Stories from Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Fort Scott man was injured in a two-vehicle accident Saturday morning just east of Fort Scott. Franklin Stephens, 79, was headed east on the westbound shoulder of U.S. Highway 54 in a 2002 Buick Park Avenue when the vehicle re-entered the westbound lane heading east and struck the front quarter panel of the vehicle with the rear portion of a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Sammie Elton Harris, 86, of Jerico Springs, Mo., which was headed west in the westbound lane, the Kansas Highway Patrol crash log said.. ...

With flu season in full effect, experts are reminding senior citizens and children that they are especially susceptible to the infectious disease. While anyone can get the flu, experts say seniors and kids are typically the age groups that are at greater risk of serious flu-related complications that can lead to hospitalization or even death, so they are urged to take extra precautions to protect themselves from the virus...

Constituents should let lawmakers know how they feel about proposed legislation -- whether they agree or not, officials with the Bourbon County Republican Central Committee said. This can be done via email, letter or phone call, party officials said during a Jan. 15 meeting in the Heritage Room of the administration building at Fort Scott Community College. The gathering attracted about 15 members and five guests...

Editor's Note: This is the last of a three-part series leading up to the presentation of a plaque to Fort Scott High School commemorating the achievements of Professor Ernest Jocquito Hawkins, who was recently posthumously inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame...

First-year USD 234 Superintendent Diane Gross wants Fort Scottians to know that educating youth is a team effort. On Monday, during her first "State of the District Address," Gross shared several goals with teachers, community members and guests from the city, Bourbon County and Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce...

100 YEARS AGO (1913) Forest fires are almost unknown in this county, yet Bourbon County had not only a big prairie fire yesterday but a real honest-to-goodness forest fire and every tree on a tract of 60 acres burned. Twenty-five acres of meadow land also was swept by fire. ...

Karen Sue Hall, age 67, resident of Fort Scott, Kan., died unexpectedly Saturday evening, Jan. 19, 2013, at the Olathe Medical Center in Olathe, Kan. She was born Jan. 3, 1946, in Fort Scott, the daughter of Jesse Wagner and Blanche Hart Wagner. Sue was a 1964 graduate of Fort Scott High School and a 1966 graduate of Fort Scott Community College. ...

Michael Jacob Jacobson, age 62, former Fort Scott resident, died Friday, Jan. 18, at his home in Osawatomie, Kan., following an apparent heart attack. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main.

Gary Dean Wimmer, 67, Fulton, Kan., passed away on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. He was born May 24, 1945, in Fort Scott, Kan., the son of Joseph and Dorothy Dawson Wimmer. He married Sheila Lynn Bradford on Aug. 4, 1970. To this union, four children were born. Gary received a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in speech and theater and an education specialist degree in administration, all from Pittsburg State University. He served in the U.S. Navy in the late 1960s...

Eddie Joe White, age 71, resident of rural Fort Scott, died Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, at the Arma Care Center in Arma, Kan. He was born June 30, 1941, the son of Earl T. White and Laurel Marie (BeBo) Bloomfield White. He married Shirley Ann Adams on July 2, 1961 in Fulton, Kan. ...

The Fort Scott Community College debate and forensics team started off the new semester competing in Great Bend at Barton County. Along with Kansas, the tournament brought in teams from Texas and Nebraska. Although the Greyhounds didn't place as a team, just 10 points out of third, several individuals had solid performances...

PLEASANTON -- Levi Matthews hit the game winning shot with 3/10ths of a second remaining Saturday afternoon as Jayhawk-Linn got by Uniontown's boys in the fifth-place game of the Pleasanton Mid-Season Tournament. Later in the day, Jayhawk-Linn's girls, led by Baylea White's 19 points, defeated Uniontown in the distaff third-place contest, 44-37...

PAOLA -- Fort Scott High School's boys finished in sixth place at the first Frontenac Kansas National Guard Invitation Saturday after the Tigers fell to the host school, 61-48, in the fifth-place game. Top-seeded Oklahoma City-Frederick Douglass put on another scoring display in the championship game, rolling by third-seeded Winfield, 99-64...

PAOLA -- Fort Scott High School's wrestling finished in fourth place at the Paola Invitational here Saturday. Class 6A Derby was the team champion with 216.5 points followed by 5A Great Bend with 197.5 and 6A Olathe North with 120. Fort Scott scored 111 points and the next-best Class 4A school was Atchison, which finished sixth...

FRONTENAC -- Fort Scott High's girls claimed the championship of the first Frontenac Kansas National Guard Invitational here Saturday with a 43-37 victory over Baxter Springs in the final game of the round-robin tournament. Fort Scott went 3-0 in the tournament and has won seven of its last eight games overall. Baxter Springs finished in third place with a 1-2 record in the tourney. The Lions are 5-4 overall...

Fort Scott Community College's short-handed women's basketball team dropped its 13th and 14th consecutive games in the past three days, both ar Arnold Arena. Saturday, the Greyhounds fell to Kansas City Kansas, 63-53, in a game that counted both in the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division and in Region VI Division II post-season seeding. The Blue Devils broke a nine-game losing streak of their own and followed it up with a 46-44 win over Neosho County on Monday...

Fort Scott Community College's men were coming off a disappointing Saturday loss to Kansas City Kansas at Arnold Arena that came down to the last possession, which resulted in a missed 3-point shot by the Greyhounds. So in the opening moments of Monday night's Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division contest with Cowley, head coach Michael Cook wanted his team -- which he had sensed played tight against KCK and last Wednesday in a loss at Labette -- to come out loose and see what happens...

The day known as "Black Sunday," April 14, 1935, people of the Great Plains suffered physically, emotionally and financially from the devastating effects of a drought. Then the wind started to blow and an estimated 300 million tons of topsoil blew from the land, according to the Kansas Association of Conservation Districts' website...