Larry
I'm sorry to say we will not be able to make the picnic. All my classes will be in secession and I have no one to fill in for me. I hope that you will tell everyone hello from this old fellow and give them all my very best wishes.
My wife, Marilyn and I, just celebrated our 42nd anniversary and have our first grandson, James David Mack, born April 25th, 2010, to my son David Gordon Mack and his bride, Susy, of 6 year. Marilyn still works for LAPD as a Captain's secretary and I am a professosr of Geology and Oceanography at Cal State University at Los Angeles and Harbor College. We both love our work, so retirement is not in our plans for the near future. We would love to travel but work and our new grandson will curtail those plans for a few years. I'm sending a few photo if anyone is interested.
Thank you so much for all your work in keep all of us in the know. I was so sad to hear about Vicky Bill. Please continue to keep me in the loop, I really do appreciate it.
Sincerely,
John and Marilyn Mack
Vyck Shanes Dies
Vyck B. Shanes , 66, passed away July 11, 2010, at his home. Memorial services will be 11 AM Thursday at One Spirit Methodist Church, 7900 Blue Ridge Blvd, KCMO. In lieu of flowers the family suggests contributions to the Church or Heartland Hospice.Vyck was born June 14, 1944, in Ottawa, Ks. and graduated from Emporia State University with a business administration degree. He was united in marriage to Patricia Magers August 30, 1974. Vyck was an avid KU sports fan and enjoyed employment with Hy-Vee. He was preceded in death by his parents William and Agatha Shanes and is survived by his wife Patricia Shanes of the home, two stepsons Edward G. Carnoali (Jean), and Jeff Carnoali, his sister Verdine Martin (Richard). He is also survived by four beloved grandchildren: Johnathon, Mary, Mica and Makenna Carnoali.
FLOYD EUGENE ‘GENE’ MITCHELL JR.
Floyd Eugene “Gene” Mitchell Jr., 66, Baldwin City, died Monday, April 19, 2010, at his home. Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the New Life Community Church, 17935 Moonlight Road, Gardner.
He was born Nov. 20, 1943, in Ottawa to Floyd Eugene and Irene Ann (Arnold) Mitchell.
He grew up in Ottawa and graduated from Ottawa High School in 1961. In June of that same year, he married Virginia Lee Hunter in Ottawa. They divorced.
He opened Baldwin Floor Covering in 1967, Wellsville Floor Covering in 1972 and Mitchell’s Floor Covering in Ottawa in 1994. He owned and operated his businesses until January of 2007 when his health no longer permitted him to do so.
On Feb. 24, 2007, he married Louise Kuhnen. She survives of the home.
He had been in the Baldwin area since 1976. He was a member of the New Life Community Church in Gardner, the National Studebaker Club, the Avanti Association and several smaller Studebaker Clubs. He loved his cars and recreational vehicles, being outdoors, but above all, he loved and adored his family.
He will be truly missed by all those who knew him and were blessed by his presence in their lives.
Other survivors include a son and his wife, Danny and Carla Mitchell, Edgerton; daughter and her husband, Tiffany and Darren Reeves, Baldwin City; son, Wade Mitchell, Baldwin City; stepchildren, Bob Kuhnen, Texas, Deb Land, Gardner, Amy Clark, Gardner, and Sherri Meadows, Texas; a sister, Juanita Schump, Baldwin City; a brother, Terry Mitchell, Ottawa; 18 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents.
Visitation will be 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the church. Burial will follow services in the Wellsville Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Network and sent in care of Wilson’s Funeral Home, PO Box 486, Wellsville KS 66092.
Monday, October 05, 2009 9:56 PM
Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Herald
Ottawa native Orlis Cox was inducted Sunday night into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. Janet Gleichman, left, Piper, and Joyce Ensley, Atlanta, Kan., two of Cox’s daughters, accepted the honor at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in Wichita on their father’s behalf.
Orlis Cox joins Kansas hall of fame
By The Herald Staff
WICHITA — Orlis Cox was a modest man, his daughter said.
Joyce Ensleym, Atlanta, Kan., spoke fondly of her late father, a man whose legendary coaching in Ottawa earned him a spot Sunday in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in Wichita.
“He probably wouldn’t have thought that people thought of him that much,” Ensleym said.
“He would have been honored,” Janet Gleichman, Piper, another of Cox’s daughters, added.
Ensleym and Gleichman were among 17 family members who attended the hall of fame ceremony Sunday honoring Cox. The coach’s other living daughter, Dar Welborn, Estes Park, Colo., was not present at the event.
“He would be very pleased to know his grandchildren were here,” Gleichman said.
Cox earned recognition after coaching the 1933 Ottawa High School relay team to a national championship over Jesse Owens. His daughters, however, said the achievement wasn’t something their father boasted about.
“He never really talked about it,” Ensleym said. “We knew about it, but I don’t think we really understood what it meant until after he passed away.
“He didn’t revolve his life around it.”
Cox also was the first director of the Ottawa Recreation Commission and many of his doctrines were incorporated by other recreation commissions throughout the state. The Orlis Cox Sports Complex in Ottawa is named in his honor.
Despite the obvious impact he had on the city, Cox’s daughters said the coach didn’t necessarily see himself as a community leader — though he did take his role seriously.
“He felt that he had a responsibility to Ottawa,” Ensleym said. “When you live somewhere for that long (1929-1988), you have some connection to it.”
That responsibility and connection translated into long hours coaching and working with the ORC.
“With all he did, he wasn’t home a lot,” Gleichman said. “When he was home, he made family the focus.”
“Growing up I didn’t realize what he did for the community. He was just our dad,” Ensleym said.
So what made Cox tick?
“Family and sports,” Ensleym said.
Her sister agreed.
“Sports was his passion. Family was his passion. So being at a game with family was it,” Gleichman said. “He was an exceptional man.”
“Growing up, we thought all men were like that,” Ensleym added. “He was our dad.”
Ensleym said she believes Cox used his coaching to be a father to more than just the members of her family.
“He had a son in all of his athletes,” she said.
Cox also was known for defending blacks during times of racial turmoil and working to expand the recreation opportunities available to them.
“He was a strong Christian man, and he felt that everyone was equal,” Ensleym said of her father.
In the 1950s, Cox — acting as the ORC director — opened the city’s pool to blacks.
“He just felt, ‘We will have a public pool, and everyone will be a part of it,’” Gleichman said.
“He just spoke his mind,” Ensleym said.
Cox is the fifth Franklin County resident to be selected for the state hall of fame. The others are Steve Grogan, former quarterback of the New England Patriots; Dick Peters, a former Ottawa University football coach; Arthur Schabinger, a former OU basketball coach who organized the country’s first Olympic basketball tournament; and E.A. Thomas, who was superintendent of Williamsburg schools when he became the first executive secretary of the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
Joining Cox, the 2009 class includes pitcher Jesse Barnes, NFL running back Don Calhoun, Kansas basketball player Paul Endacott, sprinter Gwinn Henry, basketball player and track junior Olympian Steve Henson, inventor Ken Mahoney, Kansas football and basketball player Harold Patterson, Kansas basketball coach Ted Owens, All-American track athlete John Mason, college basketball coach Eddie Sutton, bull rider Ken Roberts and Olympians Janell Smith and Ken Swenson.
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