12
Tuesday, November 28, 1989 / University Daily, Kansan
Dimestore closes shop after 25 years
Modern times catch up with Ben Franklin
Dale and Helen Kearney take inventory at the Ben Franklin Store, which will close in January after 25 years in business.
By Steve Buckner Kansan staff writer
At a time when most retailers have cranked up for the holiday season, Dale Kearney is winding things down.
things down
Kearney and his wife, Helen
own and operate the Ben Franklin
Store, 805 Massachusetts St., but
not for much longer. The couple
has decided to close the store after
25 years in business. Kearney has
discounted all of the store's merchandise and said the store would
close in January.
Kearney said his health was the primary reason for closing the store. He has had heart surgery twice. Despite anticipating the closing, Kearney said it was a tough decision.
it was difficult, inasmuch as we have had a good business," he said. "There is a need for this type of business and merchandise mix in this size of town.
"It itbothers us to get so many comments from our regular customers who have supported the store the past 25 years, to be in a position to no longer accommodate their needs. But through no fault of theirs or ours, it's just a bygone era or changing times."
The changing times, Kearney said, had to do with the growing popularity of his store's competition.
"The super grocery store and quick shops probably affected our business; they're open 24 hours," he said. "We carried convenience type items here. Another thing is our type of customer is of the older generation, and they just don't need much."
Kearney, who has a five-year lease on the store, said he was unsure whether he would open another store at the same place.
Ben Franklin has been opening
larger stores in the region, and the company may try to open another store at a larger location in Lawrence.
"in defense of Ben Franklin, they're on the way back up, opening full-line craft stores," Kearney said of his parent company, whose number of stores has dropped from 2,500 in the early 1960s to less
than 1,300.
Some of the memories Kearney said he would take from the store included being able to control his own talents with respect to his business skills. He said he would also remember the national merchandise shows he attended.
will continue to own and operate Pier 1 Imports, 738 Massachusetts St., Kearney said. Traveling and fishing also are on his agenda, he said.
Closing the store does not mean retirement, he said. The couple
“It’s sort of the sign of the times of dime stores giving way to super marts,” she said. “I’ve always shopping at Ben Franklin because it has things you need. I’ve worked for family stores, and that’s why I wanted to work here.
One of the store's employees, Wendy Rader, said she was sad to see the closing because of her affinity for Ben Franklin stores and the Kearneys.
"The Kearneys are wonderful people. It's neat the way they worked with us."
Jazz Ensemble keeps audience swinging with tribute series
Kansan staff writer
The attire of the band was formal last night, but the music it played brought Crafton-Preyer Theatre alive with the smoke-filled, barroom blues and big band sound of Woody Herman.
performers alike were willing participants in a jazz-blues jam session.
The 18 members of the University of Kansas Jazz Ensemble I, directed by Ron McCurdy, paid a "Tribute to Woody Herman" with two guest soloists, Dave Riekenberg and Jay Sollenberger. For nearly two hours, audience and
By Tracy Wilkinson
jazz-blues jams session.
"Woody Herman had a well-known swing band," said Sollenberger, guest trumpeter. "And it was swinging 'tonight.'"
Riekenberg and Sollenberger both graduated from North Texas State University and are professional musicians who performed with Herman and his band for at least three years.
McCurdy said that bringing in the two guests who had worked with Herman and his music was a big part of the idea behind the "Tribute
to ... , concert series, which was begun in 1987
pay to tribute to U.S. big band leaders
"The idea is to recapture the spirit behind what Woody Herman had done and to learn from the people who worked with him," McCurdy said.
KU band to perform at 8 p.m.
The performance opened with an introduction to the background and music of Woody Herman by Dick Wright, associate professor of music history and jazz host for KANU.
"Of all the big bands, and they're all great,
Woody Herman is one of my favorites." Wright
said.
The band and guests performed 13 pieces and two encores during the course of the evening, and the audience responded with intermittent bursts of applause.
Riekenberg, who now lives in New York City and performs with the band Blood, Sweat and Tears, and free lances as a musician, said he had a great time playing with the college band.
"The band was full," said Kristin Umbarger, Los Alamos, N.M., junior, on trumpet. "We really grooved tonight."
Music honors lives lost on Trail of Tears
By Tracy Wilkinson Kansan staff writer
James Barnes, assistant director of KU bands and associate professor of music theory and dance, will conduct the 62-piece band tonight as it plays his "Trail of Tears" and "We The People."
"Trail of Tears" was written in honor of the 150th anniversary of the trail walked by American Indians in 1836 from Georgia to government reservation lands in Oklahoma. The journey, made in bitter-cold weather, was plagued by disease and death. "We the People" is a march commissioned by the Kansas Commission for the celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.
"The stuff he's written is unbelievable." said trombonist Lindsey Williams, Winfield freshman. "He is a phenomenon. The music is a tone poem about the actual Trail of Tears from Georgia to Oklahoma."
Concertgoers will be able to follow a musical path of a winter-cold march as the University Band presents a KU professor's tribute to the Trail of Tears.
"All my life I've heard about it," he said. "I grew up around the Trail of Tears."
Barnes said his Oklahoma background was one of the elements that helped inspire him to write "Trail of Tears."
barnes said that at one point in the piece a section of the band chants an Indian prayer in Cherokee.
The essential meaning of the prayer in English, Barnes said, is that people should mourn both the dead and the living.
"It is really very effective," Williams said.
The program for the evening's performance also will include "Prelude and Fugue in D minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, "Second Suite in F for Military Band" by Justus Willems, "Finale to Symphony No. 2 in C minor" and "The Little Russian" by Teikhakovsky.
Robert E. Foster, director and professor of music and dance, will guest-conduct the works by Williams and Tehalikovsky.
The concert, at 8:00 p.m. in Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall, is free and open to the public.
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
WORKSTATION SPACE in the Kansas Union for Spring 1990 are now available.
Applications
for
Registered Student Organizations may pick up an application in the Kansas Union at the SUA Office or the Organizations & Activities Center.
Only Workstations are Available
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
5:00 pm on December 7,1989
is
EMAC. The brightest minds concur.
If you've ever been graded on a curve, you know that intelligence is relative. And when you use EMAC products, you show a bit more genius at managing data. The EMAC 20DL Hard drives will make your Macintosh work better, so you look brighter. And you shouldn't mind that one bit. Check the Burge Union for the complete line of EMAC hard drives, tape backups and modems.
reg.
$895.00
Sale
$489.00
EMAC A Division of Power Systems, Inc.
864-5697
Above information subject to change without notice. Everest; EMAC, and impact are trademarks of Everest Systems, Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. ©1988 Everest Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
available at the Burge Union