'Pioneer' shovels when virgin passes
Legendary statue returns
By RICHARD LOUV Kansan Staff Writer
"Did you see it?" whispered the student with the KU hat pulled down over his ears. He was sitting in the grass, squinting at the lawn south of Fraser Hall. "Did I see what?"
"Did I see what?"
"That statue up there," he said mysteriously, "it offered a girl a walnetto." He laughed a great deal and said he thought it was a pretty good joke. The statue, from a distance, looks like an old man leaning on a cane, holding out his hand.
64-year-old legend
But the statue is really a pioneer leaning on a shovel, planting corn in the virgin soil. The second childhood of the sixty-four year old statue began Tuesday when it returned to the KU landscape after four years of storage.
"There's a legend about the statue," the student said still watching it closely. "They say the Pioneer shovels a spade of dirt whenever a virgin walks by."
"I've been sitting here for two hours," said the student, pushing his hat back on his head and picking at the grass, "and I've counted 234 girls that have walked by. That statue hasn't moved a bit."
Shovels for virgins
The reporter pointed to a two-foot high mound of dirt next to the statue. "Where did that come from, then?"
The UDK files revealed the life of the Pioneer to be like a rerun of "Tom Jones" or "Fanny Hill" or better.
History is 'sorted'
History is sorted
A KU graduate from Shawnee
Mission, Harry Shenkle, reported a fresh spade of dirt found in front of the statue in the early 1940's. A sign was hung around the Pioneer's head, reading, "The Dean of Women Just Walked By."
In a 1960 Rock Chalk sit, the Pioneer statue, portrayed by a
member of Alpha Tau Omega, started shoveling as Emily Taylor, dean of women, walked by.
Somehow, over the years, the intended spirit of the statue escaped, and another soul replaced it. Dr. Simeon Bell gave the statue to the University so
Apr. 10
1960 KANSAN 13
Breaking ground? Photo by Halina Pawl
"succeeding generations might understand the difficulties and handicaps early Kansans encountered."
Pioneer migrated
Succeeding generations, as it turned out, succeeded mainly in putting Bell's statue through difficulties and handicaps. Moved from in front of Marvin Hall, it resided at the Chi Omega Fountain site for a few years, said Vice-Chancellor Keith Lawton, and then was moved to the lawn East of Old Fraser Hall sometime in the 1930's.
During its slow migration, the Pioneer spent most of its time waiting for someone to clean the paint, or the mud, or the eggs, from its sides.
From that time on, until it was put in storage in 1965, the
When moved east of Fraser the Men's Student Council in 1937 ruled that anyone caught painting or otherwise desecrating the statue would be fined $50 and prosecuted in the courts.
Pioneer had more leisure to watch girls.
And now the Pioneer is back, and students sit in the grass around it, waiting for the shovel to move.
Oliver College elects advisory board officers
Oliver College Advisory Board officers were recently elected for the spring semester.
The newly elected officers are: Dave Reibstein, Topeka sophomore, president; Steve Emerson, Topeka freshman, vice-president; Nancy Kunz, Kansas City freshman, secretary; and Greg Colston, Prairie Village freshman, parliamentarian.
Presiding at his first meeting Reibstein stated the purpose of the board was to review and resolve the academic and social problems which Oliver College students bring to the attention of their board representatives.
COUNTRY BLUES by KELITA Country-rugged, blue denim sports coordinates sparked with red hankie print shirts, worn by Carol Boney. A whole collection of "hey riders" in our junior department.