Tuesday, February 23, 2016


Samuel and Bessie Verhage lived in the Dover/Valencia area of Shawnee County, Kansas until 1934 when Samuel passed away. Bessie moved in with their son, Richard, who lived Tonganoxie. Richard farmed near Tonganoxie until 1943 when he started working for the Franklin Dairy, ultimately retiring from All Star Dairy in Lawrence in 1972.

Bessie was still reported on the U.S. Census as living with Richard and his wife Edna in 1940 but I was unable to find an exact year that she passed away. I am assuming that she was buried in Valencia Cemetery next to her husband, Samuel.

VERHAGE

SAMUEL
1878 - 1934
BESSIE J.
HIS WIFE
1885 - 19



Valencia Cemetery, Dover Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Monday, February 22, 2016


RAYMOND C., SR.                LORETTA M.
1904 - 1958                         1907 - 1961

MORROW



West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Sunday Comics #17: 1922 B.N. (Before Nancy)

I've been wanting to do a Nancy post for a while now but I didn't want it to be your standard Nancy post. Nancy has, in my opinion, become one of the greatest strips of all time. I think you could safely add Nancy to the eschelon of comic strips with Krazy Kat, Peanuts, Pogo, and Calvin and Hobbes. Everybody knows Nancy and Sluggo and the wacky, and oftentimes weird, adventures that they get into. But more than a decade before Nancy became the star and namesake of the feature, there was another--one who still appears to this day as Nancy's aunt and adoptive guardian. Fritzi Ritz.

Fritzi Ritz was your standard 1920s comic strip featuring flapper Fritzi Ritz created by Larry Whittington. Fritzi spent many years focused on men, clothes, and money. In 1933, Fritzi's niece Nancy came for a visit and never went home. In 1938, her friend Sluggo was introduced and the title of the strip was renamed shortly after.











A comic book page featuring Fritzi and her boyfriend, Phil Fumble. By Ernie Busmiller.
Nancy strip from April 5, 2009 by Guy Gilchrist.

Friday, February 19, 2016

West Lawn Veterans Memorials


The flags of all the branches of the military fly above bronze plaques commemorating all the major wars that the United States have fought in. On the obverse are the seals of each branch.








West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Thursday, February 18, 2016


RAYMOND C MORROW JR
KANSAS
GM3        US NAVY
WORLD WAR II
JUNE 1 1924         DEC 4 1961


West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Wednesday, February 17, 2016


THOMAS W.            TOGETHER FOREVER                      NELLE M.
May 3,         Dec. 11,                                                         Jan. 9,       Jan. 15
1889 - 1958                                                                      1892 - 1957

GLIDEWELL



West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Tuesday, February 16, 2016


HOLMES

Emmett E.         Mary
1874 - 1968        1877 - 1960


West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Monday, February 15, 2016

Before I get to today's gravestone picture, I thought I would reveal how I choose what gravestone gets posted. It's all a pretty simple process but I do have rules and stipulations that I follow.


  1. Any gravestone can be chosen but it's typically a gravestone that stands out to me. While older stones garner the most attention, fancier ones do as well. Flat stones, while mostly unremarkable, can and have been chosen although it's rare.
  2. Stones with dates newer than 40 years are not posted because I want a decent amount of time between the death and today but also because of any living relatives who may still be around. For example, stones posted in 2016 have to be dated before 1976. Newer stones could still be posted on my Twitter or Instagram and I always post pictures on Find A Grave if one isn't already on there.
  3. I do attempt basic research on the person before posting. Most of the time, they are your average person but occasionally I find some gems in someone's biography.

West Lawn Memorial Gardens is located at the intersection of I-70 and Auburn Road. Being a memorial park, all the stones lay flush with the ground. West Lawn is adorned with a statue of Jesus, prayer hands and a Veteran Memorial.


Regina Margaretha Fry was born Regina Lagenwalter in Troy, Illinois to Johannes and Maria Langenwalter. She married a man named "Goebel" in about 1910. She had four children with "Goebel", August, Harold, Karl, and William. Regina then married Ben Schilling in 1917 with whom they had a daughter, Florence. Regina married one last time to Birt Fry in 1935.

In the 1930s, Regina and her sons Karl and Harry were reunited after 23 years. Karl and Harry were taken from Regina because she was behind in her payments to an orphanage. Karl and Harry were taken but Regina took August, William and Florence from the court's jurisdiction across the Mississippi River into Missouri.

REGINA M. FRY
MOTHER
1889 - 1962

William E. Goebel
(Uncle Bill)

April 10, 1917 - May 30, 1997




West Lawn Memorial Gardens, Mission Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Sunday Comics #16: Volcano of Vengeance

Ace Magazines was one of the many comic book publishers of the 1940s and 1950s. They dipped their toes into every genre and while they had a few hits, most of their titles are unremarkable, quickly forgotten, and run-of-the-mill.

Baffling Mysteries was one of their horror comics that started in 1951 with issue #5. It originally started as Indian Braves which was your typical western title but mostly focused on the Native American side of the Old West. I'm sure each story was handled with the grace, care, and aplomb that these type of stories usually received.
Woop. Spoke too soon.
I'm assuming Indian Braves was renamed/changed because it was hard coming up with stories that showed how good Indians could be while also treating them like terrible caricatures. Baffling Mysteries would last until #26 in 1955. Ace Magazines, who had some titles used as evidence for enacting the Comics Code, would quit publishing comics at the end of 1956.









Happy Valentine's 2016


Friday, February 12, 2016


[WOODMEN OF THE WORLD
MEMORIAL]

SAMUEL OTTO
1874 - 1911

McLAUGHLIN


Rochester Cemetery, Topeka, Soldier Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Thursday, February 11, 2016


GONE TO REST

MARY K.

WIFE OF
SAMUEL H. LONG
BORN
FEB. 11, 1861
DIED
NOV. 18, 1881
------
Gone but not forgotten.
------
May she rest in peace.


Medina Cemetery, Kentucky Township, Jefferson County, Kansas

Wednesday, February 10, 2016


JAMES M.
HARDING

BORN
Oct. 2, 1812
DIED
May 30, 1890
Aged 77Yr. 7Mo,
&28D's
------
A precious one from us has
gone.
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
which never can be filled


Rochester Cemetery, Topeka, Soldier Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Call of the Simpsons


Credits
Episode Number 7G09 (#107)
Created by Matt Groening; Developed by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Sam Simon
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by Wesley Archer
Executive Producers: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Sam Simon
Starring Dan Castellanetta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, and Harry Shearer
Guest Star: A. Brooks

Plot
Flanders comes home with a massive RV to take his family camping. Wanting to keep up with the Flandereses, Homer goes to Bob's RV Round-Up and finds the Ultimate Behemoath, an RV that looks like it would take up both lanes of a highway. Not only does it have a satellite dish like Flanders' RV, it has it's own satellite.
Are we sure this thing is street legal?
Sadly, Homer's credit report, which is a discriminatory and lackluster determination of someone's ability to pay for something, is horrible so all he can afford is this thing:
Are we sure this thing is street legal?
Bob convinces Homer to buy the much smaller RV and the Simpsons immediately head out on the open road and into the woods. After driving way too fast through the forest, the RV ends up dangling over a cliff. The family is able to escape and watch as the RV tumbles over.
We hardly knew ye.
Now stranded, Homer and Bart take off to get help while Marge and Lisa stay behind and make camp. Maggie, unbeknownst to Homer and Bart, follows them and is adopted by a pack of bears. In a parallel to the RV going over the cliff, Homer and Bart soon fall over a waterfall, losing their clothes and having to cover their nudity with mud and leaves. In the short time, they are out there, Marge and Lisa are able to build a fire and a decent-looking shelter. Meanwhile, Homer and Bart, experienced woodsman that he claims to be, fall asleep, freezing, on a log.
The next day, the boys spot a bee's nest so Homer goes to get some honey, angering the bees. He runs away to a nearby swamp and jumps in. The emerges covered in slime and mud, babbling incoherently because of the honey. Someone spots Homer, takes a picture, and is immediately assumed to be Bigfoot because why not?
Due to the possibility of Bigfoot being on the loose, Marge and Lisa are found by a park ranger who says that a Bigfoot is wandering around the woods. She is shown a picture and says that the creature is her husband. Marge then becomes a tabloid star because she married Bigfoot. Homer and Bart stumble onto the bears' cave and find Maggie so the three of them are reunited and as they approach civilization, Homer is tranquilized and captured. After a series of tests, it is inconclusive whether or not Homer is or is not Bigfoot and he is released.

Random Observations

  • This episode is another example of how "kid-friendly" the show originally started out as. I can't remember, but somewhere I read that this was the worst episode of the season but that was just someone's opinion. Burger King toys were made of the Simpsons in their camping clothes and the episode was reportedly very popular. As the series continued, some critics wondered if this episode would even be made or even thought of in the later seasons.
  • This was my first experience with car salesmen and my opinion of them haven't really gotten any better.
  • I love Yeardley Smith's reading of "The Simpsons have entered the forest."
  • This is the first episode that has Maggie offer up her pacifier in order to satiate an angry animal.
  • The tabloid headlines about Marge are pretty good.
  • "The guys at work are going to have a field day over this." -Homer (to Marge, as they watch news about him being Bigfoot)
  • Even with substantial and invasive tests, the scientists still can't determine if Homer is human, a primate or something in-between.

FREDERICK RENKER

1847 - 1902
------
MARIA
HIS WIFE

1856 - 1901


Rochester Cemetery, Topeka, Soldier Township, Shawnee County, Kansas

Monday, February 08, 2016


West Side:
SETH S. ARNOLD
------
DIED

Sep. 27, 1872

Aged

53 Yrs. 3 Mos.

& 2 Days.

North Side:
EARL COOLEY

DIED

Sep. 3, 1872

Aged

48 Yrs.&12Ds.

------

South Side:
ELIABETH
S. ARNOLD
------
DIED
Apr. 11, 1893
AGED
66 Yrs.2 Mo.
&26Ds.



Oak Ridge Cemetery, Perry, Kentucky Township, Jefferson County, Kansas

Friday, February 05, 2016


CARRIE A.
Wife of
A.A. BENSON
Daughter of
J.H. & E.J. SAYLER
Born at Douds
Station, Iowa
Oct. 14, 1863
DIED
Apr. 16, 1890

"I go to prepare
a place for you."

"Shed not for her the bitter tear.
Nor give the heart to vain regret.
'Tis but the casket that lies here.
The gem that filled it sparkles yet."



Oak Ridge Cemetery, Perry, Kentucky Township, Jefferson County, Kansas