Articles written by Kathy Hanks
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
Lawrence couple share passion for genealogical research
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Over the years, genealogical research has advanced from tracking down records in libraries and government files to dropping in on ancestral homes via Google Earth — and one local couple has kept up with the technology in hop...
Garden offers therapy to women at Lawrence treatment center
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Chellie Doonan hopes that working in the garden during the coming weeks while going through treatment at DCCCA First Step at Lake View, a residential drug treatment facility in Lawrence, will bring her peace of mind. "I can g...
Former Kansas poet laureate donates work ahead of move
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas poet Denise Low will be pulling up stakes and heading west this summer. In preparation for a move to California, she has been decluttering her life. It helped that the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University o...
Lawrence homeowners delve into their cottage's history
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Robert Sterling's neat craftsmanship remained a selling point 146 years after he laid the stone for a small cottage in Lawrence. Warren Hays and Melody Stratton purchased the house in June 2015, after moving to Lawrence from t...
School garden to donate produce to a Lawrence food bank
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Nancy O'Connor and Elise Gard carefully lifted the plastic off the low tunnel, revealing big heads of Buttercrunch lettuce that would be ready to harvest in a few weeks. When that time arrives, Gard and other young gardeners w...
Kansas university researchers help uncover ancient asteroid
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Kansas had a hand in uncovering what might have been about a mile-wide iron asteroid that crashed into Greenland perhaps as recently as 12,000 years ago. Details of the impact crater beneath t...
Campus minister offers KU students spiritual friendship
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — For Susan Mercer, handing out a Capri Sun juice pouch to a college student is more than quenching a thirst. "It's offering prevenient grace to whoever shows up," said Mercer, the Wesley KU campus minister at the University of K...
Team of chaplains assist first responders
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — It had been a rough weekend for first responders in Lawrence. First, they rescued a 1-year-old and his mother, after she allegedly drove a vehicle into the Kansas River. Then, the next day, they recovered the body of a 5-year-ol...
Nearly blind Kansas woman creates mats for the homeless
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The internet offers tutorials galore for crocheting plastic bags into sleeping mats, and Pat Thompson has taken those lessons to heart. Every morning Thompson, who is almost blind, makes her way to a comfortable chair in her d...
Nearly blind Kansas woman creates mats for the homeless
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The internet offers tutorials galore for crocheting plastic bags into sleeping mats, and Pat Thompson has taken those lessons to heart. Every morning Thompson, who is almost blind, makes her way to a comfortable chair in her d...
Kansas man refurbishes cars for fundraising auction
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Jerry Toews ran from one vehicle to the next like an excited kid. He pointed to the distinctive features of the Minneapolis Moline antique tractor, the Honda motor scooter, even the first John Deere riding mower he and his c...
Kansas officer embraces idea of community policing
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Several days a week Reni Clift volunteers washing dishes in the kitchen at Elmdale Senior Center. That's a massive switch from her former life, spending her days camped out with all her possessions piled in a red wagon. Now s...
Family grows to 127 from Kansas matriarch's 68-year marriage
LEWIS, Kan. (AP) — Some people have art hanging on the walls of their home; Angie Castaneda has family pictures. The living and dining rooms are covered with her progeny - all 127 of them. Framed photos are seen at every turn of the head in the h...
Kansas mother, daughter duo creates doll museum
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — It was the Christmas of 1934 and Maxine Wyatt was wishing for a Shirley Temple doll. She was 11 years old and faced a disappointment that year. Her parents didn't buy the doll. But times have changed. Today the 94-year-old h...
Kansas couple goes through grueling path to sobriety
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A dusting of snow covered the ground as Patrick Mahoney and Rebecca Call huddled close together to stay warm. It was December 2016, and they had hit rock bottom. They had relapsed back into their drug addictions once b...
Kansas woman finds passion in making cheese
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Rebecca Nininger has found her "whey," though, she never dreamed the way would be cheese making. However, the young mother of three is passionate about creating such cheeses as Brie, Gruyere and even mozzarella in her k...
Kansas vicar reflects on her life
ULYSSES, Kan. (AP) — The vicar of the southwest sounds like the next Masterpiece Theater mystery. However, the title belongs to Mother Carolyn Ballinger - a real vicar - who went from being a clinical psychologist in Seattle to becoming an E...
Trump's Russian connection discussed in Moscow ... Kansas
MOSCOW, Kan. (AP) — As a crow flies, this southwest Kansas town is about 5,579 miles from Moscow, Russia. Its 310 residents could fill one small apartment building in the Russian capital of 13.2 million people. There really isn't anything the two Mos...
Kansas inmates create nonprofit by producing vegetables
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — On summer evenings when Kevin Gunby works in the Garden for Good, he's overcome with a sense of what freedom might feel like. "This is the next best thing to being out," said Gunby, who has spent the past 15 years in prison a...
Nature center in Kansas honors late 'butterfly lady'
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A teak wood bench sits on the edge of the butterfly garden at Dillon Nature Center where dill and parsley blend with milkweed, purple spiderwort and bee balm. The garden was recently created in loving memory of the b...
Greensburg celebrates 10 years after tornado destruction
GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — While most of the speakers during an annual leadership seminar at K-State spoke about strategy to solve complex challenges, a Greensburg man shared a simple story about a dog. The Hutchinson News (http://bit.ly/2ok10Rs ) r...
Kansas son, family forgive father's unspeakable crime
ARLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — Grant Bontrager's birthday is a day he always ponders his existence. Days before he turned 25 this month, he sat with family members, including his grandparents' Eldon and Mary Ellen Bontrager in their Arlington home. Eldon p...
Wallet found in piano after 70 years; returned to Hutchinson
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A Hutchinson woman's wallet turned up years later in a dilapidated honky-tonk piano in Mexico. But the real story is what was inside the black leather wallet ? a gift to Florence Holt in 1942 from her son Guy Holt Jr., who w...
Cheerleader tackles life changes after leukemia diagnosis
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — It was Tuesday and Hutchinson High had a home game that night, but cheerleader Kiley Flanagan wasn't there. Instead she was wrapped in a fleece giraffe-print blanket, curled on her side in a hospital bed as chemo-drugs s...
Kansas man recalls being POW in notorious 'Hanoi Hilton'
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Bill Talley's eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke about the F-105s he flew on missions in North Vietnam and Laos in 1972. Talley, 84, will tell you he isn't a superstitious man. But on his 13th mission during his second t...