MARIETTA ANDERSON was born in Hutchinson and graduated from Russell High School. Her long career in interpersonal and mass communications has taken her from Kansas to Massachusetts, Tennessee, Virginia, Costa Rica, and back to Kansas. She has earned awards for product sales, copywriting, and advertising. Her production of collateral print and video materials has contributed to several successful political campaigns. She lives in Wichita.

CANDACE CRAWFORD grew up on the High Plains of central Kansas where she developed an affinity for the earth and sky landscape of the plains, which has informed her writing. She studied English at the University of Kansas and creative writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For her paid work, she was an occupational therapist principally in the Chicago area.

CLARENCE CRAWFORD (1915-2008) grew up in the Luray area and received a degree in Agricultural Engineering from Kansas State University. After army service in Australia and New Guinea, he farmed the land homesteaded by his grandparents for over 40 years. His wide-ranging interest in designing and implementing projects included resurrecting post rock fences. His typed contribution to Plains Speaking was discovered in his personal library folded into the back of Land of the Post Rock.

GLADYS CHEGWIDDEN CRAWFORD (1910-2002) lived in the Lucas area until she graduated from Fort Hays College. She taught in rural Kansas high schools until her marriage. Later she taught English and Latin at Russell High School. Her interest in folklore led to her collection of oral history and interviews with community members. She lectured on the iron crosses in area cemeteries and coauthored The History of Russell County Rural Schools, a book about early schools in Russell County.

R. KENT CRAWFORD grew up in the house built by his great grandmother on the Russell County farm that his great grandparents homesteaded. He attended school in nearby Luray, and obtained degrees in physics from Kansas State University and Princeton University. Since retirement, he has written about family history and published his first nontechnical book, Ruts, Guts, & a Model T Truck: Cruising the West at 15 Miles per Hour.

JUANITA KRUG FLEGLER was born and raised in a native stone three-story home built by her grandparents on a farm homesteaded by her great grandparents in Russell County. She lives on the farm with the Landon House and Barn that she and her husband own. Active in church, she has been the organist and directs the bell choir. Besides music, she enjoys gardening, cooking, and sewing. Mowing five acres and caring for the farm leaves little spare time. She has three children, nine grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren.

PATRICIA HAMBLIN grew up in Russell, Kansas. After marriage, she moved to Nebraska. She attended Bellevue University and received a BA in Sociology. She finds it easier to put pen to paper when expressing herself and hence her poems are more of a life journey covering different stages of her life. She has published a book of poetry and has given readings of some of the poems. The two featured here are poems she has written recently.

ORVILLE NEWTON (NEWT) KING (1940-2021) grew up on the King family homestead in Russell County. Awarded a football scholarship to the University of Kansas, he obtained a degree in pharmacy. As a pharmacist, he opened the first compounding-only pharmacy in Topeka in 1987. This enabled the ability to compound time-release medication, something not previously done by a pharmacist. A born storyteller, Newt could be found surrounded by family and friends telling stories over his homemade, hand-churned vanilla ice cream.

JEANETTE LEWIS grew up in Russell, the greatest small town in Kansas. Retiring from the business world in 2001, having worked in Wichita, Kansas City, and Dallas, she moved to the tallgrass prairie grasslands of the Flint Hills in Southeastern Kansas, where she enjoys her love of animals and the great outdoors. She has a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren.

BARBARA ROGG MALOY currently works in her home painting studio in Longmont, Colorado. Growing up on the Great Plains of Kansas has undoubtedly informed her art as her canvases overflow with the abundance of nature. She has degrees in art and architecture. She worked as an architect in New York and Connecticut before retiring to Colorado and returning to her art. She lives with her husband Mike, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.

JOYCE LUDER RABAS was born and raised in north central Kansas—the middle of three daughters in a farming family. Both sets of her grandparents lived nearby and blessed Joyce and her sisters with family stories. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Fort Hays State College and she and her husband Gary found jobs in Kansas City—Joyce in print journalism. They have two children and four grandchildren.

Past Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019), KEVIN RABAS teaches at Emporia State University, where he leads the poetry and playwriting tracks. He is a seventh generation Kansan. He has fourteen books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner.

RUTH IRENE VANSLYKE RELF (1920—2012) began teaching in 1941 in Missouri. From 1968 to 1988, she taught fourth and fifth grades in the St. John, Kansas-Hudson School District. She received a BS from Missouri State University and a Master’s from Drury College in Springfield, Missouri. She loved to travel with her husband and in later years, a good friend. A love of travel took her to Europe, Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, and most of the states in the United States.

Professional Photographer GREG RUD of Lucas, Kansas has spent ten years capturing rural scenes in Russell and Lincoln Counties. His work has been on display at the Deines Cultural Center in Russell and is on the current covers of two county visitor guides, a novel, state travel brochure, and the Wilson Telephone Book. His work is available for sale at the Switchgrass Art Co-op in Lucas, 'Rural Routes by Greg Rud' on Facebook, and http://ruralroutesbygregrud.weebly.com/

KAY RUSSELL grew up in Kansas and graduated from Kansas State University. An educator, she has taught violin lessons for preschoolers, public school mathematics, and workshops for teachers. Her award winning work as editor of equity oriented newsletters and journal articles led to her collaborative development of sexual harassment curricula in Illinois public schools.

JOANNE CUNNINGHAM SCHMIDTBERGER is the typical dull grandmotherly type prominent in every small town. Business classes at Russell High School shaped her work destiny. She had a career in challenging secretarial positions in the Topeka area before retiring after 29 years as district clerk of USD 372, Silver Lake. A widow since 1998, she volunteers and enjoys life in the small town of Silver Lake just west of Topeka.