Nifty Ninety: Gary Cook Gary Cook was born on a farm near Delphos, Kansas, a small town of 400. He was the oldest of three children. Although the family moved to Topeka when Gary was young, they returned regularly to Delphos to celebrate holidays and visit.  Gary walked to grade school and junior high, played Monopoly with his family and …

Nifty Ninety: Dael Rich I was born in Chicago and during the war years lived in Portland, OR, San Francisco and Santa Cruz. After the war, the Rick family (including a sister four years younger) continued to live in the Santa Cruz area until the spring of 1948. My dad had been hired as a State Park Ranger and was …

Nifty Ninety: Harold William Lynde, Jr. Harold William Lynde, Jr., known to his many friends and loved ones as “Hal”, passed away peacefully on September 7, 2024, in Mansfield, Texas. He was 91 years young. Hal was born on May 22, 1933, in Orange, New Jersey to Harold and Clara Lynde Sr. and grew up in nearby Maplewood, NJ.  He …

Nifty Ninety: Anne Downing LaFollette I entered the late-depression world in 1934 at the brand-new Berger Hospital in Circleville, Ohio, a small farming community south of Columbus. A few months earlier, my family had moved into a big brick farmhouse built in 1869. My father’s Depression Era job was gone and he intended to farm with horses and plow, just …

Nifty Ninety: Frank Nelson For over 30 years, Montview members had Frank Nelson to thank for their Sunday morning program – 49ers Forum. (This forum was to last “no more/no less” than 49 minutes and was to take place between the two church services.) Frank was responsible, along with a small team, for lining up the speakers and presentations for …

Nifty Ninety Profile: Remembering Rev. Dr. Dusty Taylor Remembering Rev. Dr. Dusty TaylorMontview Co-Paster 1980 – 2002 “Dusty Taylor was a remarkable woman whose leadership benefited Montview in so many ways,” wrote members of the Montview Heritage Committee. As Montview’s first female co-pastor, she initiated several of the church’s core programs and activities: The Deacon/Shepherd organization to support families dealing …

Nifty Ninety Profile: Dave Lott Dave Lott began life on a farm in Michigan, helped raise all sorts of animals and attended a one-room schoolhouse. It was a Norman Rockwell childhood for him and his sister. During the Depression, Dave’s parents pooled their money with his maternal grandparents to buy a 75-acre farm with a 5,000-square-foot, Italianate-style home built in …

Nifty Ninety Profile: Lt. Col. Charles W. Leaverton, USAF Retired Sage advice tells us to pick the right spouse, and Chuck Leaverton did just that. His ever-patient wife, Sue, moved a dozen times during his 22-year career with the U.S. Air Force, all the while rearing the couple’s six children. Chuck was born in Pratt, Kansas, but his parents moved …

Nifty Ninety Profile: Virginia (Ginny) Shrader Ginny Shrader was reared in Pennsylvania, and it was her first job that changed her life and introduced her to unimagined skills and activities. Virginia was born in Germantown into a family with, coincidentally, German heritage. She describes an idyllic childhood growing up in nearby Glenside as part of a large extended family. Ginny …

Nifty Ninety Profile: Rose Protextor As a child, Rose Protextor grew up with two older siblings on a farm outside North Bend, Nebraska, milked cows twice a day and walked a mile and a half to school. It was her determination to excel in school that set her path in life and opened up the world. In her early years, …