January 2022

G. Larry Larkin and Margaret Ann (Marge) Pahlman recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

If you ask Rick Hummerickhouse how he got his start in law enforcement, he’d say he owed it all to his stepfather, Lewis Ashcraft. Hummerickhouse first met Ashcraft when he was in his late teens. Lewis was about ten years older than his three stepsons, but “he seemed like he was older” than his late 20’s, said Hummerickhouse, who now resides in Olathe. Ashcraft served as Franklin County Sheriff from 1973 to 1975, and his lifetime of public servitude made him friends all over Kansas.

The City of Ottawa and Ottawa University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will be livestreamed this year due to COVID-19, but it will still be jampacked with speakers, song and reflection on the Civil Rights Movement leader’s lasting legacy.

Due to an increase in positive cases in the area, Neosho County Community College will be requiring masks to be worn in indoor spaces starting January 14. Masks were previously only required in labs and classrooms, but they are now required at indoor sporting events, hallways and offices.