Sitting down with author Roger Ringer’s book “True Tales of Kansas” is like spending a pleasant afternoon with grandparents as they tell the stories of their friends and family.
Ringer has an easy but no nonsense writing style that tells the stories of people, places and products that started or finished in Kansas.
Towns big and small are represented and many "big" people too. Big as in tall or the tallest man in Congress as Daniel Read Anthony Jr. was proclaimed on a postcard, decades ago. Ringer’s research never uncovered how tall Anthony actually was but his family tree has one very "big" name on its branches. His aunt was equal rights champion Susan B. Anthony.
Another equal rights champion, Peggy Hull, was a fan of intrepid reporter Nellie Bly. Born in Bennington, Kansas, Hull honed her writing skills in high school. Though her career at the Junction City Sentinel started as a typesetter, Ringer reports that Hull got her first break when a fire occurred and no one else was able to cover the event. Her coverage proved her talent and between 1909 and 1916 she worked for papers across the United States.
Hull pushed her editor at the El Paso Morning Times to assign her to cover World War I in France. Through her past acquaintances, she was able to spend a month at a military training camp and become the first accredited female war correspondent.
Feats of derring-do were not relegated to just the women of Kansas. H. Truesdell Smith was known as Dare Devil Smitty or Tree Top Smitty. Ringer says Smitty "developed the urge to parachute when many jumpers were being killed on their first—and last—tries."
This did not dissuade Smitty and even through a series of career changes and multiple retirements and returns to the air show circuit, he was billed as the world’s oldest skydiver in 1981. By the time of his death in 1995, Ringer parlays, Smitty had jumped in every decade.
Ringer’s book covers many decades of Kansas history and tells the stories of those who may have been missed by the mainstream media of the time.
The True Tales of Kansas is a testament to Ringer’s research skills and abundant curiosity. He brings to light the shiny beginnings of some and the brutal endings of others. This book is delightful read that begins with a forward by Kansas journalist Amy Bickel. It well worth your time and is a treasure trove of true tales of Kansas.
Jennifer Theurer can be reached at 620-227-1858 or [email protected].
