Dial 1 for history

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November 21, 2019 - 10:18 AM

Harry Lee Jr. shows a 1947 LaHarpe telephone directory at an Iola Public Library program Tuesday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

When the late Harry Lee Sr. purchased LaHarpe Telephone Co. in the summer of 1950, wife Violet was less than thrilled.

Violet had grown up in St. Louis and moved to Kansas City after World War II.

Small town life held little allure for the cosmopolitan lady. She so opposed the thought of rural life that she joked the grooves in the road to LaHarpe were caused by her dragging her fingernails on the journey there.

But Violet soon learned to love her new home, their son, Harry Lee Jr., told an Iola Public Library audience Tuesday, to the point that any fingernail-imprinted blacktop would only have resulted if they tried to take her back to the city.

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