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Woman gives her all to public service
If there are only six degrees of separation between everyone on Earth, Oda Keeney and her big Kansas heart are connected to untold thousands.
Having lived in Fort Scott since 1945, she has served the community as a volunteer and through Bourbon County's K-State Research & Extension Office. It was only last year, when she turned 90, that she stopped giving her time.
Peggy Cummings has worked with her for many years. "Oda is my hero," said Cummings.
"She's one of the most caring people I know -- a totally Christian person who lives the ideas of her faith. She is caring, gracious and kind to everyone."
Keeney's impact may be seen in all the places she has worked, including Mercy Hospital and Meals on Wheels, where she and her late husband, Don, were two of the original volunteers.
They volunteered at First United Methodist Church, where they were members, and Keeney was a founder of The Beacon, a local food pantry and community assistance agency.
"I started in 1985 when The Beacon was organized (and volunteered constantly) with the exception of a couple of years when I worked for Western Insurance Co.," she said.
The Beacon was formed following a presentation by a representative of Cross-Lines Community Outreach in Kansas City, Kan., at her church. "He spoke about the need for something like (The Beacon) in our community," she recalled. "Then he helped us get organized."
Noting the agency has played a big role in keeping many Fort Scottians out of extreme poverty, Keeney said, "We started out very small and with lots of faith it continually grew, to the amazement of most of us.
"It grew from just food to help with utility bills and rent whenever we could."
The Keeneys stepped forward for the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce, showing Don's large collection of model trains, and for Corona Museum, a railroad exhibits archive near Pittsburg, Kan. "I guess I've always had a mission spirit," said Oda, smiling.
She and Don had met when he was a 4-H Club leader and they had been married for 63 years when he died.
Keeney was a home demonstration agent for 10 years with the K-State Research & Extension Office. "I really enjoyed it," she said.
"I liked being out in the country with the people."
She left the state job when her first son was born and stayed home with another when he came along. Her sons are Dale and Darrell and she has two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Graduates of Pittsburg State University, Dale is laboratory manager at a Bartlesville, Okla., hospital, and Darrell works for an oil company in Tulsa. "I later got involved in vocational education," Keeney said.
"I taught tailoring and upholstery and all that kind of thing in the county."
A native of Lincoln County, northeast of Salina, she was the first person in her family to go to high school and college. She worked her way through Kansas State, earned a bachelor's degree in home economics and boarded with another family. "It was during the Depression years, so money was scarce," said Keeney.
"I had always wanted to go to college and my parents wanted me to, so everybody worked and got me through."
Sometimes when she and Don delivered Meals on Wheels, they were the only souls the MOW clients saw that day. "It was pretty important," she said, not only that the people were fed, but that the Keeneys were able to check on them.
"When they needed help so badly at some of these agencies, I felt like it was my calling to volunteer. It was real gratifying to help people, not just with food and clothing, but by hugs and visiting with them.
"They need somebody to show some love to them."