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Vol 45 No. 9
Kansas’ Largest Newspaper
www.theactiveage.com
'We're buddies'
at the Orpheum
September 2024
Printed at Valley Center, KS
Bus driver teaches, learns plenty while moving kids
ACTIVE AGING PUBLISHING, INC 125 S West St., Suite 105 Wichita, Ks 67213
Book might be last chance to catch I-70 killer
past retirement age for the Derby disrict. After retiring from the Kansas Air National Guard, she attended culinary school and worked for a caterer. Then the pandemic came along. She started driving a van for the schools, transporting kids who live outside district lines. She was urged to get her Derby school bus driver Jodee Dalton says her commercial license so riders "can't help but bring you up." that she could drive to pass the written test, learned how full-size school busses. “Every district to operate air brakes and got her everywhere is always looking for school learner’s permits, which allowed her to bus drivers,” she said. drive with a licensed CDL operator. She studied up on general She learned to inspect a bus — a knowledge of commercial vehicles See Driver, page 6
By Joe Stumpe BTK wasn’t Wichita’s only serial killer to escape detection for decades. On April 11, 1992, 23-yearold Patricia Smith and 32-year-old Patricia Magers were shot to death while working late at Magers’ bridal shop, La Bride d’ Elegance, on east Kellogg. Less than a month later, police announced that their killer had murdered four other people in locations stretching from here to Indiana. The killer has never been identified. Now a retired journalist has written a book to keep the story alive. Bob Cyphers, a former news reporter for St. Louis television station KMOV-TV, was recruited and given unusual access by a police task force that formed in 2021 but disbanded
By Sherry Graham Howerton Don Suderman discovered his passion for roses more than four decades ago. “I grew some roses starting in the 1980s. Then I went to a garden tour in Wichita and got invited to a Wichita Rose Society meeting, which increased my knowledge on how to grow them,” said Suderman, who is now president of that group. “There is something about the unique form and fragrance of a rose that I’ve always loved.” His wife Marcee’s fondess for the flower goes back further, to memories of her grandparents’ roses blanketing their front yard in Kansas City when
she was a child. Today, the Sudermans cultivate several rose gardens at their home near Newton. They’re also among enthusiasts staging the Rose Society’s 75th anniversary celebration. “A Rosy Weekend” will be held Sept. 21-22 at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview and Botanica, The Wichita Gardens. “It does take a lot of work, but our members will be volunteering in various areas throughout the weekend,” Suderman said. “We want our guests to have a good experience.” It has been more than a decade since Wichita hosted a rose show by
See I-70 Killer, page 7
Rose show blooms again
Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Wichita, KS 67276 Permit 1711
By Joe Stumpe DERBY — Jodee Dalton has seen a few younger students shed tears as her Derby school bus pulls up in the morning. Her pep talk goes something like this: “You’re on here with your friends. I know it’s early, and it’s hard to go. We’re buddies.” Most of the time, it’s the students who keep Dalton in high spirits. “I think when you get older, you tend to forget what the inherent joys of childhood are. Kids laugh all the time. Everything’s funny to them, everything’s silly to them. I learn from them. I hope they learn from me. I think being around these kids gives me a better outlook on everything.” Dalton is one of 29 bus and paratransit drivers who are working
Inside: Win Tickets to
Don Suderman prunes roses at his Newton home. He is president of the Wichita Rose Society.
See Roses, page 8
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