Dorothy Loomis

Dorothy Maxine Nichols Loomis, 92, Iola, passed away Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, at Allen County Hospital.

Dorothy was born Nov. 19, 1919, on a farm west of Carlyle, the daughter of William Harold and Libbie Helen (Kettle) Nichols. She grew up on the family farm and graduated from Iola High School when she was 16, and Iola Junior College when she was 18. She finished her bachelor’s degree from Emporia State Teachers College later in life.

On May 21, 1939, Dorothy married Henry E. Loomis at her parents’ home in Carlyle. They made their home on a farm northeast of Iola for 60 years. Henry preceded her in death on Aug. 30, 1998.

Dorothy taught school for 30 years. She started in rural schools in Allen County and retired after 21 years from Crest in Colony.

She grew up as part of the Carlyle Presbyterian Church where she served as pianist and Sunday School teacher before moving her membership to Calvary United Methodist Church in Iola. She was a member of the Virginia Circle in the church, the Deer Creek Happy Hour Club, Sew and So Club in the Carlyle area and the Retired Teachers Association.

Dorothy loved quilting, gardening and raising flowers, especially roses, and traveling with Henry. She enjoyed cooking and was known for her hospitality.

She is survived by three sons, Ron Loomis and wife, Carol, Inman, David Loomis and wife, Phyllis, rural Iola, and Rodney Loomis and wife Suzanne, Newton; a brother, Elmer Nichols, Iola; nine grandchildren, Angela Friesen, Carrie Hildebrand, Laurie Larson, Matt Loomis, Lisa Der, Jana Grisier and Krista, Samuel and Zachary Loomis; and 22 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a brother, Raymond Nichols.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Chapel in Iola. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Calvary United Methodist Church in Iola. Burial will follow at Highland Cemetery.

Memorials to Calvary United Methodist Church may be left with the funeral home.

Online condolences may be left at www.iolafuneral.com.

Donald Barnhart

Donald Bruce Barnhart, 97, rural Iola, died Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, at Everbreeze Farm west of Iola in the same farmhouse in which he was born.

He was born Aug. 24, 1915, the son of Edgar Lewis and Martha Ethyl (Kees) Barnhart. Don grew up on the Everbreeze Farm, attending Enterprise Grade School and Iola High School.

As a young man, Don traveled the east coast as a refrigeration engineer. Then, as a faithful son, he returned to Iola and lived and farmed at Everbreeze the rest of his life.

As an adventuresome outdoorsman, he became an accomplished skier (both snow and water), pilot, hiker, avid fisherman, great mechanic and farmer. He also enjoyed bowling and was admired for his skill on the dance floor. He was a great role model and second father to two generations of nieces and nephews. He taught them how to drive, ski, farm and fish.

He is survived by a sister, Lenore Barnhart Osborn, Iola; two sisters-in-law, Caryl Denney Barnhart, Kansas City, and Virginia Boucher, Washburn, Mo.; nephews, Bruce, Lynn and Dale Barnhart, all of Florida, and Denney Barnhart, of the home; nieces, Kathy Moyer and Patty Miller, both of Florida, and Marilyn Cox, Kansas City; and beloved great-nieces and great-nephews

He was preceded in death by his parents and siblings Dorothy Barnhart Remsberg Anderson, Max Barnhart and Marjorie Barnhart.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Iola Township Cemetery east of Piqua.

Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Memorial Chapel of Iola is in charge of arrangements.

Online condolences may be left at www.iolafuneral.com.

Velva Burche

Velva Burche, 86, Moran, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, at Moran Manor.

She was born Dec. 22, 1925, in rural Uniontown, the daughter of Roy and Daisy (Hester) Pool. She graduated from Moran High School with the class of 1944.  

Velva worked for Taylor and Laughlin Grocery Store as a clerk during high school in Moran, and then went to Chanute to obtain her teacher’s degree. She taught for two years at the Nilwood country school northwest of Moran.  

Velva married Dewey Thompson in 1950. In June 1967, they adopted two boys, Robert and Tracy Thompson. Dewey preceded her in death on March 25, 1992. She then married William H. “Bill” Burche on April 3, 1993, in Moran. Bill and Velva enjoyed traveling on bus trips across the United States; their first bus trip was to the Rose Parade in San Diego, Calif. Velva enjoyed cooking for her family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Daisy Pool.

Velva is survived by her husband; sons Robert Thompson and wife Janet, Iola, Tracy Thompson and wife Melody, Moran; a brother, Eugene Pool, Chanute; 18 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren; nieces, nephews and friends.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Moran Christian Church with burial to follow in the Moran Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel in Moran.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Foundation.

Online condolences may be sent to www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

U.S. shouldn’t appease Israel with hits on Iraq

Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to press the United States to give Iran an ultimatum: prove you aren’t building a bomb or we’ll attack.

President Barack Obama continues to resist. And perhaps he is telling Netanyahu that Israel will be on its own if it tries to take out Iran’s nuclear factories.

Iran has a population of about 67 million. It has a navy of sorts, an air force and an army that fought an eight-year war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988. It also is a major producer of oil. Considering that our nation is still engaged in Afghanistan and is just winding up the war with Iraq we started in 2003, it is not surprising President Obama is reluctant to send U.S. troops into still another Middle East conflict that could eat up more trillions of borrowed dollars and cost thousands more U.S. lives.

The evidence is that Iran is on the way to making atomic weapons. If it succeeds, that would level the military playing field with Israel, which Iran apparently considers a major threat. Israel has had atomic weapons for decades.

Israel hasn’t used those weapons. Maybe Iran would be equally hesitant to subject itself to certain retaliation that would bring devastation to its cities and death to tens of thousands of its people.

Obama and his administration must decide whether the certainty of war presents a greater threat to the United States than does the probability of Iran’s success in joining the nuclear club.

From this small corner of the country comes a vote against another war.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.


Health care costs are down, but more to cut

Tuesday it was announced annual premiums for family health care insurance have risen 4 percent this year. Quite a welcome change from last year’s 9 percent. 

But don’t crack open the champagne.

Premiums averaged $15,745 for family coverage, two major research organizations said. That amounts to $7.44 an hour for 52 40-hour weeks. That’s more than half the average wage in southeast Kansas. While most of health care insurance premiums are paid by employers, employees have been required to pick up more and more of the cost because the burden on business has become so large. Workers now pay about $4,300 of the annual cost — or more than $2 an hour, still a significant item at a time when wages are stagnant.

Premiums didn’t rise as much as the year before because a few of the cost-saving features of the Affordable Health Care Act kicked in. Most of them are not scheduled to become effective until 2014. Even then, however, health care in the United States will remain at about 17 percent of  gross national product because coverage will expand under the act to cover most of those now uninsured.

Health care costs can be reduced to rich-world levels — between 8 and 11 percent of gross national product — by adopting single-payer plans similar to those that have been in effect for half a century or more in Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, France and most other rich nations. A single-payer plan eliminates the “middle man” of health insurance companies. A single source of funding — collected from employers, employees and the state — pays doctors and hospitals directly, eliminating “price adjustments” set by insurance companies. 

The quality of health care provided in those nations is at least as high as it is in the U.S., as measured by health care outcomes.

The Obama health care act is not a single-payer plan. It makes some much-needed reforms, but maintains the fee-for-service system, which escalates costs and continues to depend on for-profit insurance companies for administration and revenue collection.

As a consequence, administrative costs run about 30 percent for care provided through for-profit insurance. Our system also provides opportunity for over-charging and outright fraud because there are so many players in the field that oversight is ineffective. Costs also rise because specialists can set their own fees and operate their own hospitals and testing facilities — to which they send their patients.

Many of them therefore have incomes in the nation’s top 1 percent — incomes they earn at the expense of ever-rising health insurance premiums.

 

THE AFFORDABLE Health Care Act was an important first step toward gaining control over U.S. health care costs. But it is only a first step. Only through a single-payer system can the price-setting controls be achieved which will make universal health care available to Americans at the truly affordable costs which have been achieved by so many nations for so many years.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

School voting campaign kicks off

Area school officials will kick off a get-out-the-vote campaign with an assortment of games and activities through U.S. Cellular’s Calling All Communities Contest.

Voting begins Friday for Calling All Communities, where U.S. Cellular will donate $150,000 to an American school receiving the most online votes during the nationwide competition. The communications company also will donate $50,000 to the next 17 top vote-getters. 

All K-12 schools in the country are eligible for the contest — big or small, public or private.

To better the chances of bringing the money to Allen County, administrators from Iola USD 257, Marmaton Valley USD 256 and Humboldt USD 258 have agreed to utilize a team approach.

Thus, all votes for the county schools should be directed to Iola Middle School. If IMS places among the winners, the prize money would be split evenly among the three districts — $50,000 each if IMS places first; $16,666.66 apiece if the school finishes in the top 18. 

The funds can be spent however each district sees fit.

Saturday’s activities will be part of a tailgate party starting at 2 p.m. in the parking lot in front of the U.S. Cellular store at 700 N. State St. in Iola.

There, a number of games, including a tug-of-war, are planned, while cheerleaders from each of the three school districts will be on hand. Area Girl Scouts will sell hot dogs.

A booth will be set up for folks to start voting.

This year marks the fourth annual Calling All Communities campaign and the second in a row in which the Allen County schools have pooled their resources.

A rules change from last year should benefit the Allen County schools, because now supporters only have to vote once instead of daily.

The only requirement is to enter a U.S. Cellular office to get information for voting. 

No purchase is necessary, nor must a voter be a U.S. Cellular customer to participate.

The Allen County schools finished just outside the top 20 last year, leaving administrators hopeful they rank higher in 2012.

Voting runs through Oct. 21.

Velva Burche

Velva Burche, 86, Moran, passed away on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, at Moran Manor in Moran.

Funeral services are pending.

Online condolences may be sent to www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Caroll Fred Tippie

Caroll Fred “Tip” Tippie, 72, passed away Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, at his home, surrounded by his family. Tip was born Dec. 31, 1939, in Elsmore, Kansas, the son of Fred F. and Anna Emily Caroline (Seastedt) Tippie. He graduated from Elsmore High School.  

He served his country in the United States Army from 1961 to 1964. 

Tip was united in marriage to Patricia Jean Anderson on Oct. 18, 1964, in Elsmore. They made their home in Humboldt. 

Tip proudly served local grocers and merchants by ensuring the delivery of fresh bread and baked products as a route representative for Wonder Bread, retiring from the Parsons route after 32 years. 

He was a member of the Chanute American Legion, and had served as past master of the Masonic Temple of Humboldt. Tip was an avid golfer, and loved the time he spent with his golfing buddies, on a nearly daily basis, at the Humboldt Golf Course. Tip had a profound love for his grandchildren, and strove to ensure that they achieved college educations, and found their way in life. He also imparted his love for golf, and skills at the game, to his family.

He is survived by his wife, Pat, of the home; his daughters, Sheila Coronado and her husband, Frank, Humboldt, Michaela Wille and her husband, John, Humboldt, Melissa Reynolds and her husband, Ronnie, Yates Center, and Denise Yost and her husband, Steve, Humboldt; his sisters, Nadine Kyser and her husband, Junior, Elsmore, and Delores Wilson, Elsmore, and the living legacy of his 16 loving grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church of Humboldt. Burial will follow in Mount Hope Cemetery. 

The family suggests memorial contributions in Tip’s name to the Humboldt High School Athletic Department, with particular respect to the golf program. These may be left in care of the funeral home.

Penwell-Gabel Humboldt Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Online condolences may be sent to www.PenwellGabelChanute.com.


Monday proved all things are possible

Iola will begin to grow. Builders will rush in to create new subdivisions. Wages will increase steadily at our flourishing industries and businesses. All of our children will be above average.

That’s not all. 

The Kansas Legislature will reform its tax code to produce tons more money so that public school funding can be restored to pre-recession levels and increased from there to assure excellence in our classrooms as the nation’s best teachers flock to Kansas.

Tomorrow, or maybe today, will see an end to negative political advertising. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will meet for lunch every Wednesday just to chat about their wives and kids and how lucky they are. Democrats and Republicans will issue statements explaining precisely, in sixth-grade vocabularies, what they will do if elected. 

All of industry in every country will cut their production of greenhouse gases by half and agree to do better next year. Daytime highs in Iola will drop to 85 in July and August and hover around 50 in February.

Syrians and Afghanis will stop killing each other.

All of these impossible dreams will come true because the world learned late Monday afternoon and early evening that anything can happen in this year of Our Lord, 2012. That revelation was given to us by Andy Murray when he defeated Novak Djokovic in a five-hour, five-set tennis match to win the U.S. Open and become the first Brit to win a grand slam tournament in 76 years. 

Thank you, Andy. Thank you very much.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Area prep football standings

Pioneer League

2012 Football Standings

Team League Overall

Iola 1-0 2-0

Priarie View 1-0 1-1

Central Heights 0-0 1-1

Wellsville 0-0 0-2

Anderson County 0-1 1-1

Osawatomie 0-1 0-2

Tri-Valley League

Name League Overall

Humboldt 0-0 2-0

Caney Valley 0-0 1-1

Neodesha 0-0 1-1

Burlington 0-0 0-2

Cherryvale 0-0 0-2

Eureka 0-0 0-2

Fredonia 0-0 0-2

8-Man

Yates Center none 0-2

Three Rivers League

8-Man 2012 Standings

Name League Overall

Marmaton Valley 2-0 2-0

St. Paul 1-0 2-0

Uniontown 0-0 1-0

Crest 1-1 1-1

Pleasanton 0-1 1-1

Chetopa 0-2 0-2

Lyon County League

8-Man 2012 Standings

Name League Overall

Waverly 2-0 2-0

Burlingame 1-0 1-1

Madison 1-0 1-1

Lebo 1-1 1-1

Marais Des Cygnes 1-1 1-1

Hartford 0-2 0-2

Southrn Coffey Cty 0-2 0-2