The Lincoln Sentinel-Republican _____________________________ Charlie Smith had a vision. He wanted to write a book about the town he grew up in. However his dream was cut short when his body was invaded by colon cancer, and his brother Harold decided to take on Charlie's wish. Charlie and Harold Smith grew up in Vesper, and went on to have careers in education and engineering, respectively. Charlie moved back to Vesper with his wife, Audry, afer retiring from teaching in the California State University system and later moved to Lincoln. Harold lives in San Diego with his wife Margaret. |
Harold told Charlie he would start on a book about Vesper, their hometown, and when Charlie recovered and healed from his illness, he could take it over. That never happened, and Harold wrote the book "A Town's Evening Song, History of Vesper, Kansas (1870-1970)" for his brother Harold began the book in 2000, and started collecting old photographs, some of which were Charlie's. He obtained historical and factual information from old editions of the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, which he researched at the Lincoln Carnegie Library during visits to Kansas. |
He talked with Emery Flaherty and his aunt Ferne Bolte for the personal and social information for his book. Some research
he did on the Internet on Web Sites for the Kansas Historical Society and Lincoln County.
Harold said he had no intention of creating a great literary work, but took on the project as a labor of love.
"Love for the town, which is almost gone, and love for my brother, who is gone," Harold said.
Harold had 250 copies of the book printed by Central Plains Book Manufacturing in Winfield, Kansas. He said one of the
objectives of the book was to help out the state of Kansas, and thought that having the book printed there would do so even more.
|
Harold paid for the cost of printing 250 copies of his book. He also printed "Photographic History of Vesper, Kansas - Then and Now"
which contains mainly photographs."
He then contacted Brenda Peterson, who is a member of the Lincoln County Historical Society as well as the President of the Vesper
Alumni Association, about donating the proceeds of the sales of "A Town's Evening Song" to the Historical Society and alumni
association.
~ Margaret and Harold Smith with his book ~
|
Peterson sold the book at the biennial meeting of Vesper alumni and the Memorial Day Monday sloppy Joe luncheon that is held
by the Vesper men's Club.
Book sales resulted in the amount of $1,600, which will go to the Vesper Men's Club, the group that maintains the Vesper Gym.
$500 was given for the gym on the night of the reunion meeting. |
The remaining books were given to the Lincoln County Historical Society, which has them for sale. The historical society will
retain the proceeds from the sale of "A Town's Evening Song", and is taking orders for the photography book.
Peterson said it was a generous donation and that Vesper was "near and dear" to his heart.
Harold said he wasn't writing the book for economic gain and that is why he wanted to donate it to the alumni association
and historical society. It was more work than he thought it was and perservered because of his brother's memory. "If it hadn't
been for a labor of love, I wouldn't have done it," Harold said. |
I sometimes find myself amazed that from that background, I have been so fortunate to have lived a life of vast experiences
My business career took me to many cities including Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City,
Washington DC, Atlanta, and Charlotte NC. Additionally, spent 3 1/2 years running a company in Tokyo Japan
I now live in Sarasota FL mostly in retirement, although I still own a business in Charlotte NC
Anyway, gosh so many memories from looking over the pictures
I recall the fabulous baseball team that you and your brother played for in about 1952 or 53
So many good players on that team and I seem to recall, one of those teams was in the State finals and lost to Silver Lake
Gerald Woody did an awful lot for Vesper as an educator and his interest in developing good baseball teams
I can still remember the starting line up for the most part... Catcher: Charles/Dale Sheldon after Charles graduated
First Base - Dean Dohe, Second Base - you (Harold); Third Base - Paul Sheldon and Dale Dohe; Short Stop - Bennie Sheldon
Left Field-- not sure, maybe Dale Dohe? ; Center Field and Right Field - memory fading on those positions
I applaud you for undertaking the project and seeing it to completion. That, as well as the monetary contributions you made
Gerry Cromwell, Class of 1961