The Weekender Saturday, May 23, 2015
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Honoring those who serve and sacrifice Area women cherish Memorial Day honors By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
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Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy, left, and Deputy Travis Buck both turned to careers in law enforcement after serving in the Army. Not pictured is Deputy Joe Robertson, who also served in the military. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Local law enforcers traded one uniform for another By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
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hen Bryan Murphy was a child, his father noted two careers he’d rather see his son avoid. “He never wanted me to join the military,” Murphy recalled. “And he really didn’t want me to get a career in law enforcement.” Sorry, Dad. A 14-year career in the military preceded 20-plus years in law enforcement, including the past three as Allen County Sheriff. Murphy figures his father — an Army veteran who also worked briefly for the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department — may have been deploying some reverse psychology.
Ceremonies Monday at American Legion Allen Community College President John Masterson, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, will deliver the keynote address during Iola’s Memorial Day services. Masterson served two tours in Vietnam aboard the USS Mount Katmai. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. Monday at Iola’s American Legion Post, 712 W. Patterson, due to rainy weather forecasts. Other elements, including t a performance by the Iola Municipal Band, also are scheduled. On hand will be Moran American Legion Post No. 385’s firing squad. The firing squad will be at several other area cemeteries Monday: — Bronson Cemetery, 8:30 a.m. — Mildred (Fairview) Cemetery, 9 o’clock — LaHarpe Cemetery, 9:45 — Old Iola Cemetery, 10:15 — Moran Cemetery, 1 p.m. — Elsmore Cemetery, 2 o’clock — Old Elsmore Cemetery, 2:30.
See SERVE | Page A6
aving a sense of your ancestry helps you better understand yourself, according to Carolyn Whitaker of Humboldt. That, in part, is what has led Whitaker, 66, on a search of not only her own family history, but also that of, particularly, Civil War veterans. “We get so caught up in our everyday lives that we don’t stop and look at ourselves to see what makes us what we are,” she said Tuesday afternoon. A wisp of a woman, Whitaker has become a warrior for veterans and their service to country. “They suffered terribly and their families suffered terribly,” she said of not only those who fought long ago, but also those in current conflicts. “It seems we have forgotten the importance of their service.” WANDA LYTLE and Donna Culver, both of Iola, agree with Whitaker. In their role with the American Legion Auxiliary, Lytle and Culver, current Auxiliary president, see a waning of enthusiasm in support of veterans. “Everybody gets patriotic on Memorial Day and Veterans Day,” said Culver, 82. “But unless you are personally involved, that patriotism sits on the back burner the rest of the year.” Both Culver and Lytle, 87, grew up during the Great Depression followed by World
Iolans Donna Culver, left, and Wanda Lytle will help decorate around 200 veterans’ graves this weekend in preparation of Monday’s Memorial Day services in Iola. REGISTER/SUSAN LYNN War II. Culver’s husband, the late Gene Culver, served in the Army in the Korean War. “Of the six boys, five served in the military, and two had military careers,” Culver said. She grew up on a farm in rural Yates Center. Her
father’s formal education stopped at elementary school. “He was needed on the farm,” she said. It was the Great Depression. “Times were hard,” she said simply. The one brother out of six See HONORS | Page A4
Senate GOP leaders cut off tax debate By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
Brady Newman’s woodworking skills have become more than just a passing hobby. Here, he shows a cedar porch swing he built in two days. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Area teen shows off woodworking wizardry By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
MORAN — It won’t be hard to find Brady Newman this summer now that school’s out. Just follow the trail of sawdust.
Newman, 17, finished his junior year at Marmaton Valley High School on a high note. In April, Newman took third out of 135 other industrial arts and woodshop students in a Skills U.S.A. challenge hosted by Pittsburg State Uni-
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versity. The challenge was simple. Each student was given a set of blueprints, an assortment of wood and saws, sanders and other tools. See WOOD | Page A4
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republicans in the GOPdominated Kansas Senate canceled their first scheduled debate Thursday on raising taxes to erase a projected budget shortfall, just before lawmakers scuttled out of the Statehouse for an extended holiday weekend. The Senate’s inaction meant that neither chamber approved a plan by the 95th day of the Legislature’s annual session, five more than its leaders traditionally schedule. Lawmakers suspended their own pay until they reconvene after Memorial Day. Each chamber’s Republican supermajorities are deeply divided over how to deal with a projected shortfall of $406 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1. It arose after lawmakers followed GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s call to cut personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 as an economic stimulus.
“The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” — Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. 75 Cents
The key issues are how much to increase the state’s 6.15 percent sales tax and whether to backtrack on a 2012 policy championed by Brownback that exempted the profits of 281,000 business owners and 53,000 farmers from income taxes. The Senate was supposed to debate a bill to increase sales, cigarette and gasoline taxes. The measure also would have suspended the tax break for business owners and farmers for two years, replacing it with a less lucrative tax credit against businesses’ payrolls. “How do we know where people will be if we don’t have a discussion about it?” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. “The reason there’s no light at the end of the tunnel is because they can’t even find the entrance to the tunnel.” President Susan Wagle, Majority Leader Terry Bruce and tax committee See TAXES | Page A6
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