The Range hits the century mark today. This is our 100th show since we launched on January 17th of last year. We’ve covered a lot of ground since then. We’ve introduced you to a host of interesting people and visited places across our state.
To commemorate our milestone, we decided to talk with some Wichitans who also have covered a lot of ground. All three were born in 1921, 100 years ago.
Warren Harding was president then and the country was trying to move on from World War I, which had ended three years earlier.
In Wichita that year, Walt Anderson and Billy Ingram opened the first White Castle hamburger stand. And in southeast Kansas, 7,000 women – nicknamed the Amazon Army by the New York Times – marched in support of striking coal miners.
Two of the Wichitans we interviewed for this show served in World War II. One pursued a life in aviation after taking his first plane ride in 1936.
All three raised families. All have experienced joy and grief.
We talked with Evelyn Ellis, Jay McLeod and Mary Cummings about a number of things, including falling in love.