Monday, August 16, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section D · Page 23
Kansas' most influential make the list
Former Senator Bob Dole addresses a crowd at the University of Kansas. Dole donated his papers from his time in the U.S. Senate to the University. Contributed photo
The Associated Press
WICHITA — Ike is on the list, of course. So are Bob Dole and Amelia Earlart.
But some of those selected as influential Kansans, based on a poll by The Wichita Eagle of historians and others familiar with state history, aren't that well-known to the general public. Does the name Samuel Crumbine ring a bell? How about Mary Elizabeth Lease, or Charles Sheldon?
Those polled by the newspaper defined an influential person as someone who had an impact not only on the lives of people in their own era, but on Kansans even today.
all three join Dwight Eisenhower, the World War II general who later became president; Dole, the former senator and presidential candidate; and Earlart, the pioneer pilot who disappeared in 1937, on The Eagle's list of the 10 most influential Kansans.
Here, in alphabetical order, is The Eagle's list:
"Some people's impact may have actually appreciated after they were gone," said Dodge City's Dave Webb, author of "399 Kansas Characters."
—John Brown, Osawatomie.
During the mid-1850s —Kansas' territorial period —Brown led violent anti-slavery raids into Missouri
lent anti-slavery raids into Missouri. He came to Kansas from New York at age 54. He vowed that God was on his side and, in 1859, developed a plan that took him to Harper's Ferry, Va., where he planned to free Southern slaves.
He tried to take control of the government arsenal. Ten people in his group were killed in the attack, and Brown was caught and later hanged
Virgil Dean of the Kansas State Historical Society said that while Brown didn't live in Kansas much of his life, "he really has become a symbol of what Kansas was all about during the territorial period and how it was seen by the rest of the nation."
—Samuel Crumbine, Spearville and Dodge City.
The state's first public health officer, he is credited with eliminating the community drinking cup at the turn of the century.
He started a "Swat the fly" campaign and encouraged people to put screens on windows. To combat tuberculosis, he encouraged brick companies to print "Don't spit on the sidewalk" on bricks.
"There are so many things we take for granted now — in terms of cleanliness — that date back to Dr. Crumbine," said Webb. "He was a pioneer in the areas of health."
—Bob Dole. Russell.
After being seriously injured in World War II, Dole became a lawyer and county prosecutor. He then began a political career that took him first to the U.S. House and on to the Senate. He was the Republican nominee for vice president in 1976 and for president 20 years later.
"This is a man who has been involved in Kansas politics for more than 50 years and represented the state in both the House and Senate for 35 years," said Dean. "He has had an enormous impact in terms of national prominence."
—Amelia Earhart. Atchison.
The world's most famous woman aviator. She was the first woman to fly solo across North America and the Atlantic, and was the second person ever to cross the Atlantic. In 1937 she mysteriously disappeared while trying to fly around the world.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abilene. The Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, he later became the nation's 34th president.
Eisenhower epitomized the life of the 1950s. During his eight years in office, he signed a law creating the St. Lawrence Seaway, helped establish the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and supported the creation of the Interstate highway system.
"His stature as president is grow
ing all the time," said Robert Linder, history professor at Kansas State University.
Alf Landon, Independence and Topeka.
A Kansas oilman, he was elected governor of Kansas in 1932 and was the GOP presidential nominee in 1936, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt. His daughter is Nancy Kassebaum-Baker, the former U.S. senator from Kansas.
He became beloved by many Kansans as governor during the Great Depression when he cut taxes and reorganized state government. He started a water conservation program and helped farmers who were in danger of losing their land.
—Mary Elizabeth Lease, Kingman and Wichita.
She rose to national fame in the 1890s as a spokeswoman for the Populist Party — a grassroots political organization that rose out of the Midwest to become the voice of the common man, particularly farmers.
Although she was sharply criticized by the newspapers of the day, she persisted in raising awareness for farmers, telling them they should "raise more hell and less corn."
—Carry A. Nation, Medicine Lodge.
She was a Kansas prohibitionist who became internationally known for her ability to bust up saloons and speak out against liquor. Her trademark was a hatchet. She was arrested 30 times, and paid her fines from money earned on speaking tours.
—Charles Sheldon, Topeka.
Like Lease, she was often criticized and called anything from "zealot" to "crazy."
- Charles Sheldon, ropeka
A minister, he wrote "In His Steps"
in 1896. It is still one of the best-selling
books of all time, outranked only by
the Bible and "The Joy of Cooking."
In his book, Sheldon posed the question,
"What would Jesus do?"
Sheldon became one of the leading social reformers in the nation, turning a bar into one of the state's first kindergartens and preaching equal rights for minorities, women and the working class.
—William Allen White, Emporia. The "man from Emporia" whose editorsial in his Emporia Gazette often defined a Kansan to the nation. One of his best-known editorsials was "What's the Matter with Kansas?"
"He had the ability to articulate issues and sell them," said Craig Miner, a Wichita State University history professor.
Branson theater is Polish Prince's new home
The Associated Press
BRANSON, Mo. — All he really wanted was something to do on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, recalled Bobby Vinton, leaning back in a plush, soft-backed patio chair on the balcony of his Ozark mountain home, taking in one of the most spectacular lakeside views in the world.
"I was going somewhere and we had like a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off because, basically, weekends are the big time," explained the jovial Vinton, who appeared peripatetic even when he's sitting down.
tainment.'
"Usually you just sit around with all your people who are getting paid, doing nothing on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday," music's early-'60s teen idol continued in a voice that still bore traces of his Polish-school unbringing in suburban Pittsburgh.
"So I told my agent, 'Gee, can't you ever pick up a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?"
"He said, 'Well, I've got you booked in Branson on a Monday and a Tuesday,' Vinton recalled. "He said, 'That's a little place that has enter-
"I said, 'Well, I think it's country, though, isn't it?' I said. "That's in the mountains of Missouri." I said, "There ain't no Polish people there."
And this was no longer the 1960s, those teen-idol days when Vinton was recording one hit rock ballad after another, songs like "Blue Velvet," "Red Roses for a Blue Lady," and "Mr. Lonely." The time when he was selling 75 million records, more than anybody in the business.
This was the early '90s, and Vinton had long since morphed into the "Polish Prince" on the strength of both a hit song and a fan who happened to be the mayor of Chicago.
First came the song, "My Melody of Love." Written and recorded by Vinton at the suggestion of his mother, the rollicking Polka-like tune, with its mixture of English and Polish lyrics, created an improbable sensation on the pop music scene when it raced up the charts in 1974.
And among its fans was the late Mayor Richard J. Daley who created a scene of his own in Chicago when he arrived late for dinner with the king of Sweden because he was hanging out at a Vinton concert, singing
with the band. He told inquiring reporters the next day he'd been with the Polish Prince.
The name stuck, and it and the song gave Vinton a new image, one as big in Polish-American homes at the time as Polka King Frankie Yankovic's.
But the singer wondered if that was the kind of image that would play in Branson — then seen as the new nome of country music.
Fearing it wouldn't, he tried to cancel. But his agent nixed the idea, saying the show was already sold out.
"I said, 'How could I be sold out?' it's at a 2 o'clock on a Monday afternoon. There's not a place in America that I know that I could, or anybody could at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday and sell out."
So he showed up, thinking perhaps he should put on a cowboy hat, boots and a vest and sing what few country songs he knew.
And then, looking around at a town packed with tour buses from all the towns he'd been playing for the last 25 years, the idea struck him:
Instead, he decided to take a chance and just give them Bobby Vinton. Turned out, they loved that.
town." he recalled excitedly.
"I said I think I can make it in this
"I called my wife and I said, 'Come down to Branson, I'm going to build a theater here.'"
The result was the Blue Velvet Theatre, a stunningly beautiful edifice in the heart of Branson's entertainment strip with murals on the ceiling and sparkling blue tiles throughout the lobby. It opened in 1992.
After years of traveling from one gig to the next and singing in front of pickup groups, Vinton hired the Glenn Miller Orchestra as his house band when he moved into the Blue Velvet Theatre.
And, as the album nears completion, the younger Vinton fret about the confusion the two names may cause. When he's gone on the road in the past he's had some people arrive at shows expecting to see the Polish Prince.
His son Robbie manages the group when he's not working on an album of his own.
"So I says, 'Why don't you change it to your middle name, Stanley,'"
Vinton says shaking his head and laughing. "And we're back at where we started!"
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