Stories from Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Alice Marie Townsend, 87, of Fort Scott, died Sunday morning, Feb. 22, 2015 in Jonesboro, Ark. Funeral arrangements for Alice Townsend are incomplete and will be announced later by the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home.

Joan Toms, age 80, Mound City, Kan., passed away on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. Funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 at the Pleasanton First Christian Church. Burial will be in the Oak Lawn Cemetery, La Cygne, Kan. Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. ...

Betty Jane Griffith Perry departed this world for the next early on the morning of Feb. 20, 2015, after nearly 91 years of vigorous life. Born in 1924 in Uniontown, Kan., Betty was the third child of Grace Konantz and Glenn Griffith. Her father died when she was 14 years old -- at the end of the Great Depression -- and the family matured in tough economic times under the steady hand of her mother Grace...

Margie McLaughlin, age 92, Iola, Kan., formerly of Mound City, Kan., passed away on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. She was born on Aug. 15, 1922 at La Cygne, Kan., the daughter of Grover and Rilla Parker Dean. She was married to Elmer Orton who preceded her in death. ...

Rose Ann Bergland, a resident of Fort Scott, Kansas, died Feb. 9, 2015 at Mercy Hospital. She was born June 16, 1942 in Ione, Wash., the daughter of George Percy Bergland and Blanche May Dukeshire Bergland. Survivors include her brothers, John Bergland and wife, Marge, of Eugene, Ore., and Robert Bergland and wife, Anneta, of Fort Scott; an aunt, Peggy Bergland of Yuma, Ariz.; a niece, Sabrina and Kevin Gordon, and family, and a nephew, Michael Bergland and family, all of Eugene, Ore. ...

Bourbon County Commissioners are considering not selling, but giving away an old unused bridge. They received a letter from Allen County Public Works Director Bill King to ask for a bridge in northwest Bourbon County to be donated to Thrive Allen County for use on a hiking and biking trail south of Iola...

About 30 people gathered Monday in the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center to meet with the first of four Fort Scott Community College president applicants who will be visiting Fort Scott during the next week. Slade Griffiths, and his wife Abi, of Arkansas City, spent the day in Fort Scott touring the campus, meeting with college officials, the public and eventually the board of trustees...

Fort Scott Middle School Principal Jim Howard and his dancing partner Fort Scott Community College Theatre Director and Teacher Sarah Mae Lamar perform "Mash-Up Mix," a medley of dances to fit this year's Dancing With Our Stars them: Dancing Through the Decades." They were one of 10 couples who raised about $4,000 for area charities Saturday at the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center on the FSCC campus. ...

Alice Marie Townsend, 87, of Fort Scott. Mom's Obituary If you ask someone who loves a person to write their obituary, it's a struggle to stick with the usual form. Yes, she had a name -- Alice Marie (Cronk) Townsend. Yes, there was a birth date -- 29 November 1927...