Sports: Gridiron blowouts fill Thanksgiving menu See B1
The Weekender Saturday, November 29, 2014
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Big Apple Thanksgiving By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Iolans Dave and Mary Kay Heard rang in the official start of the holiday season in style this week. The Heards were in New York City to watch the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, along with friends Jerry and Janice (Mann) Bingham, formerly of Iola and now of Topeka. Those with an eagle eye
may have spotted the Heards in the crowd behind announcers for CBS. “We were almost in the the front line across the the CBS cameras,” Mary Kay told the Register in a Facebook message. “It was snowing lightly — perfect.” She said some had camped out as early as 3:30 a.m. Thursday to get a front-row view of the parade. The Heards also watched a See NYC | Page A4
Friendly feasts Above, the Light of LaHarpe Church Thanksgiving meal drew a crowd of locals Thursday at LaHarpe City Hall. Among the diners were, from left, Carol June Smith, Betty and Jay Daniels and Jim Heinrich. Volunteers from First Baptist Church assisted. At left, at Iola’s First Presbyterian Church are Tina Radford, Karen Culver, Kathy Bartell, Marsha Hoggatt and Eddie Radford.
Iolans Mary Kay and David Heard, from left, were with former Iolans Jerry and Janice Bingham in New York City Thursday. COURTESY PHOTO
Iola will always be home for Houston-based couple By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
T
he truth is that not every head-overheels couple in this year’s graduating high school class will find themselves together 41 years later. Still, if any such lovebirds are reading this: it’s not impossible. Dave and Jill McCaskill met at Iola High School when Dave’s parents moved to town to open the I’dea Shop, a gift and card store, and a mainstay on the south side of the Iola square for more than 20 years. They dated during their senior year and married after their sophomore year at college. If Jill’s father, the late Sen. Robert Talkington,
had concerns about the pair’s youthful betrothal, it only ever expressed itself in the form of a single prohibition. According to the Senator — a former two-sport athlete at KU, who never lost sight of that school’s greatest rival — his daughter and future sonin-law were welcome to attend any college they liked. So long as it wasn’t Missouri. The pair complied but, after receiving their degrees from Kansas University, never again took up residence in their home state. Dave’s career in the petrochemical field — first as an engineer, later as a sales and marketing executive — whisked the couple across nine states in 20 years, before landing them outside Houston, where they’ve lived for the last 14 years and where
KU medical center recruits rural teens By ANDY MARSO KHI newsservice
HIGHLAND — In the last two years Seth Nutt has traveled to nearly every corner of Kansas, introducing rural students to health care professionals. During trips to Goodland, Hays, Highland, Girard, El Dorado, Harper and Seward County, Nutt and others from the Area Health Education Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center have met with 1,000 high schoolers to tell them about the job opportunities available in health care. Through these meetings, Nutt and others hope the students will seek training health care fields
and then return to their communities to provide muchneeded services. I think the barriers are just not knowing what’s out there,” said Nutt, the center’s service coordinator for health careers and promotion. “Especially if you’re from a rural community, you’re unaware of a lot of the opportunities that are available to you and what careers are really needed.” While the shortage of dentists in rural Kansas has been documented for years, Nutt said there’s a lack of patient access to other types of health professionals as well. “In the rural communiSee MED | Page A2
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Jill has taught high school chemistry for the last 12. Despite their years away, the question of whether to refer to the McCaskills as Iolans evaporates after a few minutes in their company. The couple — who, along with their middle daughter, Claire, were in town for Thanksgiving — speak with deep-rooted affection about Iola. “Iola is home, “ Dave says. “It’s never not going to be home.” They have memories of cruising the square, spending Friday nights along the circuit: from Sonic, to the park, to the A&W. “You looked forward to Sidewalk Sale Saturday, to the fair at Riverside Park. The carnival rides. Football games. Homecoming. Just down-home, simple entertain-
Dave and Jill McCaskill ment.” If they couldn’t live in Iola, the town’s values and close-
knit feel has at least provided See MCCASKILLS | Page A4
Blaze destroys family’s home By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Iolans Timothy Neudeck, Violet McCullough and their infant daughter, Erin, lost their home and almost all of their belongings in a house fire Wednesday morning. The family was at home at 216 S. Third St. when they smelled smoke shortly before 9 o’clock, McCullough said. “Tim went into the dining room, and it was already filled with smoke,” she said “You could see flames coming from the floor.” The family grabbed what little they could — a few articles of clothing and Erin’s playpen — and fled to McCullough’s grandfather’s house across the street. Their pet dog followed them outside.
Iola Fire Department responds to a house fire Wednesday morning at 216 S. Third Street. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN “By the time we got to Grandpa’s, you could see the flames from outside,” McCullough said. Firefighters were on the
“The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.” — Alfred Adler 75 Cents
scene within minutes, but the front of the home was engulfed in flames, Fire Chief See FIRE | Page A4
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