Caption: Firefighters battle a fire Monday morning at 20780 Honeycreek, southeast of Tonganoxie. The home, owned by Janice and Jerry Newberry, was a total loss.

Death: Earl Wilborn Parsons, 90, Tonganoxie, died Dec. 18, 2002, at his home.

Community-minded resident will be missed: The city of Tonganoxie lost a great philanthropist and volunteer last week with the death of Earl Parsons. Mr. Parsons was a true friend to 4-H and to farm organizations in the county and state. He knew the value to the community of VFW Park, so he donated funds to construct the pedestrian bridge over the creek. He spent hours working with other Tonganoxie Community Historical Society members at the local historic site. (The Leavenworth County 4-H food stand was dedicated in his honor. He also donated to Rock Springs 4-H camp for construction of buildings for 4-H’ers.) Lisa Scheller, news editor of The Mirror, wrote that second grade teacher, Sara Kettler had received a letter two days after Mr. Parson’s death, that he’d written to a yet-unknown second grader he planned to correspond with throughout the year. Mr. Parsons said he had attended a one-room school, walking three-fourths of a mile to get there, and having a teacher who rode seven miles on horseback to get to school.

Birth: Jonathan and Audra Boone of Tonganoxie would like to announce the birth of their sons, Afton John and Aidan Morgan, born Dec. 9, 2002.

25 years ago: Dec. 16, 1987

On Dec. 5, 1987, Mildred Baird was honoree of the Ovid Snider Award, in the Linwood Community Building. Last years honoree, Ted Handley, was acknowledged.

Deaths: Margaret Brennan, 80, formerly of Kansas City, died Dec. 7, 1987, in Osawatomie, where she lived; Walter Scheller, 85, Tonganoxie, passed away Dec. 11, 1987; Flavia K. Thayer, 91, Lawrence, died Dec. 15, 1987.

Birth: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Greenwood, Rt. 2, Bonner Springs, announce the birth of their daughter, Gina Marguerite, Dec. 9, 1987.

The New Town Square was a happy place Saturday afternoon. Bitler’s Bar-B-Que had invited Santa and the Living Dolls to town for a visit. Santa was a success and talked with many youngsters. The Living Dolls were amazingly perfect in their doll-like motions and costumes. They are from the Brenda Graves Dance Company and will be touring many places in the nation this year.

Christmas decorations are put in place downtown by Wayne Vestal, Larry Vestal and Harold Putthoff. Also helping with the trimmings are John Reischman, Kathy and Bobby Jo Cline.

50 years ago: Jan. 3, 1963

Tammy Marihugh, the young actress with a Tonganoxie connection, will appear in “Twilight Zone” on Channel 5 this evening. (Thursday.)

Deaths: Wilbur R. Schmidt, 56, a rural mail carrier for 23 years, died Tuesday at his home in McLouth; Ralph B. Karr of Kincaid and Samoset, Fla., died Dec. 29, 1963 in Samoset at the age of 73; Mrs. Ruth Klinkenberg, 68, rural Tonganoxie, a retired Leavenworth county school teacher, died Friday night.

Basehor on Upswing: Improvements at Basehor included the new St. Patrick’s Catholic Church; Southwestern Bell’s new micro-wave tower, two miles southwest; a new high school to be located west of south Basehor on 40 acres at a cost of $358,000.

Linwood: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eaton announce the birth of a son Dec. 19.

Thank You: A very special thank you to everyone who made this holiday season a very merry one for our residents. — Truitt Nursing Home.

75 years ago: Dec. 9, 1937

Basehor, Dec. 7: Ernest F. Eberth, 77, a prominent retired farmer of Basehor and a resident of this county for nearly 60 years, died Monday after a short illness. (Mr. Eberth was born in Germany Nov. 29, 1860, and came to this country while a young man. He was one of the early settlers of Basehor.

Tuesday morning while shooting at a coyote with a 16-gauge shot gun, Virgil Carlyle’s gun exploded, causing it to backfire. Besides a broken gun, he suffered the loss of two teeth and an injured hand. — Neely

Oskaloosa: The people of Jefferson County have the opportunity to honor the man who is doubtless at this time her most distinguished son, John Steuart Curry. Mr. Curry was selected by the state’s Murals Commission to decorate the capital building with murals telling the story of Kansas, the selection being made both because he is one of the ablest living American artists and because his rearing on a Kansas farm has made him a bold and daring, but truthful interpreter of the Kansas scene. — Independent

You can hardly blame Lindbergh (Charles) for some of his resentment toward photographers. After all, a man ought to be able to blow his nose or scratch his neck in public without having photographs of it spread on newspapers from one end of the country to another.

With work on the farm slack, farmers in southeast Leavenworth County have been given some employment with the erection of a new $50,000 high school at  Basehor. The school will be modern and fireproof. Thee are to be six classrooms, including laboratories and a combined auditorium and gymnasium. The construction will be of brick and steel. — Kansas City Times

100 years ago: Dec. 19, 1912

A Streak of Bad Luck: A fall of 30 feet from a silo a year ago, and a toss in the air by a bull two months ago, did not finish out Frank Fairchild’s streak of bad luck, for last Sunday while cranking his automobile he had his right wrist broken. This is the first automobile accident of the kind around here, though it is by no means an unusual accident to auto drivers. Mr. Fairchild intended to crank up the machine, and instead of going forward the engine went backward and caught him on the wrist. The bone was broken just above the wrist joint. (Mr. Fairchild had been dairying for about 30 years, and never met with an accident until the fall from the silo.)

J.R. Perkins died in Leavenworth Saturday night at the age of 82 years. Mr. Perkins once had a dry goods store in Tonganoxie with his son, Ross. (Perkins and Son.)

The Mirror is compelled to issue 12 pages, but does not like too much work.

Ed H. Cox went to McLouth Monday to attend the funeral of Walker Babb, an old resident of this county, who was born and raised at Springdale.

S.P. Haas attended the funeral of his sister, Mrs.  Julia Warden in Kansas City this week. Mrs. Warden died of heart failure Monday. She was born and raised in the neighborhood southeast of town.

Our only fear of a woman in the president’s cabinet is that she would put scalloped paper on its shelves.