon. Coordinator Bill Elliott said the building will be staffed next week, Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m., and until 7 p.m. on Thursday. These hours will replace the fall collection for McCook-area residents normally conducted in the Wal-Mart parking fall...

Red Willow County commissioners signed an agreement Tuesday with a McCook-area rancher who will give the county a $600,000 horse arena. Commissioners also learned that an anonymous donor will give the money needed to expand the proposed arena by 10 feet...

Twenty members of the Prairie Statesmen of McCook join 200 other barbershoppers from across Nebraska in singing the National Anthem at the Troy State game on Saturday. University of Nebraska President L. Dennis Smith also sang with the group.

When my grandmother was a toddler of about 18 months of age, she got into a pail of soapy water left on the back stoop at the family farm in Iowa. She must have been thirsty, because in the blink of an eye, down the hatch it went. Back in those days, Ivory soap was unheard of, or at least was a luxury beyond the family's means. There was no Dial, and Irish Spring no doubt referred to a green glade with a tumbling waterfall on the auld sod...

Doris G. Green, 92, died Monday (Sept. 2, 2002) at Hillcrest Nursing Home in McCook. She was born Aug. 28, 1910, at Danbury to Ed Austin and Edith (Newberry) Ruby. She attended school in Danbury and McCook Junior College, and later taught school in the Rising Sun District in Red Willow County...

Charlotte Nadine Monroe, 77, died Monday (Sept. 2, 2002) at Hillcrest Nursing Home in McCook. She was born Nov. 7, 1924, at Holyoke, Colo., to Willis L. and Emma Susan (Haller) Kramer. She graduated from Holyoke High School in 1943. In 1946, she engaged in a relationship with Louie Parrett from Bartelsville, Okla., and to this relationship was born one daughter, Roxanne K. Dinsmore. She was Pro-Life as early as 1947...

IMPERIAL -- Arnold F. Kunnemann, 80, died Sunday (Sept. 1, 2002) at the Imperial Manor Nursing Home. He was born Feb. 12, 1922, to Henry and Katherine Kunnemann on the family farm in northwest Chase County. He served in the U.S. Army for three years and was stationed in Europe during World War II...