Missouri Life February/March 2013

[ 88 PLACES TO GO

SIX TEAHOUSES]

THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

40 YEARS OF COVERS

LINCOLN’S

The Presid Missourei nt’s Women

LOVES MISSOURI FRENCH PRESERVING THIS ALMOST EXTINCT DIALECT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ST. LOUIS MASTERPIECE

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On The Lake of the Ozarks F o r r e s e r v a t i o n s c a l l 8 8 8 . 2 6 5 . [3] 5 5February 0 0 o r 2013 v i s i t w w w. 4 S e a s o n s R e s o r t. c o m 003 ML0213.indd 3

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Contents FEBRUARY 2013

Celebrating 40 Years [36] 40 COVERS

This year marks the fortieth birthday for Missouri Life.

featured >

[22] MO MUSIC Three brothers unite to create the punk-rock sounds of the St. Joseph band Radkey.

We kick off the year’s celebration by showcasing a cover from every year the magazine has existed.

[24] MISSOURI ARTIST Quilting takes on a new meaning for modern quilter Angela Walters in Kearney.

[58] SHOW-ME FLAVOR Take a break from the hectic pace of life with six peaceful teahouses in Missouri.

[74] INSPIRING PEOPLE For two Missouri musicians, comforting the sick is the passion behind their work as harp therapists.

[78] SHOW-ME HOMES

special features >

A Frank Lloyd Wright home in Ebsworth Park creates harmony between human habitation and nature.

[32] PHOTO CONTEST Find out about our first-ever photo contest, including the grand prize from our sponsor Mpix.

[38] MISSOURI FRENCH

[83] PRESERVING MISSOURI The Friends of the James Farm in Kearney preserved

The Old Mines area of Missouri preserves our state’s unique French dialect.

the run-down family farm of Jesse James.

[44] PRAIRIE HOME COMPANIONS

[89] MUSINGS ON MISSOURI

In the town of Butler, you’ll find Civil War history, scrumptious hot rolls, and hardworking people worth meeting.

[48] LINCOLN’S MISSOURI GIRLFRIENDS

On the joys of howling at the moon.

state. Meet plantation belle Mary Owens, small-town teenager Sarah Rickard, and urban aristocrat Mary Todd.

special section >

[54] WACKY MUSEUMS

Think you know how your juicy steak got to your

President Abraham Lincoln might belong to Illinois, but three of his love interests had strong connections to our

[68] MO BEEF

Visit a museum dedicated to the historic art of hair weaving, a museum that pays homage to vacuums, another

plate? Learn how beef goes from pasture to plate

that illustrates the unsettling past of a psychiatric hospital, a chemical warfare museum, and an odditorium.

with this handy visual guide.

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Contents

22, 54, 58 66 24, 83 48 58, 66 66 30, 54 48 48 58 30, 48 58 58 74, 78 20, 44 58 38 19 54 19 54 30, 74 20 54 19

FEBRUARY 2013

departments >

[10] MISSOURI MEMO

Viandel Vineyard in Mountain View, and a new

The story of Missouri Life: a celebration of twists

Missouri State Parks historic site near Butler.

Content by Location

of fate and God’s blessings.

[26] SHOW-ME BOOKS

[14] LETTERS

Wildlife photographer Noppadol Paothong’s

A search for cranberry salad, praise for Ron

Save the Last Dance, capturing more than a

[66] DINING WORTH THE DRIVE

Marr, the “Missour-ee” vs. “Missouri-uh” battle

decade of grassland grouse mating rituals.

A charming cafe in Augusta, inventive sushi in

continues, helpful ads for a new Missourian, St.

Plus, books on the Missouri State Penitentiary,

Liberty, and farm-fresh food in Stanberry.

Louis newsstands, and more.

Germans in St. Louis, and more.

[19] MO MIX

[30] MADE IN MISSOURI

Cozy log cabins at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale,

Japanese-inspired textiles from Springfield,

a landmark gas station in De Soto, a disputed U.S.

sweet jams from Independence, and nature-

[106] MISSOURIANA

population center at Tebbetts, a scenic winery at

inspired needlepoint from Columbia.

Lincoln’s loves, long beards, and a broken heart.

[91] ALL AROUND MISSOURI Our listing of 88 places to go and things to do.

– THIS ISSUE –

On the Web www.MissouriLife.com

Sign up for Missouri Lifelines, our free e-newsletter, and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MissouriLife or on Twitter @MissouriLife.

“Cat and Mouse” >

TUNE INTO St. Joseph band Radkey’s single, “Cat and Mouse.” Brothers Isaiah, Solomon, and Dee will have you jamming in no time at all.

on the cover>

LINCOLN’S MISSOURI GIRLFRIENDS Few people know President Abraham

c’est bon d’vous dzire >

Lincoln courted three women with

MISSOURI FRENCH lives on in song.

48 for love stories about Mary Owens,

Listen to two Missouri French experts sing songs

Sarah Rickard, and Mary Todd.

strong ties to Missouri. Turn to page

forty years of covers >

IF THE forty covers presented on page 36 aren’t enough, head to our website for more!

T-Shirts for Sweeties!

Missouri Life T-shirts make the perfect gift for your

We’ve got every cover from our past.

valentine. Order yours at www.MissouriLife.com.

COURTESY RADKEY; KEVIN MANNING

of this vibrant culture from the Old Mines area.

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University Concert Series presents THE SPIR IT OF DISCOV ERY 501 High Street, Ste. A, Boonville, MO 65233 660-882-9898 | Info@MissouriLife.com

Publisher Greg Wood Editor in Chief Danita Allen Wood Executive Office Manager Amy Stapleton EDITORIAL & ART Creative Director Andrew Barton Associate Editor Lauren Licklider Associate Art Director Sarah Herrera Associate Art Director Thomas Sullivan Graphic Designer Taylor Blair Calendar Editor Amy Stapleton Copy Editor Sarah Alban Editorial Assistants Rachel Kiser, Ben Kupiszewski, Jiaxi Lu, Jenner Smith Columnists Ron W. Marr, Danny R. Phillips Contributing Writers Emily Adams, Sarah Alban, Carol Carpenter, Tina Casagrand, Heather Grant, Emily McIntyre, Richard Lawrence Miller, Sheree K. Nielsen, Jim Winnerman, Ashton Zimmerman Contributing Photographers Sarah Alban, Carol Carpenter, Karley Jones, Kevin Manning, Emily McIntyre, Sheree K. Nielsen, Jim Winnerman

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MARKETING Sales Manager Mike Kellner Senior Account Executive Tom Votrain Sales Account Executive Paula Renfrow Sales Account Executive Cathy Rodr Marketing Assistant Mary Trier

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DIGITAL MEDIA MissouriLife.com, Missouri Lifelines & Missouri eLife Editor Sarah Herrera

www.concertseries.org and at Concert Series Box Office Now conveniently located at Missouri Theatre 203 South 9th Street Downtown Columbia (573) 882-3781

TO SUBSCRIBE OR GIVE A GIFT AND MORE Use your credit card and visit MissouriLife.com or call 877-570-9898, or mail a check for $19.99 (for 6 issues) to: Missouri Life, 501 High Street, Ste. A, Boonville, MO 65233-1211.

Change address: Visit mol.magserv.com/scc.php and enter email address or your label information to access your account, or send both old and new addresses to us.

OTHER INFORMATION Custom Publishing: For your special publications, call 800-492-2593, ext. 106 or email Greg.Wood@MissouriLife.com.

Back Issues: Order from website, call, or send check for $7.50.

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Memo

MISSOURI

THE MOST IMPORTANT YEAR

40 GOING ON 15

THE STORY of Missouri Life is long. But the year 1973 is the

WHILE MISSOURI LIFE is celebrating its fortieth an-

most pivotal. That year, founder Bill Nunn began Missouri Life. It was also that year that Danita Jean Allen started college at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She entered the College of Agriculture and turned a lot of heads as a farm-fresh co-ed with and long brown hair. It was also the year that I started at MU. We both studied agricultural journalism, and I was encouraged to volunteer at the student newspaper Ag Columns.

It was in the spring of 1974 before I did.

Love and flowers were in the air as I walked across campus to check out the paper. That’s where I met the aforementioned co-ed with long legs and long hair. If it meant volunteering at the paper to get a closer look at her, then that was a small price to pay.

GREG WOOD, Unfortunately, I found out Miss PUBLISHER Danita Allen was spoken for. I had to accept she was not meant for me. But I kept up my volunteer work and in December of 1976, leaving behind Missouri and my beautiful Ag Columns co-worker. She finished her degree in 1977 and began working full-time in Columbia.

In 1981, I heard that my former college friend had moved to Des Moines and taken a job at Meredith Corporation as an editor for Successful Farming. But was she, ahem, available? I happened to be going through Des Moines, so I stopped to say “hello” and found out she had left behind the college guy but was already dating someone else.

A few months later, Danita let me know about a job opening at her magazine. Maybe she wasn’t available, but it was a great company, so I applied and got the job, and (long story short) about a year later on May 22, 1982, I married the former co-ed with the long legs and long hair. And with all the important dates and that have kept Missouri Life going all these years, there is no date that is more important than that one.

When we arrived in Missouri in 1995, there wasn’t much left of the old Missouri Life (another long story). Danita and I began talking about the possibility of reviving Missouri Life. We believed that together, we could make a magazine a profitable endeavor, have fun doing it, and maybe even do a few good things along the way. In 1999, we relaunched Missouri Life.

I believe God brought us together and us with our family and a magazine. But there is no way we could have ever started a magazine and kept it going without each other. In my mind, that day in May of 1982 is what led to this day in 2013 when we celebrate forty years of Missouri Life.

Fate and hope and love can combine into a powerful thing.

niversary this year and every issue will have something special recognizing that this is the fifteenth year Greg and I have published the magazine.

Enjoy the covers that we show you on page thirty-six. We have stories about the magazine that we’ll share later this year. But want to know the real reason we do the magazine?

It’s because Greg sold an ad. Sincerely.

Both of us had magazine careers before we came back to our home state in 1995 so our kids could be closer to grandparents and so I could teach at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

One of the student magazines I would be was Missouri. I knew it had been DANITA ALLEN WOOD, EDITOR the old Missouri Life before ownership and name changes. The magazine Bill Nunn started in 1973 had been well respected, and I was looking forward to using my experience to build and develop the magazine through the school, which had committed to providing editorial for the current owner.

When we arrived in Missouri, Greg and I spent hours talking about other state magazines, some government magazines, such as Vermont, New Mexico, Kansas, Arizona Highways, and Oklahoma Today. We also talked about those that were privately owned, such as The Iowan, Wisconsin Trails, and Mississippi. We talked about the granddaddy of all privately owned state magazines, Texas Monthly. I talked to the man who started that magazine, who cautioned me that duplicating his experience would be impossible, because he at a unique time when there were no great newspapers in Texas and because the population of Texas was three times that of Missouri. No matter, I dreamed of emulating him.

I talked to the owner of Missouri about developing his magazine further. I talked to my dean at the school. But the owner preferred not to invest in further development, and the school rightly couldn’t invest in a privately owned magazine.

Finally, Greg and I talked about all the reasons we thought a Missouri magazine could work: a decent population of more than five million at the time, our past magazine experience, and the low cost of getting into publishing. We talked about what it would take to sell subscriptions and advertising, in addition to producing the editorial. The thing is: I’d still be talking, but Greg went out and sold a full-page ad to University Hospital.

The time for talking was done, and here we are.

Today, we have almost one hundred thousand readers according to our recent circulation audit, a host of advertisers who the magazine to deliver results, and a talented staff that brings home awards every year.

We know we’ve been blessed with your support. Thanks for reading!

long legs

graduated

twists of fate

blessed

milestone,

coaching

launched

trust

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FEBRUARY 2013

LETTERS from all over You write them. We print them.

A SEARCH FOR CRANBERRY SALAD

Cranberry salad from the Missouri Sesquicentennial Cookbook was a recipe in our December 2011 issue.

The request from my son, Gail, (who receives Missouri Life magazine) to again prepare the Cranberry Salad for Thanksgiving led me on a search through my recipe cards and books looking for the Cranberry Salad recipe from page 79, December 2011, Missouri Life magazine, which I had cut out from the pages Gail had supplied to me last Christmas. When I didn’t find the recipe, I called Amy Stapleton, who supplied me with the computer link to December 2011. A lifesaver! It calmed my anxiety, and now, my family will enjoy the Cranberry Salad at our family holiday dinners. Amy, thank you so much for making my day.

—Janice Myer, Branson For more delicious recipes from our past issues, visit www.MissouriLife.com. You’ll find seasonal recipes sure to please even the pickiest of eaters. —Editors

A WISE MAN I just wanted to let someone at Missouri Life know how much my mom and I appreciated Ron Marr’s article “The Apple Tree of Liberty.” I had never read one of his articles before, but I intend to check out his older ones on your website. He is a very wise man. Thanks!

—Kenicia Coats

INFORMATIVE ADS Hello from a fairly new resident of Missouri. After reading the December 2012 issue with all the Christcomical to me because the opposite is true for me.

MISSOUR-EE VS. MISSOUR-UH?

speaking of the one that said “MISSOUR-UH” and the

I love the ads, as they inform me, a new resident of

Greetings all you wonderful people at Missouri Life.

one that said “mi-zoor’-e”.

Missouri via California, Michigan, and other areas, of

My wife and I are both from Missouri, live in Missouri,

I really don’t mind that a fair percentage of my fel-

what is offered in this state. The variety of stories is

and remain loyal to Missouri (That’s with a nice long

low Missourians (You pronounce that “mi-zoo’-ree-

very interesting also. Maybe not all are just my style,

“e” sound at the end!). We really enjoy the magazine.

uns” by the way) insist on pronouncing the name of

but no doubt it will be another person’s style. Thank

Page 66 of the December issue offered a variety of

our beloved state with an “uh!” at the end. (“Uh” is

you for the variety and good layout. And really?! Hik-

Missouri items for purchase.

what you say when you can’t remember the right

ing the Grand Canyon?! I was able to look over the

I don’t know if I am in the market for anything at

thing to say!) After all we boast a variety of dialects

edge…very nice enough. My family took the mules

the moment, but I was pleased to see it. I’ve had a

throughout the state. We can be very tolerant, even

down, and some of the younger ones hiked. More

Missouri T-shirt before and was proud to wear it. I

proud of our diversity!

power to them. Looking is enough.

think I’d like to get one again sometime, but not ei-

But when Missouri Life, the premier magazine

ther one of two particular choices you offered. I am

of the state, advertises T-shirts with only the “uh”

—Marion Meeks, Bolivar

ANDREW BARTON

mas information, the letter from Rich Behring was

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FEBRUARY 2013

pronunciation, you leave out a huge percentage

Visit www.missourilife.com/articles/mizuree-or-

I subscribed to this magazine after reading it in a

of your fellow Missourians and, no doubt, a huge

mizuruh/ to learn the history of the Missouri-uh

doctor’s office in Springfield. I love it!! It’s all about

percentage of your readership! I would not be sur-

pronunciation. —Editors

us, our way of life, and our values. Shows great

prised if some of our otherwise mild-mannered

events and places you’ll definitely want to see. One

Missourians got downright offended and upset at

MISSING SCHOOLS

the blatant disregard of their own very correct and

I enjoy reading your magazine, but was a bit dis-

proper pronunciation. I do not expect anyone to rise

mayed that Missouri State University was over-

up in arms over this error.

of a very few magazines I like to read cover to cover.

—Sharlene Greear

looked in the current issue’s “Which School is

Correction: Stone Hill Winery in Hermann revived the

I suspect you will get few e-mails about this.

Best?” Missouri does have many wonderful col-

Riesling grape in Missouri, planting five acres in 1974.

As demonstrated in our last round of campaigns and

leges, and, yes, I am an alumni of MSU. That being

The winery made wine from the grapes until 1992, but

elections, Missourians do not get overly agitated at

said, other than the box mentions of Greek Life

because the grapes are prone to rot, the last of its bot-

each other. We always try to speak of one another

and ROTC, one of the top colleges in the state was

tles were sold in 1994.

with kindness and understanding even when people

not even mentioned. Springfield has several fan-

on the other side are being as contrary as a Missouri

tastic colleges and is a wonderful city. I hope to see

mule. I felt it was important that someone speak up

something mentioned about them in the future.

for the many fine folks in our state who were left out.

SEND US A LETTER

—Becky Sisemore, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Now I know that any omission on your part was purely unintentional. I suspect you are already gath-

FROM OUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS

ering around the water cooler discussing how you

Where can you purchase Missouri Life magazine

Email:

can rectify this situation. This pleases me greatly. I

in St. Louis County?

Fax:

would not be so bold as to ask you to change the ad

—John Hoffmeister

in the magazine, but then again, being the true Mis-

We are on newsstands in Dierbergs, Walmart, Barnes

sourians that you are, I know that you will not be

and Noble, the airport, and other newsstands. Or if

content with anything less than to SHOW ME!

you’d like to call 660-882-9898, we can look up the

—Lonie Eatherton, Fenton

Address:

precise outlet closest to you. —Editors

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Upcoming Events FEBRUARY 18 Mexico Polar Plunge KIWANIS LAKE www.mexicomissouri.net | 573-581-2100 MARCH 21-24 "The Choice" Easter Musical PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592 APRIL 18-21 "Leaving Iowa" PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592 APRIL 27 Young Musician Showcase PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592

Mexico is a perfect combination of small town charm and urban style. Artsy boutiques, jewelry, quilt shops, scrapbooking, antiques and cultural offerings give Mexico a sophisticated air, but with a family-friendly attitude. Come visit us today!

Visit These Local Sites

MEXICO AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE We work hard as a Chamber of Commerce to be the pulse of the community, assisting all to provide services that will nurture and encourage our businesses and strengthen our community. www.mexico-chamber.org |573-581-2765 Tour the AUDRAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Tues.-Sat. 10 AM-4 PM and Sun. 1 PM-4 PM www.audrain.org | 573-581-3910

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MISSOURI MILITARY ACADEMY is one of the premier all-boy private military boarding schools in the country. MMA has an impressive record of college admission and thousands of accomplished alumni who have assumed positions of authority in business, finance, education, the arts and the military. Its structured program creates a learning environment that promotes academic excellence and character development. We stress the time-honored values of honor, integrity, perseverance and duty.

We prepare young men for college and life by creating a venue that challenges cadets to unlock their inner potential. www.mis sourimilitaryacademy.org | 888-564-6662

PRESSER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Our mission is to inspire, entertain, and educate people in the arts by providing the finest venue, productions, and programs.

We also serve as a resource and gathering place for this and surrounding communities. www.presserpac.com | 573-581-5592

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MO MIX

De Soto

HISTORIC GAS STATION SURVIVES WHEN TODD MAHN bought De Soto’s historic 1930s Texaco station from the Datillo

Ridgedale

A Home in the Woods YOU DON’T have to travel high up in the mountains to experience a cozy vacation in a

family in 2007, he planned on bulldozing the worn-down gas station to make room for a parking lot. He needed the extra parking space for the funeral home he owned, Mahn Funeral Home, across the street from the station. But Todd had a change of heart. “My son Daniel was only seven, but he asked me to keep it,” he says. “People have been stopping for thirty years to take photos,” says Tom Datillo, whose family owned the station from the 1930s until they sold it to Todd. Today, the station has been renovated to its 1930s-era appearance, while Todd still has a parking lot minus the few spaces the station occupies. “Everyone is happy,” he says.

Because of funerals, Todd cannot allow groups to plan ahead to congregate at the station, but the tradition to stop for photos continues when the lot is free. “We have had every type of car club stop to take pictures,” Todd says. “It has also become a favorite backdrop for wedding photos.” —Jim Winnerman

log cabin during the chilly winter months. Instead,

Tebbetts

visit Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale. The resort

Disputed Population Center

offers eighty-one log cabins that are nestled in the woods or situated on shimmering Table Rock Lake. There are five different sizes of cabins, ranging from a one-bedroom option to a family-style cabin, so it’s easy to fit any size party under the

FOR THE population center of the United States, the point at which you could stick

vaulted ceilings. When resort owner Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, was first planning

a finger under a map and the weight of the country’s entire population would perfectly

these unique getaways, he took great care to ensure that no cabin could be seen by any neighbor-

balance, the Census Bureau would point to Plato, a small town in Texas County, Missouri.

ing cabins, general manager Debbie Bennett says.

COURTESY BIG CEDAR LODGE; JIM WINNERMAN; THINKSTOCK.COM

As such, the accommodations offer the ultimate

Michigan’s Grand Valley State University mathematics professors Edward Aboufadel

seclusion experience. Visitors will feel as if they are the only ones enjoying the resort’s more than

and David Austin say otherwise. Still in Missouri but 120 miles north of Plato, less-than-

eight hundred acres in the heart of the rugged Ozark Mountains . Each cabin comes with a full

eighty-person Tebbetts steals the honor, the two contend. The discrepancy comes from

kitchen along with a private deck with a gas grill.

Visitors don’t even need to worry about bringing

the types of maps used to determine the population

their own food. The resort supplies Backyard Baskets for purchase, which include a choice of

center. The Census Bureau used a flat map but the

hotdogs, burgers, steak, or chicken, as well as sides and dessert. Each cabin also has a whirlpool bath

professors used a three-dimensional one. “People

and a fireplace, making it easy for visitors to find a home in woods. —Rachel Kiser

were not being weighted evenly,” Edward says. “We

www.bigcedar.com 1-800-BCLODGE

thought we could do it better.”—Ben Kupiszewski

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MO MIX

Mountain View

LONG LIVE THE VINES FOR CATHY AND JON Smith, who own Viandel Vineyard in Mountain View, wine is more than what sits on a shelf; it’s a family affair. They found owning a

winery was something they could do for the rest of their lives and something their children and grandchildren could be a part of.

“The vines will last longer than we will, and it’s something our whole family has had a hand in,” Cathy says. Owning a winery is a departure from both Cathy’s and Jon’s other careers; she was a school teacher and he worked in manufacturing. It wasn’t until a friend shared grapevines he had left over from his recently planted vineyard that the couple found the foundation for their family business.

What initially started as eight

grapevines has now grown into nearly five acres of grapes with Cathy managing the viticulture and Jon the enology.

They have transformed a farmhouse into a tasting room, and a former apple market is now the winery’s office. Nestled near the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the winery provides a relaxing atmosphere for locals and travelers. A crackling fire warms the air in chillier months while a fountain and patio provide a calming ambience on warmer days. With the sound of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers flowing nearby, visitors can tuck themselves into the Ozark woodlands and enjoy a glass of Missouri-produced wine. —Rachel Kiser www.viandel.com

Butler Reenactor 1st Sgt. Thomas Gregory, Harrisonville

First Battle for AfricanAmerican Soldiers QUIET AND REMOTE, Island Mound Hill near Butler is the first time and place African-American soldiers fought during the Civil War. Missouri State Parks honored the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry by commemorating the area as the Battle of Island Mound Historic Site on October 27, 2012, two days before the battle’s 150th anniversary. From October 27 to 29, 1862, the 1st Kansas erate guerillas operating nearby. The infantry left to fight from a commandeered home-turned-fort they dubbed Fort Africa. The fighting intensified on the last day, when the guerillas attacked Fort Africa. Although outnumbered, the infantry drove the guerillas back, and the guerillas ultimately abandoned their nearby camp. “The actions of the men at Island Mound dispelled the notion that black men were inferior,” says Bill Bryan, director of Missouri State Parks. The struggle at Island Mound was ahead of the rest of the nation as African Americans were not yet emancipated or thought of as soldiers. In addition to viewing a memorial remembering the battle, site visitors can read interpretive panels detailing the background and history of the skirmish while hiking Courage Trail, which is 0.6 miles long. There is a pavilion and other areas set aside for picnicking and recreation. —Ben Kupiszewski

www.mostateparks.com/park/battle-island-moundstate-historic-site

COURTESY VIANDEL VINEYARD AND MISSOURI STATE PARKS

Infantry, made up of 225 soldiers, engaged in several skirmishes combating Confed-

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MISSOURI

Music

From left: Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke are inspired by bands such as The Who, Misfits, Death, and Nirvana. They have played two summers in a row at Afro-Punk Festival in Brooklyn.

BAND OF BROTHERS ONE COULD say the St. Joseph band Radkey has its roots firmly planted in the fertile, creative ground of jealousy. You see, Radkey is a band of brothers (Dee, Isaiah, and Solomon Radke), and as we all know, brothers do not always like to share their toys.

“Dee was using my bass for another gig, and it made me mad,” Isaiah says. “I was like, ‘Hey, let’s start a band so I can play it.’ Dee and I had started so many bands in the past that never lasted past two weeks. But this one wound up sticking.”

There have been many fine moments in this band’s two years of sticking together. There was the show they opened for punk/funk groundbreakers Fishbone (Radkey’s first show). Or when they were invited to play at the Afro-Punk Festival in Brooklyn this past summer for the second year in a row. Ryan Smith of The Melismatics recently asked them to record at Minneapolis’s legendary Flowers Studios, and Radkey is also recording a few songs and a video at Wreckroom Records in New York, owned by actor Adrian Grenier of HBO’s Entourage.

Dee is lead vocalist and guitarist, Isaiah handles the bass, and Solomon, the youngest and most introverted of the group, takes his place behind the drums.

“I tried guitar,” Solomon says, “but it was impossible, so Dee taught me how to play drums. It was the only thing left.”

Blending influences as far-reaching as Nirvana, Bad Brains, Thin Lizzy, The Misfits, and the late-1970s Detroit punk band Death,

Radkey has created a sound that is both familiar and fresh. A hit around the region with punks, hard rock fans, and garage rockers, Radkey has steadily built a following through its high-energy shows, word-ofmouth publicity, and fantastic first single, “Irrationally Yours.”

The Radkes take this band very seriously. They approach their chosen vocation as a chef approaches fresh ingredients or a writer attacks a keyboard. The boys constantly practice, play shows from St. Joe to Lawrence, Kansas (where they recently headlined with garage rock band Scruffy & The Janitors at The Jackpot Saloon), and write songs that have become better and more advanced as the members and the band mature and experience life.

This next year will be pivotal for these likeable, levelheaded rockers as they approach local rock-star status and put the final changes on their first full-length record, tentatively titled Radmatic. There is more than the binding of brotherhood working here; there is an air around them that seems to signal their future, one they all agree will be experienced together.

“I can’t imagine being in a band without them,” Dee says. “We’ll always be in a band together. That’s just the way it is.”

Taking the music world by storm with your brothers by your side?

There isn’t anything better.

Visit www.MissouriLife.com to hear Radkey’s song, “Cat and Mouse.” www.reverbnation.com/radkey

COURTESY RADKEY

St. Joseph punk band Radkey releases its first album. BY DANNY R. PHILLIPS

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www.thebenttree.com www.stacyleigh.etsy.com

We give workshops! Call for information: 573-242-3200

Bent Tree Gallery The

Natural & Organic Body Care Family Owned over 30 years in business Osceola, MO • www.eveningshadefarms.com

Rustic Furniture, Handcrafted Handbags, Fiber H I S T O R I C C L A R K S V I L L E M I S S O U R I Art & Baskets

NATURAL ANTLER-HANDLED LETTER OPENER Features original, hand-etched scrimshaw. Choose a springtime-fresh design: cardinal, hummingbird, dogwood, or rose. $25.00, plus $5.00 s/h

Manitou Studio A gallery of fine crafts in clay and fiber.

302 Columbia Street, Rocheport, MO 573-698-4011 ∙ www.preusceramics.com

Check/Money Order/Visa/MasterCard 31 High Trail, Eureka, MO 63025 • www.StoneHollowStudio.com

MACAA.net Your connection to Missouri’s community arts agencies, artists and arts events!

Artists: Click on the

icon to list yourself on Missouri’s Creative Artist Resource Directory. It’s FREE!

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MISSOURI

Artist

THE MODERN QUILTER MISSOURI HAS deep roots in the history of quilting, from pioneer days to today’s pioneers in the modern quilting movement. Angela Walters is one of these pioneer designers and has reenvisioned how quilters think about crafting modern quilts.

Angela, who lives in Kearney, started quilting ten years ago when her grandfather, a quilter, suggested she purchase a long-arm quilting machine. “Like most people, I was terrible at first, but Grandpa had more than twenty quilt tops for me to practice on,” she says. “Nine months later when I finished his quilts, I started quilting professionally.

I found my artistic voice in quilting and couldn’t make my own tops fast enough.”

Angela spent years creating traditional quilts. But in 2009, Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio owner, Shea Henderson, urged her to attend the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

Quilt after quilt was different than anything Angela had ever seen before. The quilts were boldly colored and looked like

they could fit into a house designed by Ray and Charles Eames, well-known modernist designers.

“When I attended that first meeting, modern quilting was so different from what I had seen, I wasn’t even sure if I liked it,” Angela says. “I didn’t realize there was an entire quilting movement going on online and that Kansas City was a major hub of a growing international modern quilting movement. As each person showed their quilts, I could not stop thinking of the different ways to quilt each quilt. It was so different than the traditional quilts I had done before. The design challenge was inspiring to me and made me look at the quilting design process from a new perspective.”

Modern quilters approach quilts in a different way. The design process is central to the quilt, and they use compositional elements, such as minimalism, asymmetry, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work, to bring quilts into the twenty-first century. Angela took the quilting

techniques she learned in traditional quilting and started to apply it in a way that appealed to modern quilters.

One modern quilter took note of Angela’s talent. After Jacquie Gering, founder of The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild, finished selecting fabric and piecing it together for a spider-web block quilt, she was ready to hire someone to quilt the top to the batting and backing. Jacquie had opinions, inspirations, and a strong idea of how she wanted it quilted by Angela.

“Working with Angela on the Tin Ceiling quilt was the first time I realized the importance of quilting as an additional design layer,” Jacquie says. “Angela taught me through that process of how to consider and combine both the piecing and my vision for the finished quilt to make decisions about the quilting. I think we both realized through that experience that the possibilities were only limited by our creativity and neither of us had to settle for what had been done before.”

For Angela, the experience was also

COURTESY BRIANA GRAY

Angela Walters redefines the art of quilting. BY HEATHER GRANT

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COURTESY TULA PINK AND ANGELA WALTERS

Projects pieced together by other quilters are quilted

by Angela Walters. (From top) Space Dust, pieced by Tula Pink. Untitled. Tin Ceiling, pieced by Jacquie Gering.

enlightening. “Jacquie’s quilt was a tremendous turning point for my artistic path; it was a revelation for me,” Angela says. “It made me focus my work on the design process.”

Angela grew as a quilter and artist with Tin Ceiling. She realized quilting could be an artistic collaboration between two people and still maintain each person’s creative voice.

Today, she finds time to quilt when her three children are asleep, quilting late at night in her studio for many internationally renowned quilters, including fabric and quilt designer Tula Pink of Stewartsville, Missouri.

With her unique vision and approach to quilting design, Angela has gained international recognition and a following in the modern quilt world. And with two books, an online crafting class, and several quilts at the premier International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, Angela is bringing Missouri quilting to an international audience. www.quiltingismytherapy.com

“Like most people, I was terrible at first, but Grandpa had more than twenty quilt tops for me to practice on.”

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SHOW-ME

Books SAVING THE LAST DANCE A photographer captures the unique mating dance of prairie grouse.

BY RACHEL KISER

The sharp-tailed grouse (top) and the greater prairie chicken (bottom) were two of seven species documented in Save the Last Dance, photographed by Noppadol.

make. They just want to get the pretty picture. I talked to a lot of biologists to find out when the best time to photograph them was, where to photograph them, and that’s the most important part of the project. I had a lot of biologists who were helping me locate this area where the birds are.”

Joel had been around prairie chickens, the grouse species the book was originally going to center around, for more than fifty years and is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Joel and Noppadol met through a mutual contact who told Joel that Noppadol was looking for a writer.

“I learned a lot more about these grassland grouse,” Joel says. “I thought I knew just about everything about prairie chickens, but I even learned things about them.”

Although Noppadol was initially going to photograph only prairie chickens, he says the more he thought about it, the more he felt obligated to cover all species of grassland grouse.

The book comprises information about seven species, including the prairie chicken, a oncecommon bird that lived in North-American

Noppadol Paothong spent ten years documenting the habits and mating rituals of prairie grouse. Today, he is a staff photographer for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

prairies; sage grouse, the largest grouse in North America; and sharp-tailed grouse, one of the larger species of grouse.

In order to witness all these species, especially their mating dance, Noppadol traveled to fourteen states, mostly in the Midwest, and covered some eighty thousand miles. When he started his trips a decade ago, gas was ninetynine cents per gallon.

Because grouse species are declining, it took coordination in order for Noppadol to be able to find these birds to get the best photographs. The grouse perform a spring courtship from March to May, the ideal time to capture their presence, Noppadol says.

For most of the year, they hide in the grass and are nearly impossible to find. However, grouse use the same area as their courtship location each year, which made it easy for the biologists tracking these birds and their mating rituals via GPS to tell Noppadol where to go and when. (Continues)

COURTESY NOPPADOL PAOTHONG

THE WORLD can change a lot in a decade. Ten years ago, the Space Shuttle Columbia was still in commission, New Orleans’s levy system was still intact, and the dictionary didn’t recognize “google” as a verb.

For photographer Noppadol Paothong, ten years means more; it was ten years ago that he started his decade-long research project on the declining species of Native-American grassland grouse.

His newly published book, Save the Last Dance, is a culmination of this research and presents readers the grouses’ story through Noppadol’s photographs and writer Joel Vance’s words.

At the beginning of the project, Noppadol was working at a newspaper in Joplin and already had a strong background in wildlife photography. He likes animals, he says, and had been photographing them since he was a child—he was a natural fit for the undertaking.

“When I photograph something, I really get into a learning mode,” he says. “I did a lot of research and reading to understand these birds. That’s a mistake wildlife photographers

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Merit, Not Sympathy, Wins The Life and Times of Blind Boone Edited by Mary Collins Barile and Christine Montgomery

RIDE ALONG WITH THE KING

John William “Blind” Boone, an illiterate, itinerant musician, overcame obstacles created by disability, exploitative managers, and racial prejudice to become one of the country’s most beloved concert performers. This book includes $28.95 paperback $24.99 ebook Melissa Fuell256 pp. • 65 photos Cuther’s out-ofprint biography, Blind Boone, which relates the highlights of Boone’s harrowing journey and also testifies to the struggles of many African Americans during the Jim Crow era.

John Robinson, a former Missouri tourism director, has driven every mile of every road on the Missouri highway map. This, his first book on his travels, gives you a shotgun seat for the first panoramic view of his 250,000-mile odyssey. The new book by Missouri Life’s King of the Road is now available from all e-book sellers and online bookstores. Order your copy today, and ride along with the king.

15% OFF & FREE SHIPPING at

tsup.truman.edu

“...irreverent sense of humor.”

TOUR BILL & HILLARY’S FIRST HOME. • Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, view the house where the Clintons were married.

• Observe rarely seen memorabilia of Bill’s early political career.

• See the new First Ladies Garden.

930 W. Clinton Drive in Fayetteville clintonhousemuseum.org 479-444-0066, Mo-Sa 8:30-4:30 Clinton House Museum

tsup.truman.edu

–Tom Uhlenbrock, St. Louis Post Dispatch

800.916.6802 100 East Normal Avenue, Kirksville, MO 63501

!

G IN C A R D E G G U R S IS DON'T M od, February 22 & 23

Rally in the 100 Acre Wo Teams from coast to coast will race through the Ozark foothills to crown winners in five performance rally classes.

Rugged unpaved roads across terrain ranging from deserts to mountains, including sand, gravel, mud, or snow.

Real cars on real roads, but driven at speeds which are difficult to believe!

GREAT FAMILY FUN! Race Cars on Display Meet the Drivers Collect Autographs Championship Action

Salem Area Chamber of Commerce 573-729-6900 www.salemmo.com and www.100aw.org

These are professional drivers - DO NOT ATTEMPT

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SHOW-ME

Books

By the end of his travels, he had taken more than a million photos. He narrowed the collection down to the two hundred to three hundred for the book.

“It was a very tough call because you have all these great images, and you couldn’t use them all,” he says. “The bottom line was the photographs had to tell a story about the birds and their behavior. The photograph from one page had to lead to the next page; it has to work together. It doesn’t matter how pretty the photo is. ” Noppadol says he wants his photographs to raise awareness about these declining species.

“Grouse get very little attention from the public because people don’t know a lot about them,” Noppadol says. “I want this book to be a message for people to learn about the birds, and if nothing else, this book will be a record of the bird that used to be.”

Save the Last Dance: A Story of North American Grassland Grouse Noppadol Paothong, written by Joel M. Vance, foreward by Paul A. Johnsgard, 204 pages, Noppadol Paothong Photography LLC, hardcover, $45

www.savethelastdancebook.com

MORE GOOD READS

BY RACHEL KISER

Voodoo Priests, Noble Savages, and Ozark Gypsies: The Life of Folklorist Mary Alicia Owen

Thad Snow, Edited by Bonnie Stepenoff, 292 pages, University of Missouri Press, softcover, memoir, $25 Thad Snow’s memoir is back in print with a new introduction by historian Bonnie Stepenoff.

The book presents sketches of a life, region, and era that embody the legacy of the American Midwest. The text is a collection of essays expressing the thoughts of a farmer, hunter, husband, father, and grandfather, revealing the way of life in the Bootheel region of the first half of the twentieth century.

Greg Olson, 184 pages, University of Missouri Press, softcover, biography, $30 Author Greg Olson highlights Mary Alicia Owen, who has been called the most famous American woman folklorist of her time, in this biography.

Olson analyzes the theories and popular beliefs that influenced Owen, who lived in St. Joseph most of her life, to give readers an unprecedented look at this independent woman.

The Missouri State Penitentiary: 170 Years Inside “The Walls”

Beer, Brats, and Baseball: St. Louis Germans

Jamie Pamela Rasmussen, University of Missouri Press, 136 pages, softcover, nonfiction, $16.95 For more than a century, the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City was everything other prisons were and more, destined for a tumultuous history, which is presented in the pages of this book. Tales of prisoners provide intrigue and insight into the institution’s infamous reputation.

Jim Merkel, 224 pages, Reedy Press, softcover, nonfiction,$19.95 Journalist Jim Merkel explores the influential history of Germans in the Gateway City. He examines the story of his heritage as he presents the often serious, sometimes funny, and always poignant story of Germans in St. Louis, from their arrival right after the city’s founding to their present-day impact.

Find these reads at bookstores or publishers’ websites unless otherwise noted.

ANDREW BARTON

From Missouri: An American Farmer Looks Back

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! y a w a t e G r u o Y Pl a n L e ba n on!

So m u ch to se e a n d d o in

Lebanon is known by its motto,

“Friendly people.

Friendly place.”

These events are only part of the fun we have to offer.

R.K. Gun & Knife Show February 23 - 24 Cowan Civic Center 563-927-8176

Trout Season Opens March 1 Bennett Spring State Park 417-532-4307

The 45th Annual Brumley Gospel Sing July 31 - August 3 Cowan Civic Center www.brumleymusic.com TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Karen Peck & New River

www.lebanonmo.org | 1-866-LEBANON

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Made

IN MISSOURI

Springfield

JAPANESE DESIGNS FOR SPRINGFIELD’S Theresa Gallup, Kimono Designs is the name, and Japanese textiles are the game. She took her love of obi (a sash worn with traditional Japanese dress) and kimono fabrics and fashioned them into handbags, scarves, neckties, hats, jackets, and vests. Theresa’s venture stems from her time spent as a dean at a college in southern Japan from 1991 to 1998. During that time, she made accessories out of the special fabric and gave them to colleagues. In 1995, the United States embassy asked her to do a fashion show.

Last year, the Smithsonian asked Theresa to provide nine hundred handbags and six hundred scarves for its Christmas catalogue. Theresa’s work was most recently featured at the Japanese Festival in St. Louis, and Theresa’s creations are available in more than one hundred stores including the Waverly House in Springfield and Bluestem in Columbia.

—Ben Kupiszewski www.kimonodesigns.com•417-823-8886

Independence

Nutty Jams

Columbia

THE STORY behind the jams and fruit

Nature’s Needlepoint

butters of Independence-based Berry Nutty

NATURAL HISTORY, especially Missouri’s natural history, fascinates Co-

steal the preserve recipes from Darrell. When

Farm is well, a bit nutty. After Darrell Tindal tasted fruit preserves that were a version of his friend’s grandmother’s, he started sharing them with his other friends, who, in turn, started to Darrell confronted his friends, they offered to

lumbia embroiderer Allison Vaughn. The state’s plants and animals, from oak leaves

buy the preserves, and The Berry Nutty Farm was born. Owners Andrea Schnetzler and Darrell have relied on their families’ recipes to create four signature jam flavors: American Picnic

towels, cloth napkins, and other linens on Allison’s Etsy page, ThreeStrands. Origi-

(strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry), Bottom of the Barrel (strawberry, blueberry, and black-

nally from New Orleans, she moved to Missouri after her apartment was destroyed

berry), Road Trip (strawberry, peach, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry), and Dueling Berries

by Hurricane Katrina. Allison learned the craft from her mother and is inspired by

(blackberry and red raspberry). The Berry Nutty Farm also offers savory apple butter. Darrell and

her mother’s vintage patterns from the 1940s. Allison’s favorite subject to embroider

Andrea take pride in the fact they prefer to use American-made mason jars for their jams. They

is frogs. “Once you put a nose and eye on them,

also source produce for their products from local farmers before anywhere else. They note it’s

they come to life,” she says.

more expensive, but they want to make an effort to support local businesses. —Ben Kupiszewski

—Ben Kupiszewski www.etsy.com/shop/ThreeStrands

www.theberrynuttyfarm.com 662-368-8892

ANDREW BARTON; COURTESY KIMONO DESIGNS AND THREE STRANDS

and bison to rabbits and purple coneflowers, can be seen stitched on pillows, hand

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presents

Missouri Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

PHOTO CON

Evening in the Wildflowers at Roaring River State Park, Terry Jamieson

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NTEST

We are delighted to present our first-ever photo contest. Our state has so much to offer, from breathtaking views and charming small towns to stately buildings and friendly people, we thought it was about time we let our readers share with us how they see Missouri—from their cameras, of course!

Winners will be unveiled in our October 2013 issue.

Award Categories Beauty in Missouri Send us your nature, wildlife, and landscape photography! Rolling hills, rocky cliffs, mighty rivers, gurgling creeks, still ponds, brightly colored wildflowers—let the natural beauty of Missouri shine.

Fun in Missouri Show us the fun! Missouri’s full of adventure, action, and smiling faces. Share your photos of people having the time of their lives, right here in Missouri.

Life in Missouri We want to see the people, places, and things that make up the fabric of Missouri. What does life in Missouri mean to you? Send us photos that capture what it is to live in Missouri and be a Missourian.

Prizes The grand prize winner of the photo contest will receive a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with an 18-55 mm lens, along with $50 in lab credits at Mpix.

Each category will also be awarded prizes for first, second, and third place.

GIVE US YOUR

Contest Rules Visit www.MissouriLife.com/photocontest for contest rules and information.

BEST SHOT Your Life. Your Photos. Endless Possibilities.

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Chamber Discoveries Discover & Explore

Sao Paulo & Rio de Janeiro

With the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Missouri Step=Up Program MO STEP=UP program sponsored by the Missouri Dept. of Economic Development (DED) provides Missouri businesses with the incentives and assistance to develop and/or expand international exporting.

International business and exporting assistance can be received for companies 1-500 employees. (Qualified businesses can be reimbursed for up to 60% of the cost of the trip.)

Businesses must apply and be preapproved prior to the trip Visit www.ded.mo.gov/mostep for more information on the MO STEP=UP program.

Departing St. Louis June 29 - July 7, 2013 Trip Highlights • Round-trip scheduled airfare from St. Louis • Airport to Hotel transfers • Personal airport VIP greeting and check-in service • Pre-departure literature and travel documents • 3-nights in Sao Paulo with daily breakfast & 1 dinner • Flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro • 4-nights in Rio de Janeiro with daily breakfast & 1 dinner • City tours of Sao Paulo & Rio de Janeiro • Luxury Hotel Accommodations

Only $2,975 per person

(If deposited by Feb. 15, 2013. After February 15, price is $3,175)

For more information, please contact Sallie Keeney at 573-634-3511 or skeeney@mochamber.com [35] February 2013

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40 Years, 40 Covers MARCH-APRIL 1973

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1977

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1974

JULY-AUGUST 1975

40 Years, 40 Covers THIS YEAR, MISSOURI LIFE CELEBRATES ITS FORTIETH BIRTHDAY.

MAY-JUNE 1976

MARCH-APRIL 1978

It all started in March of 1973. Bill Nunn, the magazine’s first editor and publisher, began Missouri Life as a way to proudly show off Missouri. He believed Missouri was differNOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1979

ent than other states, so he set out to prove it by showcas-

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1980

ing our state’s natural beauty, culture, history, and people.

His vision has survived name and ownership changes.

To kick off our birthday year, we’re bringing you a cover from every year—forty covers for forty years! Throughout the year, watch for special features and articles about the SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1981

magazine’s evolution, plus bonus features on our website.

To see every cover we’ve had through the years, visit www.MissouriLife.com.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1984

MARCH-APRIL 1983

DECEMBER 1985

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1982

SUMMER 1986

WINTER 1987

SPRING 1988

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FALL 1989

SUMMER 1993

SUMMER 1997

JUNE-JULY 2001

FALL 1991

SPRING-SUMMER 1990

SPRING 1995

FALL 1994

WINTER 1998

DECEMBER 1999

DECEMBER 2002

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2003

JUNE-JULY 2006 APRIL-MAY 2005

JUNE-JULY 2009

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2007

APRIL-MAY 2010

APRIL-MAY 2011

WINTER 1992

SUMMER 1996

JUNE-JULY 2000

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2004

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2008

APRIL-MAY 2012

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MISSOURI

FRENCH Natalie Villmer (right) and Rhonda DeGonia greet museum visitors at Fête de l’Automne. Natalie, who was born and raised in Old Mines, is on the board of the Old Mines Area Historical Society. She doesn’t speak Missouri French, but she sings it and has been recorded by the Smithsonian.

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Above left: Dancers at a festival sponsored by the Old Mines Area Historical Society enjoy creole music performed by the band L’Esprit Creole. Above right: Every year, Dennis Stroughmatt performs at the festival. Though he is from Illinois, Dennis came to the area in college to study the history of the Missouri French.

PRESERVING MISSOURI’S OLD MINES DIALECT

By Jim Winnerman | Photography by Kevin Manning

“C’est bon d’vous dzire” are the words French settlers in the Old Mines area of Missouri spoke to begin telling folk stories to their children in the mid-1700s and continuing into the early 1900s. But they didn’t speak standard French.

No, they spoke Missouri French.

As late as 1930, Missouri French was the first language spoken by about one thousand people in southeastern Missouri. The origin dates to when French miners and trappers arrived from Canada in about 1720. Even more stunning is that Missouri French still survives.

But after a lifespan of more than 250 years, the dialect is close to extinction. Area residents estimate fewer than ten people remain fluent, although many more know a few words and phrases leftover from when Missouri French was spoken by their grandparents.

Missouri French is one of the three variations of French that originated in the United States. The other versions are Louisiana French (which includes Standard, Creole, and Cajun French) and New England French (essentially Canadian French), both of which remain vibrant.

The Missouri French dialect consists of words adapted to meet the needs of a French community living on the French-American frontier where a variety of cultures mixed. While the foundation of Missouri French is Canadian French, newly arriving French-speaking settlers soon began incorporating words being used by people of other cultures encountered in the area. Native-American, African, Cajun, and English words were all adapted, and the mixture became Missouri French. Eventually the new language incorporated its own accent.

Make an inquiry around the Old Mines area as to who is knowledgeable about Missouri French today, and the first name mentioned is Kent Bone, an amateur historian.

He not only speaks the dialect but also is a student of the French history of the area and is knowledgeable about how the language varies from Canadian and classical French.

“The Missouri French accent is closer to Canadian French than it is Louisiana French,” Kent says. “But the vocabulary used is closer to that of Louisiana French.”

Kent lived in Quebec for two summers and Louisiana for a year. “After I began speaking in French and threw in some Missouri French words from here, I would get some strange looks,” he says. “It does not take long for someone to ask what version of French I am speaking. When I explained the origin, they were surprised.”

Dennis Stroughmatt makes his living singing songs that are hundreds of years old in Missouri French. “Because of the isolated area where Missouri French was spoken, many of the words are similar to Old Norman French dating to the 1700s,” Dennis says. “I am likely the only singer who has had anthropologists come to my concerts for a reason other than listening to the music.”

Missouri French was spoken in a 150-mile wide area around Old Mines, which itself is a small village on Route 21 north of Potosi and about forty-five to fifty miles west of Ste. Genevieve. The territory encompassed a series of lead deposits mined for the king of France and the communities of De Soto, Festus, Bonne Terre, and Richwoods, in addition to Old Mines.

The demise of Missouri French has been prolonged for many reasons. First, the area remained geographically isolated late into the early 1900s. There were few roads, and the railroad bypassed the area, so outside communication was minimal. Oral traditions such as the music and storytelling of folk tales also helped perpetuate the language.

Also, French settlers arranged their land in long strips similar to those in Normandy, France, instead of the

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traditional American practice of plotting large rectangular homesteads. The purpose was to enjoy the neighborliness of a village life and also to give every property owner access to water in Old Mines Creek.

Out of this an emphasis on loyalty to family and community developed, precluding the need to adapt to the American ways that were increasingly surrounding them.

Records indicate as many as thirty separate tiny hamlets of French were scattered throughout the area.

While French communities such as Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau were being assimilated, some French families were attracted to the Old Mines area by the local St. Joachim Catholic church, which continued to offer Mass and sacraments in French.

Mining also contributed to keeping the area isolated.

Lead and, later, tiff were mined by hand on surface mines, and the French dominated the labor pool.

The demise of Missouri French began early in the 1900s when compulsory schooling became law in Missouri. Students from old French families came to school without the slightest knowledge of English, which was viewed by state officials and teachers as a barrier to assimilation.

Next, physical labor used for surface mining was replaced by machinery that depleted the number of miners and people with a French heritage who could make a living in the area. English became the route out of the mines to mainstream jobs that promised a brighter future.

In addition, early in the 1920s, the sisters at St. Joachim began to use only English in their classes.

Finally, improved highways and forms of communication, all in English, easily penetrated the isolation of the Old Mines community, and people with different ethnic backgrounds, all of whom spoke English, moved into the area.

“Still, the language did not really end,” Kent says. “It was not spoken in public but continued in use among

family and friends. I still hear Missouri French words and phrases spoken by young kids in the area. The only place they could have heard them is in their home.”

Some of these phrases can be less than polite and lively.

Ever-popular cuss words are still in vogue, Kent says, such as maudit, which means damn.

“The language of the miners could be colorful,” he says.

“Names of animals and food are still used, the most common being bouillon for both chicken broth and a house party.”

Natalie Villmer, who learned songs in Missouri French from her father and whose family has been in the Old Mines area since 1810, says more people know the dialect than want to admit it. “But most have had an embarrassing experience speaking Missouri French in their childhood, and they still carry that around with them,” she says.

In Natalie’s family, her parents and grandparents were fluent, but her father did not want her to speak Missouri French because of an incident when he was a young boy.

His parents sent him to the store with instructions to buy something, and they gave him the English word to remember since the shopkeeper spoke only English. When he got there, he had forgotten the word, and because he could not communicate in English, people made fun of him. “He never got over it,” Natalie says.

In fact, even people speaking classical French would not accept the dialect as French, Natalie says. “As a result, Missouri French speakers never felt that their language was good enough simply because everyone told them that it wasn’t. Outsiders would say, ‘That’s not French.’ ” Still, Natalie did pick up some of the language while living in a home where her parents and grandfather were fluent.

What she learned came in handy in the 1970s, when a teacher named Rosemary Hyde was studying the Missouri French dialect in the Old Mines area.

Left: John Oelzen examines a gun made by Jim Duncan (right) at Fête de l’Automne. Right: Judy Pashia Bone smooths mud into the chinks of the old Pashia family log cabin in Old Mines as she helps restore the cabin her family donated to the historical society. The youngest of fourteen, she was raised in the cabin.

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Kent Bone restores a log cabin that once belonged to a French family in the Old Mines area. He is in the process of creating an 1800s-era Missouri French village with the hope to have local craftsmen and historians educate visitors on the area’s unique past and culture.

CELEBRATE MISSOURI FRENCH!

“Hyde had discovered some old wax disks from the early 1900s that contained about twenty folk stories in Missouri French that had been handed down for generations,” Natalie says.

“Hyde spoke classical French and was a musician, and she used six locals who still understood Missouri French but could not read it to interpret what was on the disks.

Once translated, she put the words to music and taught the songs to us,” Natalie recalls. “Then she published a book, It’s Good to Tell You: French Folktales from Missouri, in 1981 containing the folk tales in both English and Missouri French.”

Kent says the title, It’s Good to Tell You, or C’est Bon d’Vous Dzire, was the way storytellers always started a folk tale, and the phrase is the opening to each of the twentythree stories in the book.

Natalie sang many of the songs that Hyde taught her at the Folklife Festival last July on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute.

“The Smithsonian invited Dennis Stroughmatt and me to talk about Missouri French and to sing our songs as part of the festival,” Natalie says.

In fact, the popularity of Dennis’s music might ultimately be responsible for the survival of Missouri French. He tours internationally, exposing the dialect to thousands of unsuspecting people yearly, ensuring the dialect lives on.

“One of my goals is to preserve the language, as well as the

Learn more about the historic Old Mines area of Missouri from the Old Mines Area Historical Society, www.omahs.weebly.com.

And meet Dennis Stroughmatt, an internationally famous Missouri French musician, at www.creolefiddle.com.

Get in the spirit and join in at one of these fantastic French events: La Fête à Renault, Old Mines, Third Weekend in May This mid-May, three-day weekend festival celebrates the arrival of a contingent of lead miners led by Philippe Francois Renault who settled in the area in the early 1700s. Bread is baked in brick French ovens reminiscent of the time early French settlers inhabited the area. More than two hundred reenactors stay in tents on the green below St. Joachim Church, spending the weekend living and dressing as though it were 1850. The festival is sponsored by La Brigade à Renault.

573-438-5350 Fête de l’ Automne, Fertile, First Sunday in October The yearly highlight of this traditional festival held the first Sunday in October is internationally famous Dennis Stroughmatt, who sings songs in Missouri French. Storytelling, a chicken-and-dumplings dinner, French sausage, and croquinoles (French pastry made fresh on-site) are part of the festivities. The event is sponsored by the Old Mines Historical Society. www.omahs.weebly.com/annual-fecircte.html•573-854-0500

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Above left: St. Joachim Cemetery is home to many graves of the old French settlers who worked the mines. Top right: Dave Govero mixes mud in the hole with a shovel as he and other volunteers daub the Pashia family kitchen log cabin. Bottom right: The Old Mines Area Historical Society in Missouri French.

Missouri French culture and music,” he says.

Exactly how many people are still totally fluent is elusive, say Dennis and Kent, but they believe it is fewer than ten.

Both estimate there are forty to fifty people with some degree of fluency. “Recently I was singing, and an older gentleman greeted me in Missouri French and told me he had a song he wanted me to sing that he learned from his grandmother,” Dennis says. “It was a wonderful version of Quand J’étais Petit, which translated means, When I Was Little.”

Sometimes Dennis spreads the knowledge of Missouri French through conversation with a surprised listener who has mistakenly assumed he is speaking Cajun French. In Quebec not too long ago, he told someone, “Mais, ca fait fraitte dehors,” which when translated is “Man, it is cold outside.”

According to Dennis, the man agreed and answered in Canadian French, and then seemed puzzled and asked

where he had learned the word fraitte. When Dennis replied it was “Missouri French for cold” versus the traditional froid, he was told it was a word that had not been used in French for hundreds of years, though Kent says the word is still used in North American French variants.

Dennis has discovered that many of the songs he learned in Missouri French are played using the same tune wherever French is spoken. A recent article in Archaeology magazine quoted Dennis as explaining the joy he gets “singing songs that are as much as five hundred years old with people who are two or three times my age, in a language that by all historical accounts should have been dead two hundred years ago.” He says it is hard to convey in words the pleasure the experience continues to bring him.

“I do think that some of the music is going to survive, even if the language doesn’t,” he says. “If I have

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LEARN MISSOURI FRENCH! Feedou A common name men call each other.

It comes from three words, fille de rue meaning “girl of the street.” Even locals don’t realize the word’s true meaning.

Quin donc ca Meaning, “Here, take it,” this phrase is used in several occasions: When someone walks in and you are surprised. When you give someone something.

When playing cards.

Quin, or Quin donc If you have a good hand, you slap the cards down and say this phrase.

MISSOURI FRENCH

ENGLISH

FRENCH

Gardez donc!

Looky there!

Regardez donc!

Coute donc!

Listen there!

Ecoutez donc!

un bétail

insect

un insecte

une esquilette

skillet

une poêle

une galette chouage

fried pastry

une pâtisserie frite

une pétard

pea shooter

une sarbacane

un etourneau

black bird

un merle

un rat de bois

possum (rat of the woods)

un opossum

un chat chouage

raccoon (wild cat)

un raton laveur

une ouaouaron

bullfrog

une grenouille taureau

une pistache

peanut

une cacahuète

poc à poc

slow moving

ralentir le déplacement

une patate

potato

une pomme de terre

une quisine

kitchen

une cuisine

anything to do with it, I am going to make sure that it remains at least in my lifetime.”

A more visible reminder of the Old Mines heritage are the French names that date to the early 1800s and can be found in the phonebook and seen on area mailboxes.

“There are plenty of Aubuchons, Bequettes, Bourbans Lalmondieres, Rouleaus, and Theabeau families still living here, as well as many others with French surnames,” Kent says.

Many of the same names can be found in the old parish cemetery with a traditional French iron cross marking the graves, another symbol of the cultural legacy of the area.

Other reminders include a few French signs like the one outside the local barber shop that reads Le Barbier. A yellow and black sign alongside Kent’s driveway warns of a lutin crossing, which is a mythical French hobgoblin.

Kent is also working on establishing a recreated 1800s-

era Missouri French village on fifty acres just outside of Old Mines. Consisting of six donated log cabins that were homes to French families in the area and which have been moved to the site, the long-term plan is that the village will be open weekends and be staffed with local craftsmen and docents who will explain the unique heritage of the area.

During the summer of 2012, several traditional muddaubing parties were held, and local descendents of the owners of each cabin helped seal the spaces between the log walls with bouzillage, a historical building material consisting of a mixture of clay and hay.

Kent sums it up this way: “Old Mines is one of the oldest settlements in North America that is almost entirely under the radar,” he says. “But, On est toujours iccitte. We are still here.”

For videos of Natalie and Dennis singing, visit www.MissouriLife.com.

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Confederate General Joseph Shelby

THE RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE OF BUTLER LIGHT UP THE CITY WITH PASSION

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX

Peggy Buhr, Bates County Museum Director

World War I Veterans Memorial Statue

Prairie Home COMPANIONS

Bates County Museum

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My car bounced

into Bates County like a kiddie ride in an amusement park. Frankly, I expected a flatter welcome mat. I was still twenty-three miles from the county seat of Butler, and just another seventeen miles beyond Butler could cross into Kansas.

Prairie land. Kansas border. These two conditions define this part of western Missouri. Bates County has seen some things: historic battles, landmark events, and the birth of the nation’s most progressive science fiction author. Although all communities here share a hardscrabble history, Butler is the heart, its population of 4,099 making it easily the largest of eleven townships.

At the Bates County Museum, Donna Gregory, presiding commissioner and historical society board president, and Peggy Buhr, museum director, greeted me with hugs.

There are some things you should know about Peggy.

She often tames her dark hair in a braid over one shoulder, and the only thing bouncier than those curls is her chipper soprano voice. She works the word “wonderful” around in her mouth like a morsel of food and uses it to describe just about everything in Bates County. I was instantly charmed by her passion for history and everyday citizens.

“The politics of the day are well documented,” she said.

“The military actions of the day—well documented. What I’m always drawn to are the stories of the people.”

Last year, on my first visit, Peggy led me to the museum’s top floor, flicked on lights in each of the display rooms, and outlined the area’s Civil War climate. On newly settled land in western Missouri, tension at the border was palpable. Kansas Jayhawkers terrorized Confederate families; guerilla fighters terrorized Union supporters. Generals in Washington just wanted this westernmost battlefront to quiet down.

No such luck.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX

THE BIGGEST LITTLE BATTLE Here’s what we know from military reports: In late October 1862, more than two hundred men in the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers erected a camp on a rebel guerilla’s farm, called the site Fort Africa, and on October 29, fought against the Confederate cavalry, and won. It was the first Civil War battle a black regiment had ever fought, and it took place just eleven miles west of Butler. This was before the Emancipation Proclamation. This was before the 54th Massachusetts, another black regiment, stormed Fort Wagner, an event immortalized in the film Glory. Critics had speculated that black soldiers couldn’t or wouldn’t

fight, but the leader of the rebels wrote, “They fought like tigers.” After an archaeological dig to rediscover Fort Africa, Missouri State Parks dedicated the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site on the 150th anniversary last year. (Learn more about the new historic site on page 20.)

“Island Mound represents a classic struggle that takes place for the future, for the soul of a nation,” Peggy says.

“What it must have meant to the men and women living here to see African American men in uniform, armed, marching into Bates County. That had to be such a shock to their whole sense of normalcy and decorum and where they fit in in society. I mean, that turned everything upside down. That was immediately a game-changer before any battle had even occurred.”

One year later, when Union General Ewing sent out Order Number 11—mandating four rural counties in western Missouri be evacuated so Confederate guerrillas would have no safe harbor—his troops burned all of Bates County to the ground. Memories of the Battle of Island Mound and the county in general became scattered. When Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area proposed naming the border region “Bleeding Kansas,” former U.S. Representative Ike Skelton protested. “He said, ‘You can’t tell the story of bleeding Kansas without telling about burning Missouri,’ ” Peggy says. “Bless his heart, yes,” Donna agrees.

WORLD’S SMALLEST TOMBSTONE “Oh!” Peggy said as we left. “You need to go see the world’s smallest tombstone.” I laughed. She raised her eyebrows.

“It’s certified by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!” First, though, we visited Poplar Heights Farm, a 640acre historical preservation center and nature conservancy.

Melissa Phillips showed us the home that has been in her family since the 1890s, which now hosts festivals and a learning center. The public can meander through heirloom vegetable gardens, a broom corn barn, 2.7 miles of hiking trails, a natural prairie, educational classrooms, a toy mining sluice, and visit a Percheron stallion named Cocoa, who stands half as tall as a walnut tree. The people behind Poplar Heights also established the Bates County Family History Center in Butler to research genealogy, photograph tombstones, and digitize history to help families publish their own history.

When asked why today’s family members spend so much time on such a massive project, Melissa spread her arms wide.

“It’s our way to give back to the community,” she says.

BY TINA CASAGRAND | PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARLEY JONES

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Lisa Wolfe, Owner of Rocking Chair Quilts

World’s Smallest Tombstone

Poplar Heights Farm

“The kids were brought up knowing that this is what you did. You did community service.”

After the farm, I was looking forward to the tiny tombstone. Donna slowed down near the cemetery as car after car crept through the gate.

The procession included several white trucks bearing green and yellow logos. “Oh shoot,” Donna muttered. “This is a big funeral.” Lelan Deems, the town’s John Deere dealer, had recently died.

I didn’t get to see the small tombstone, but videos show that Linnie Crouch’s grave marker is not even as long as a dollar bill and just 2.5 inches thick. Donna didn’t know much else about the man who died in 1898 other than his designation as a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! attraction. Instead, we cross-stitched the town looking at houses: The son of a radio designer decorates his yard with bowling balls, curlicue scalloping decorates the local Methodist church, and Robert A. Heinlein, America’s “Dean of Science Fiction,” who wrote such works as Red Planet and Starship Troopers, was born in a gray house that now belongs to a high school principal. On Ohio Street, a duck statue wears a mailbox in place of its head. “And while we’re this close, I’ll just take you to see where Melissa and Paul Phillips live,” Donna says. Melissa helps out at Poplar Heights Farm but lives in Butler near the monument shop she and Paul own. After a few seconds of silence, Donna adds, “I’m probably boring you.”

She wasn’t, but I was getting hungry. We had plenty of options but tourists flock to Koehn’s Bakery, owned and operated by local Mennonites since 1981. The shop smells like donuts and looks like a cake-lover’s paradise. “I think their hot rolls are on just about every table in Bates County during the holidays,” Peggy said when we sat down. Facing the door, Donna pointed her fingers at most people who walked in the door and told me background

stories about a lot of them. Although she’s a little quieter than Peggy, it’s clear Donna loves Bates County and its people just as much.

THE NEWS, QUILTS, AND ARTWORK After seeing the tourist sites, I tagged along on Butler errands. We went to the monument shop, which has been in Melissa’s family for 130 years. Inside, long-haired cats roamed the floor and jumped onto headstones to rub their heads in my hands. Donna and Peggy approved a plaque to go with an Island Mound statue and then speculated about who was doing what on the square after the funeral. The women must have noticed my bemused smile. “We have to gossip a little,” Melissa explained. “Otherwise, we have to wait until Thursday to get the news.” The News Xpress paper only publishes once a week.

We visited the newspaper office on the square, near the town’s stately courthouse. The editor’s wood-paneled walls were half-papered with Three Stooges posters, and among stacks of filing boxes and faded memorabilia, a brand-new Apple computer looks anachronistic. Eighty-two years old, editor-in-chief C. A. Moore has been in the industry since childhood, when his uncle, Lewis W. Moore, served as Missouri’s youngest-ever newspaper editor at age sixteen. He leaned forward, elbows on desk, rubbing hands together to tell us about war reenactments, small-town crime, and other favorite news reports. So what’s the news this week? “Well,” he says, thinking. “I got a haircut yesterday.”

Rocking Chair Quilts also sits on the square, and it is catalyzing a quilting culture all over western Missouri. Patrons work under lofty ceilings with more than a hundred bolts of fabric close at hand. In the back, a woman sprayed and ironed a strip quilt. Her fingers scrambled through short blonde hair as she said, “I’m going crazy. But I’m not going to give up.” When her husband died, Alice Deill made sixty-five

“There is nothing that says love like a quilt.”

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Poplar Heights Farm

quilts in two years. “There’s nothing that says love like a quilt,” she says.

And since she lives in Peculiar, Alice shows that nothing says “quality quilt shop” like a thirty-six-mile drive. She passes by many closer stores because here, “it’s all a family,” with a supportive atmosphere, regular workshops, and organized bus tours of other quilting hot spots.

In City Hall, we visited artwork of and by prominent local figures, including a portrait of Helen Lamb, Donna’s aunt, a founder and president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. According to AANA lore, she founded Barnes Hospital’s School of Anesthesia in St. Louis and collaborated on designing medical machines and instruments. Next to her is a portrait of Frederick Bates, second governor of Missouri and founder of Bates County. In a meeting room, a wraparound mural by Daniel Brewer painted in 2004 depicts the first electricity west of the Mississippi lighting up the town. The event earned Butler the nickname, “The Electric City.” “You could see the lights fifteen to twenty miles across the prairie,” Donna says.

MAJESTIC CELLARS I visited the museum again, but its halls were so quiet. Peggy’s laughter kept bubbling up from her office, and I quickly returned downstairs.

Work was over, for the most part. I checked out of town by visiting Majestic Cellars. Dennis Straub, the owner, is shaped a bit like a wine barrel wearing a Hawaiian print shirt. Calm and matter-of-fact, he moved to Missouri from California because his wife had a dream one night to move to a place fifty miles south of Kansas City to a town called Clinton.

“I thought, that ends it right there, there’s no such place,” Dennis says.

He was wrong, and continued living in nearby Butler even after his wife’s death for the peace and friendship the area provided. My first time at Majestic, I asked for something to pair with fried chicken, the nightly special at the Butler Inn Restaurant, which shares a doorway and customers with the wine cellar. He folded his hands over his stomach and walked me through tasting Cabernets. For another patron, he offered a rich Italian Barolo, which is rare even in larger towns.

Donna says before Majestic opened, many people in Butler did not drink socially. With a goal to make people happy, Dennis has pulled his neighbors out of their shells. The bar was busy with new acquaintances I met earlier at the farm and in city hall.

Because we kept bumping into the same folks, I began to think only twelve people live in Butler. Everyone has multiple jobs: the Poplar Heights Farm director sometimes tends bar, Donna is the county’s presiding commissioner and head of the historical society, and Melissa researches history and cuts stone.

Everyone diversifies to cover all the bases, and every shop serves a handful of purposes, from a homestyle restaurant that shares space with a fancy wine cellar to the hardware store that packs paint chips, Pyrex, and John Deere windchimes in a shop the size of an apartment.

When I mentioned this to Peggy, she fell quiet. Finally, she said, “This is a lifestyle worth protecting, and it’s worth putting something into it to be able to live here.”

As I drove north that night with a bright prairie sunset giving way to Kansas City lights, I decided the people of Butler are definitely onto something.

Majestic Cellars

County Courthouse

Explore Butler!

Majestic Cellars A boutique wine shop on the square worth the visit.

108 W. Ohio Street 660-200-2001 Facebook: Majestic Cellars

Stoplight Market This Mennonite general store offers bulk foods, spices, kitchen gadgets, and a greenhouse.

114 S. Orange Street 660-679-3449 Koehn Bakery An exhaustive offering of delicious, reasonably priced baked goods and sandwiches make this shop worth visiting every trip to Butler.

101 S. Orange Street 660-679-6221 www.koehnbakery.com World’s Smallest Tombstone at Oak Hill Cemetery See this tiny marker recognized by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The oval drive around the cemetery used to be a racetrack.

About one mile east of Butler on Highway H/N. Mill Street 660-679-4323 Rocking Chair Quilts Check out this shop’s full range of quilting supplies, complete with a homey atmosphere perfect for working on projects.

21 N. Main Street 660-200-2226 www.rcquilts.com Osage Pecan Nut Shoppe Buy nuts dressed up any way you like them. Great for gifts and snacking.

909 W. Fort Scott Street 660-679-6137

Poplar Heights Farm This living history farm and nature conservancy hosts festivals and offers tours throughout the year.

208 N. Delaware Street 660-679-0764 www.poplarheightsfarm.org Bates County Museum Dive into well-curated displays on pioneer history, Border Wars, science fiction author Robert Heinlein, and life in Bates County.

802 Elks Drive 660-679-0134 www.home.earthlink.net/ ~bcmuseum/index.html

Bates County Courthouse Stop to tour the stately building made of local stone. A special quilt block pattern covers the entry floor and original electricity equipment hangs on the wall. Murals of Butler’s pioneer history can be seen throughout the square.

1 N. Delaware Street 660-679-3667 www.batescounty.net Southside Cafe Indulge in country cooking for breakfast or lunch. Finish with a scoop of ice cream from the ice cream parlor.

27 W. Dakota Street 660-679-5400 www.butlercafe.weebly.com Butler Inn Restaurant Steak and fried chicken specials highlight this restaurant’s menu.

104 W. Ohio Street 660-200-7143

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Lincoln’s

Missouri Girlfriends

BY R ICH AR D L AW R ENCE MILLER

Illinois might be the Land of Lincoln, but Missouri is the land of Lincoln’s girlfriends. Three of them—a plantation belle, a small-town teenager, and an urban aristocrat—all had connections to Missouri.

Young Lincoln was rough around the edges, having grown up in the backwoods, where he engaged in physical labor such as chopping down trees to clear farmland and splitting rails to make fences. Although Lincoln had barely a year of elementary school education, as he entered young adulthood he sought out frontier intellectuals to discuss current events, science, and philosophy. He soon became a merchant, state legislator, and law student.

Muscular, smart, ambitious, and admired by the public, Lincoln was no country bumpkin. He was a catch for any husband-hunting young woman.

A Plantation Belle Enter Mary Owens, who eventually married Missouri farmer Jesse Vineyard. In the 1830s, however, she was a single woman on an eight-thousand-acre Kentucky plantation called Lashfield, where she was hearing from Illinois acquaintances about a rising politician named Lincoln.

Several of her friends and relatives had moved to the Illinois town of New Salem, a regional commercial center where Lincoln lived, and Mary decided to visit her old

Kentucky acquaintances who lived in New Salem.

At that time, she and Lincoln developed no romantic interest in each other, but they did establish a congenial friendship. During the visit, Lincoln had ample opportunities to appreciate her intellect, lively conversation, saucy personality, and good looks. New Salem resident Lynn McNulty Greene wrote of her “large blue eyes with the finest trimmings I ever saw. ... None of the poets or romance writers have ever given to us a picture of a heroine so beautiful.” At a later time when Lincoln was feeling exasperated about Mary, he penned an unflattering description of her appearance, but her appeal to the male population of New Salem suggests he was just blowing off steam.

After Mary returned to Kentucky, she heard more about Lincoln as he rose in Illinois politics. She decided to make a return trip to New Salem, a journey Lincoln encouraged by using Mary’s sister Elizabeth as a go-between. Both Lincoln and Mary agreed that her new visit was intended for them to inspect each other more seriously. Unfortunately the purpose of her trip to New Salem quickly became known to gossips among their circle of acquaintances, creating pressures that would stress even a long-standing solid connection, let alone the tentative relationship that Lincoln and Mary were nurturing.

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Lincoln’s Missouri Girlfriends

Mary Owens, a single woman from a plantation in Kentucky, caught Lincoln’s attention. She married Missourian Jesse Vineyard in 1839, and they settled in Weston, where she is buried today.

The state capital, Springfield, where Lincoln served as a legislator, was only twenty miles from New Salem, but from the standpoint of geography’s interference with Lincoln and Mary becoming a couple, Springfield could have been on Mars. “I am quite as lonesome here as [I] ever was anywhere in my life,” Lincoln wrote to Mary. “Write me a good long letter after you get this. ...

Though it might not seem interesting to you, after you had written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in this ‘busy wilderness.’ ” He missed her but wondered if their difference in social backgrounds was an insurmountable block to marriage: “You would have to be poor without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently?” His concern demonstrates that he was no gold digger, that he had no expectation of sharing in the Owens’ family wealth.

The financial factor was less important to Mary than Lincoln feared. In the West of that era, plenty of wellto-do young women married gentlemen who could not keep a household like the ones they had grown up within.

In Lincoln’s favor was Mary’s interest in politics— unusual for a woman of that era. Lincoln wrote to her about governmental doings at the state capital. She later declared, “In politics we saw eye to eye,” and in other matters, as well, “We were congenial spirits.”

She found, however, that “Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of a woman’s happiness.” She offered an example: “There was a company of us going to Uncle Billy Green’s. Mr. Lincoln was riding with me, and we had a very bad branch to cross. The other gentlemen were very officious in seeing that their partners got over safely. We were behind, he riding in never looked back to see how I got along. When I rode up beside him I remarked, ‘You are a nice fellow; I suppose you did not care whether my neck was broken or not.’ He laughingly replied (I suppose by way of compliment) that he knew I was plenty smart to take care of myself.”

Mary included Lincoln among the “gentlemen,” but he failed to exhibit condescension toward ladies that gentlemen were supposed to show. A Kentucky gentleman familiar with drawing room etiquette and who paid no attention to a belle while they forded a stream would have been insulting her. Lincoln, who grew up in forests, intended his

indifference as a compliment. Mary knew Lincoln’s behavior demonstrated high opinion of her, but his demonstration grated.

One can sense her exasperation as she related another story: “He was crossing a prairie one day, and saw before him a hog mired down, to use his own language; he was rather fixed up and he resolved that he would pass on without looking towards the shoat. After he had gone by, he said, the feeling was irresistible, and he had to look back. And the poor thing seemed to say so wistfully—There now! My last hope is gone, that he deliberately got down and relieved it from difficulty.”

He would spoil his clothes for a pig but not extend his hand to a lady.

Month after month, Lincoln and Mary tried to build a relationship, but the necessary foundation to support a marriage just wasn’t there. She returned to Kentucky in 1838, where the next year she married the wealthy agriculturalist Vineyard, whose brother John had earlier wed Mary’s sister Nancy. Mary and Vineyard headed to western Missouri, where John and Nancy already resided and where their kinsman Sam Owens of Independence was a prominent merchant and politician. Mary and Vineyard located their homestead near Weston, a Missouri River town between present-day Kansas City and St. Joseph. There, Vineyard was a founder of Pleasant Ridge College.

As years passed, the old political congeniality between Mary and Lincoln ended. “We have differed as widely as the South is from the North,” she admitted.

Testimony in a congressional investigation conducted during the 1850s documented Vineyard’s participation in activities of border ruffians, slavery advocates who, among other things, would cross the Missouri River into Kansas Territory on election days to stuff ballot boxes and prevent anti-slavery Kansans from voting. Declared one witness, “Mr. Jesse Vineyard told me their determination to come here and vote on all occasions. ... Jesse Vineyard told me ... they intended ... to make this a slave state at all hazards.”

Not only did he help promote the travails of Bloody Kansas, but his sons fought in the Confederate Army.

Mary’s husband’s health declined in the late 1850s, and he died during the Civil War. Probably few, if any, of the Vineyard family’s Missouri friends and neighbors knew Lincoln had invited Mary to wed him.

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NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

“Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of a woman’s happiness.”

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PICTUREHISTORY.COM

Lincoln lived in New Salem, Illinois, from 1831 to 1837. One of his love interests, Mary Owens, traveled from her Kentucky plantation to New Salem to visit friends and catch up with Lincoln, whom she had met on a previous trip.

After the Civil War, Mary was adamant about suppressing public knowledge of her connection with Lincoln. Possibly her attitude was motivated by fear. Ex-Confederate guerillas such as Jesse James, who lived in nearby Kearney, roamed the countryside, seeking opportunities to take vengeance against anyone whose political sympathies could be considered pro-Lincoln.

After Mary’s husband died, she left their isolated farm and moved into the town of Weston, where she resided in a house near Main and Walnut streets.

An acquaintance wrote, “I often met Mrs. Vineyard in her declining years, and even then she was handsome, dignified, and refined.”

Mary outlived her old Illinois friend Lincoln by a dozen years, dying on July 4, 1877. The grave of Mary is located at the Pleasant Ridge United Baptist Church graveyard, at Highway P and Woodruff Road near Weston.

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“If I had known that he would be President, I would have paid more attention to him.”

A Small-Town Teenager A very different romantic interest with a Missouri connection was Sarah Rickard, with brown eyes and hair. She was a member of a politically active Illinois family. Her brother-in-law Jacob Early was a Democrat activist killed by an opponent who was acquitted through keen defense work from attorney Lincoln. Lincoln’s

Below: Sarah Rickard was sixteen when thirty-year-old Lincoln met her. She declined his advances and married Dr. Richard F. Barret ten years later, moving to Kansas City, where she is now buried.

roommate, Joshua Speed, was a prominent Whig who pursued Sarah romantically. After Speed left town in 1841, Lincoln eventually took up lodging in Sarah’s house, where she lived with her sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law, William Butler, who was a close political and personal friend of Lincoln.

Speed’s involvement with Sarah had been intense enough that Lincoln sent his old friend reports that Sarah was weathering Speed’s departure.

What Lincoln didn’t tell Speed was that Lincoln himself had begun an involvement with Sarah. Being members of the same household, Lincoln and Sarah had plenty of interaction. She was amiable enough about his attentions, accepting gifts, attending the theater with him, and going on other outings.

Having learned something from the Mary Owens experience, Lincoln was “attentive to the point of gallantry” with Sarah, according to someone who later conversed with her on the subject. The involvement of Sarah and Lincoln was public knowledge, and Lincoln remained welcome in the Butler home. There was at least one significant problem, however.

Sarah had just turned sixteen years old when Lincoln started romancing her. He was more than thirty years old. While such an age

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differential doesn’t preclude sentimental attachment, Sarah (like most teenagers) seemed to regard a thirty-year-old man as ancient.

“He knew I was not thinking of marrying,” she said decades later. “I was too young, and he was much older than I. But he hinted marriage to me several times.” She brushed off those hints, although subsequently she acknowledged, “If I’d known that he would have been President, I would have paid more attention to him.”

In 1850, ten years after keeping company with Lincoln, Sarah married Dr. Richard F. Barret. The couple moved west, where eventually President Lincoln appointed Dr. Barret registrar of a Nebraska Territory federal land office, where fees were virtually a license to print money for personal income. Eventually, the couple relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, first at 2011 Indiana Avenue and subsequently at 3737 Central.

Dr. Barret practiced medicine in that city. Sarah lived until 1911, and her grave is in Kansas City’s Elmwood Cemetery.

An Urban Aristocrat While Lincoln was living in the Rickard household, one outing they attended in 1842 was the wedding of her friend Martinette Hardin, sister to U.S. Representative John Hardin, who was a rival of Lincoln in Illinois politics. At the celebration, Sarah noticed Lincoln conversing pleasantly with Mary Todd.

He and Mary had been having an intense on-and-off relationship.

Like Mary Owens, Mary came from an aristocratic background. Her father was a wealthy businessman and politician in Kentucky’s cultural center of Lexington. Perennial presidential candidate and longtime national Whig Party leader Henry Clay lived near the Todd residence and was a family friend. One of her sisters had married Illinois Attorney General Ninian Wirt Edwards, and back home in Springfield, Illinois, the Edwards couple began hosting one Todd sister after another for extended visits, introducing them to marriageable gentlemen. Mary’s turn had come.

Although she hadn’t found a husband yet, Mary had found enjoyment in politics during the 1840 “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” presidential election campaign, in which supporters of the soon-to-be victorious Whig nominee William Henry Harrison were welcoming female participation—a dramatic innovation for the era. “I became quite a politician,” she told a friend, “rather an unladylike profession, yet at such a crisis, whose heart could remain untouched while the energies of all were called into question?”

In early June 1840, Springfield hosted a giant statewide Whig convention. At a barbecue, more than six hundred feet of tables were loaded with meat and bread. During after-dinner speeches, Mary’s uncle, Judge David Todd, was introduced as an old military associate of General Harrison. David was visiting from his home of Columbia, Missouri, and on his return to Missouri, Mary accompanied him.

“This portion of the state is certainly most beautiful,” she told a friend, “and in my wanderings I never encountered more kindness

and hospitality.” For example,“We returned from a most agreeable excursion to Boonville, situated immediately on the river and a charming place. We remained a week, attended four parties during the time; one was particularly distinguished for its brilliancy and city-like doings. ... Dancing was carried on with untiring vigor, kept up until three o’clock. ... I felt exhausted after such desperate exertions to keep pace with the music. Were Missouri my home, with the exception of St. Louis, Boonville would certainly in my estimation have the preference.”

Her charms made at least one conquest. She confided to a girlfriend, Mercy Levering, “If you conclude to settle in Missouri, I will do so, too.

[There] is one being here who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer and grandson of Patrick Henry. Uncle and others think he surpasses his noble ancestor in talents, yet Merce I love him not, and my hand will never be given where my heart is not.”

A legend holds that during Mary’s Missouri residence from June to September of 1840, Lincoln attended the state Whig convention held in Rocheport and visited her in nearby Columbia, but he was conducting court business in Illinois at the time. The legend is not true.

We do know, however, that her regimen of partying all night and sleeping all day apparently caused her to become so corpulent that upon her return to Springfield, Illinois, she startled friends who hadn’t seen her for months. We also know that Lincoln was repelled by overweight appearance in females. His reaction upon first seeing her when she returned from Missouri isn’t hard to guess. She may have started a weight loss program; at least such might be inferred from her comment in December that she had “not quite as great an exuberance of flesh as it once was my lot to contend with, although quite a sufficiency.”

Despite this and other challenges to their personal relationship, Lincoln and Mary eventually married. Although their marriage has been called stormy, neighbors universally described the couple as devoted and fun-loving. Indeed, children from blocks around thronged to the Lincoln house, which probably would not have happened if its atmosphere was full of strife.

When Lincoln and Mary left Springfield and moved to the White House, their relationship suffered. They always loved each other, but demands from the Civil War forced Lincoln to pay less attention to Mary. Death of one son in Springfield and another at the White House devastated both parents.

And then Lincoln was murdered as the couple sat together one night, trying to forget their cares. Losing him and his steadying influence was a blow from which Mary never recovered.

Mary Owens, Sarah Rickard, and Mary Todd each taught Lincoln about life and love, and their connections to Missouri help make the Show-Me State a part of Lincoln’s history.

Richard Lawrence Miller wrote the four-volume biography Lincoln and His World. His other books include Truman: The Rise to Power.

LINCOLN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Lincoln’s Missouri Girlfriends

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Lincoln married Mary Todd, who spent time visiting family and friends in Boonville and Columbia and attending parties, dancing, and socializing.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you conclude to settle in Missouri, I will do so, too.â&#x20AC;?

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At Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, visitors can learn about the Victorian-era art form of hair weaving.

Weaving flowers into locks of hair was a popular hobby for both women and men during the time period.

MUSEUMS

Missouri’s peculiar museums offer visitors strange exhibits found only in our state.

Some unusual museums in Missouri go out of their ways to remind us how thought-provoking, commemorative, and crucial museums, staples of preservation, remain to our culture.

Immerse yourself in World War II trenches at the U.S. Chemical Corps Museum, fight off chills walking through a hair museum, or fend off vampires with an 1850s-era vampire-killing kit. And if those don’t suit you, something in our

By Ashton Zimmerman Photography by Jiaxi Lu

finds probably will.

Here, we give you the wackiest museums of Missouri.

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Carpeting, area rugs, and prints on the walls at the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Outlet in St. James create realistic exhibits for each decade since 1900.

LEILA’S HAIR MUSEUM A hair museum? Strange, yes. But these thoughts are pushed aside when you actually visit Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence. Started in 1986, the museum is a museum of art that is made out of hair. Intricately crafted wreaths of flowers and hair adorn the walls. These garlands involve such meticulous work they take years to complete.

Owner Leila Cohoon has collected more than four hundred hair wreaths and two thousand pieces of jewelry. Leila is always on the search for more pieces, scouring antique dealers, garage sales, and auctions.

Each piece of the collection holds a story. Leila points to the first hair artwork she bought in 1956 and says, “My husband says that one’s the most expensive.” Leila was going to buy shoes that day but instead bought the hair creation, spurring her to buy hundreds more over the years.

Most of the hair wreaths were crafted in the Victorian era.

The art form acted as a marker in time, as the artist might snip his or her hair at a particular age to create a wreath to document that period of life. Many wreaths held family histories, each generation contributing locks of hair. Crafters often included horse hair since horse hair does not fade in color. White horse hair also provided a striking contrast against mostly brunette wreaths.

Leila has now learned how to weave hair herself. Of the thirty techniques she’s identified, she has figured out how to recreate twenty-six. And, if looking at these odd works of art isn’t enough for you, Leila teaches classes on hair weaving so you can create these beautiful hair wreaths yourself. www.hairwork.com/leila 816-833-2955 • 1333 S. Noland Road, Independence

VACUUM CLEANER MUSEUM AND FACTORY OUTLET Cleaning our homes would take a lot more effort without one appliance: the vacuum cleaner. The world’s first and only vacuum cleaner museum in St. James gives vacuums the honor they deserve. More than six hundred vacuum cleaners make up this collection, with up to two hundred typically on display.

Tom Gasko, the curator of the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Outlet, has had an interest in machines and vacuum cleaners since he was a child. But vacuums aren’t a symbol of just Tom’s younger years. They’re a symbol of childhood nostalgia for everyone. “People point out the vacuums they had in childhood,” Tom says.

For many, the vacuum cleaner was their first encounter with an electrical appliance because their first chore was vacuuming the house. The nostalgia continues with each decade since 1900 represented in period exhibits decked out with replica homes. The exhibits at the Vacuum Cleaner Museum change frequently to accommodate special themes. A recent theme included art deco vacuums, including some that look like New York City’s Chrysler Building.

Tom’s favorite vacuum is the 1962 Rainbow, which his mother bought two weeks before he was born. He compares the chrome futuristic model to R2D2 from Star Wars.

Remember your childhood and find your own favorite model at the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Outlet.

See the contraptions used to suck up dirt before the modern-day vacuum was invented. www.vacuummuseum.com 866-444-9004 • #3 Industrial Drive, St. James

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The U.S. Chemical Corps Museum has about six thousand artifacts related to chemical and biological warfare. The original museum was established after WWI at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, and is now located in Fort Leonard Wood.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph has elaborately staged exhibits to illustrate popular treatments for mental illnesses, such as the one pictured, at State Lunatic Asylum #2.

GLORE PSYCHIATRIC MUSEUM

U.S. CHEMICAL CORPS MUSEUM

What’s more mysterious than the workings of the mind?

Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph is dedicated to the study of mental health.

The museum covers the history of State Lunatic Asylum #2, which started in 1874. Glore’s exhibits are now housed on the grounds where this hospital was, but the health care patients and staff have since moved across the street to the Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Facility.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum is an eerie peek at the tools and equipment once used to cure mental illness. Exhibits are arranged to look like procedure rooms of the past, with descriptions of psychiatric practices and methods that were used at the time. Replicas, actual instruments used, and mannequins show how disorders were treated. One exhibit focuses on the use of electroshock therapy.

What makes this museum particularly unsettling is the detailed accounts of how mental illness affected the patients of State Lunatic Asylum #2. One exhibit displays the contents of a patient’s stomach. Nails, buttons, pins—you name it. This patient had a compulsion for swallowing unusual objects. In total, the doctors found 1,446 different pieces.

What you might not expect to find at this museum is an expansive collection of art created by patients of the psychiatric hospital. These creations express some of the emotions and ideas contained within the patients’ minds. One schizophrenic patient, who did dozens of embroidery works, proves there is beauty in chaos. The alternating thread colors and embroidered words give an insight into her psyche. www.stjosephmuseum.org/glore.htm 800-530-8866 • 3406 Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph

The exhibits at the U.S. Chemical Corps Museum in Fort Leonard Wood show what it’s like to serve in the Army Chemical Corps. Exhibits and large dioramas depict a hilltop mortar position in Korea, a soldier’s “hooch” in Vietnam in 1968, thirty feet of World War I trenches, a main street in America during World War II, a smoke-generating armored personnel carrier in Desert Storm, and the chaos that followed the collapse of the World Trade Center. The artifacts and photographs educate the nation on the organization’s efforts to protect service people and the American public.

The Corps is a branch tasked with defending the nation against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. The museum, which chronicles the start of the Corps in 1918 until present day, illustrates the efforts first responders put forth when handling a biological incident.

But according to museum director Kip Lindberg, the museum’s primary purpose is to train servicemen and women.

The facility acts as a repository of information that can be used to continue the research of defending the United States against enemy chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear warfare.

One exhibit features protective equipment for service animals. Dogs, horses, mules, and pigeons have all been used in the service of the Corps. Protective equipment for humans doesn’t fit the paws, hooves, and muzzles of animals, so equipment had to be specialized.

With free admission, learning about this unique branch of our nation’s military becomes easy. www.chemical-corps.org/cms/history/museum.html 573-596-4221 • 495 S. Dakota Avenue, Ft. Leonard Wood

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The most photographed building in Branson, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium is home to bizarre exhibits, artwork, and attractions.

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! ODDITORIUM In Branson, you’ll find an odd building and even more peculiar museum: the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

When you visit, you’ll first notice the building. The structure reflects the buildings damaged by the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1812, right down to the faux-slanting foundation and jumbo-cracked walls visible from the street. Legend holds that the earthquake made the Mississippi River run backwards for three days and made church bells ring in Philadelphia. The Odditorium’s cracked building pays homage to this historic earthquake.

The exhibits at the Odditorium are a legacy to the bizarre collections of the eccentric Robert Ripley, creator of the Believe It or Not! cartoon series.

Some of the unbelievable exhibits are pieces out of history such as a genuine vampire killing kit from 1850, several shrunken heads, a tribal skull from New Guinea, and interesting items from other lands and times.

Many of the exhibits are remarkable: an eight-footlong hand-crafted jade ship, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Forrestal made out of forty-eight thousand matchsticks, a playing card replica of the Roman Colosseum, a handcarved piece of art made out of camel bone, and a fullsized stage coach made from toothpicks.

A two-headed calf, a human unicorn from Manchuria, a giant ball of string, and other exhibits featuring worldrecord holders also make appearances in the Odditorium. www.ripleys.com/branson 417-337-5300 •3326 W. Highway 76, Branson

MORE UNIQUE AND AMUSING MUSEUMS

Advertising Icon Museum

Corn Cob Pipe Museum

Commercials for Frosted Flakes, Geico, Downy,

This museum showcases the “Corn Cob Pipe

and Kool-Aid would be a lot less interesting

Capital of the World” in Washington, Missouri.

without the mascots that make the commercials

www.corncobpipe.com

memorable. At the Advertising Icon Museum,

636-239-2109 • 400 W. Front Street, Washington

these faces are brought to life with exhibits displaying their history. This exhibit takes visitors by

Walt Disney Museum

appointment only, so call ahead.

The Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Mar-

www.advertisingiconmuseum.org

celine shows visitors why Walt Disney’s home-

816-960-5254 • 215 W. 19th Street, Kansas City

town made such an impact on him throughout his successful life.

Hollywood Wax Museum

www.waltdisneymuseum.org

This museum is the only wax museum in the

660-376-3343 • 120 E. Santa Fe Street, Marceline

country devoted entirely to celebrity figures.

It’s located in the entertainment capital of the

World’s Largest Toy Museum

Midwest, Branson.

The World’s Largest Toy Museum in Branson is

www.hollywoodwaxmuseum.com/branson

fun for all ages. The museum displays toys from

417-337-8277 • 3030 W. Highway 76, Branson

the 1800s to the present. www.worldslargesttoymuseum.com

Money Museum

417-332-1499 • 3609 W. Highway 76, Branson

Kansas City’s Money Museum offers visitors a look at the functions of the Federal Reserve.

Space Museum

You can see one of the largest vaults in the

The Space Museum of Bonne Terre has an array

region and have the chance to lift a twenty-

of space-related items such as space suits and

seven-pound gold bar worth $400,000.

rocks from space.

www.kc.frb.org/moneymuseum

www.space-mo.org

816-881-2683 • 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas City

573-358-1200 • 116 E. School Street, Bonne Terre

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SHOW-ME

Flavor

Steeped in Tradition:

THE TEAROOMS OF MISSOURI

TEA TIME is an age-old tradition in many cultures, but the delicacy of the English ladyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tea party reminds us that company was the goal, although food was savored, too.

Missouri is home to some of the most charming and historic teahouses in the country.

To stay in the nostalgic spirit of tea time, take a friend.

BY EMILY ADAMS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIAXI LU

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THE GOTHIC HOUSE TEA & EATERY Pat McNaughton fell in love with her house the moment she saw it. Intricate gothic architecture coupled with an authentic Victorian structure took her breath away and immediately took shape in her mind as a means to save her life. After Pat’s husband passed away, she started seeking a new way to occupy her time and passion for life. The sports bar they had run together seemed too much of a “man’s business” for her to continue alone. Her talent as a muralist and sign artist wasn’t enough to live on. She began to look for a new project that would bridge the transition her life was taking.

When her wandering eye stumbled upon a house on Tenth Street in St. Joseph, it felt as though fate was finally stepping in. At first glimpse, the house just looked like another project house—historic, but broken from age, and near condemnation. But Pat saw beyond the surface to the beauty that could be: a charming teahouse.

“The character of the house just kind of spoke to me,” Pat says.

“I knew what I wanted to do with it as soon as I saw it. It had everything I needed to make something special.”

Pat spent eight years gutting the entire house back to its remaining brick gothic revival structure. She doesn’t know where the concept of the teahouse transpired, except that the rustic beauty of the house evoked a sense of time gone by. A true love for the house compelled Pat to restore as much of the original structure as possible, including separate parlors for men and women. Each of the parlors is laced with vintage items and materials, creating a sense of a more indulgent time. She added a garden that she describes as an oasis in the middle of the city.

“Tearooms are about the finer things you don’t get any more out of life,” Pat says.

At 4 AM, Pat can be found in the kitchen, hand-making every morsel of cuisine from scratch. She has cooked her entire life, so the family recipes that she whips up are more than perfected. And once the pastries are baked and the salads have been tossed, she sits down to relax with her usual three to four cups of tea for the morning.

“I have always been an avid tea-drinker,” Pat says. “Coffee drinkers are always wired; they always have somewhere to rush off to.

With tea, it’s all about sitting back and enjoying the flavor.”

Even in the extravagant atmosphere of a renovated teahouse, Pat says her prices are still the lowest in the town.

“I know what it’s like to go out with friends and be forced to order the cheapest thing on the menu,” Pat says. “My house isn’t like that.

I want people to be able to indulge themselves here regardless of what’s in their wallet.”

Pat lives in the house and operates the entire business, from maintaining the garden to waitressing, which is what she says distinguishes her tearoom from chain restaurants.

Pat’s pride in her house is evident in the time and care she has put into it, and it is undeniable when she tells you her story.

“I could tell you that this whole journey was about salvaging this house,” Pat says. “But if I’m being honest, it was all about salvaging my own life—and it worked.” www.thegothichouse.com 720 S. 10th Street, St. Joseph•816-232-8115

“It’s not the tea that makes it special, it’s the spirit of the tea party.”

—AUTHOR AND TEA ENTHUSIAST EMILIE BARNES

Above: The Gothic House Tea & Eatery in St. Joseph is located in a National Historic Site from 1869. Owner Pat McNaughton spent eight years renovating the home. Below: The teahouse offers afternoon tea at 4 and 6 PM. Reservations are required.

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Alongside hot cups of tea, the menu at Greenwood Country Tea Room offers tantalizing fare such as panini primavera and cashew chicken salad. Right: Greenwood’s teahouse has three dining rooms, all decorated by owner Shari Groh.

GREENWOOD COUNTRY TEA ROOM In a small town in the backdoor of northwestern Missouri, Greenwood Country Tea Room is a place for community to come together.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, owner Shari Groh says she couldn’t think of any better place to heal than in a tearoom. Offering that same comfort to others gives Shari purpose.

“I have a defining moment daily when I know why I’m supposed to be here,” Shari says. “People crave that simplicity of life. That’s what they find here. They always leave happier than when they came in.”

Set in an extensive antique mall, the tearoom seats forty-three people and makes for a pleasant visit to the country town of Greenwood. The tearoom has three separate dining rooms, each with a quaint country feel.

With an eclectic décor, your eyes will never tire from exploring the walls of this tearoom. But the food is what will really hold your interest. From spinach artichoke quiche to the famous cashew chicken salad, the myth that teahouses offer merely quaint portions is dispelled.

This atmosphere and the delectable cuisine keep the tearoom’s regulars coming back each week, and Shari says the people are what make her teahouse worth the visit.

“Women crave these kind of places,” she says. “The beautiful, the quaint, the peaceful.”

And while Shari says that this business isn’t the most lucrative industry, she stays for the simple fact that it makes her happy to go to work each morning.

“Some days, I don’t make any money at all,” Shari says. “But after decades of doing this, it still doesn’t matter compared to the joy it brings me.” www.thegreenwoodcountrytearoom.com 502 Main Street, Greenwood•816-537-8434

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ANNA MARIE’S TEAS Anna Marie’s Teas is the heart and soul of Brenda Hedrick and her two daughters. Their business in Liberty grew out of a desire to find healthier alternatives to daily temptations. When Brenda decided she needed to follow a more organic lifestyle due to her allergies to cane sugar and black and white pepper, tea helped keep her on track. The variety of flavors in teas curbed her other cravings.

Though all three have very different taste in tea, the mother and two daughters are die-hard tea drinkers. This passion for tea helped pave the way when they decided to transition from owning a gift shop to operating an inn with monthly tea parties—that, and the core mind-set behind tea drinking.

“I think what I enjoy most about teahouses is that the entire culture and history of it all revolves around relaxation,” says Selena Speaks, one of Brenda’s daughters.

This teahouse is a relaxing haven for those looking to take a break from the fast-paced world, especially with its bottomless cup deal and loose-leaf teas. People may come in for the food and beverages, but they leave having caught up on their lives.

“No one comes here to eat fast, swig something hot, and get out,” Selena says. “To really enjoy a cup of tea, you sit down, get a good book or a good friend, and enjoy it. That’s not like most forms of entertainment today.”

In its earliest days, having daily tea was a symbol of finery and class. It taught young ladies etiquette and properness, and at Anna Marie’s Teas, it still does. The private parties and tea talks it provides are a nod to the traditional intentions of teatime. Ladies learn true old-English table manners and tea-drinking etiquette from the experts at Anna Marie’s.

“The best part of people comes out at a tea party,” Selena says. www.annateashop.com 124 S. Terrace Avenue, Liberty•816-792-8777

Right: At Anna Marie’s Teas in Liberty, guests can purchase intricate tea ware for home-brewing. Below: Guests can also purchase a variety of loose-leaf tea flavors such as black raspberry and strawberry cream. The teahouse sells its tea online as well.

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TEA ROOM IN THE VALLEY Francine Gallo was running a coffee shop in Tennessee when she decided she wanted a change. Her coffee-shop lifestyle was hectic and rushed, and she was looking for a way to slow her life down.

Throughout her childhood, her mother had taken her and her sister, Elaine Willingham, to tearooms for a one-of-a-kind treat.

After the daily commotion that accompanied coffee-shop life, Francine realized her memories of teahouse serenity were exactly what she was looking for, so she moved to Missouri to open a tea shop with Elaine.

Tea Room in the Valley opened in 2005 in Valley Park, but the house itself is more than a hundred years old. The sisters have designed their tearoom in the daintiest way possible, with hardwood floors, large windows, and lace curtains. This crafted Victorian atmosphere makes customers feel as if they have stepped into another world.

“Having tea in our tearoom is like having lunch in a friend’s house but on a day in the past,” Francine says. “It’s just that relaxing.”

With a backdrop of soft classical music, visitors come to Tea Room in the Valley to satisfy a craving for Chef Tina’s famous homemade chicken salad, an array of desserts, and light and airy popovers. Since these pastries are made by only one other restaurant in St. Louis, Tina has earned her title as the “Popover Queen.”

Elaine’s own private label tea, Founding Fathers Tea, was first blended in Missouri and is served along with a variety of other highquality teas. The china these delicate teas are served in is also available for purchase, so you can continue the tradition of tea at home.

A visit to the Tea Room in the Valley means a peaceful break from the pressures of life, a few hours devoted to conversation, and a takehome token to remember the experience forever. www.tearoominthevalley.com 505 Meramec Station Road, Valley Park•636-225-4832 Delicate china, lace curtains, and other Victorian touches help create the refined and relaxing teahouse atmosphere at Tea Room in the Valley in Valley Park.

MISS AIMEE B’S A love for a house built in the 1800s founded Miss Aimee B’s, a teahouse that its owners agree revolves around a nostalgia unique to contemporary tearooms.

Owners Judy Howell and Sherry Pfaender did not plan to open a teahouse back when they were crafters together in the Missouri circuit. But after seeing a St. Charles home built in the 1800s, they knew opening Miss Aimee B’s was the right move.

“This house is one of the most gorgeous places you’ll ever see,” Judy says. “It just lends itself to white linen.”

Rich teas and Victorian architecture are not the only reason patrons visit this teahouse. Judy says the entire house gives off a feeling unlike most in the dining industry—a ladylike feeling.

“Women like to gather with other women in pretty clothes,” Judy says. “The fact that the sole purpose of this place is to do that creates an atmosphere that’s hard to resist.”

In more than twenty-five years in business, Judy has received multiple personal thank-you notes from customers expressing gratitude for a luxurious experience and the chance to take a moment for the simple things in life.

Miss Aimee B’s is a prime spot for any occasion, but the staff specializes in weddings and private showers. www.saucecafe.com/missaimeeb 837 First Capitol Drive, St. Charles•636-946-4202

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SHADY GABLES TEAROOM

Above: Guests can purchase unique tea ware at Miss Aimee B’s, located in a home built in 1865 in St. Charles. Below: Shady Gables in Versailles is an English-style tea room in a 110-year-old Victorian farmhouse offering afternoon tea and an expansive gift shop.

Thirteen years ago, a 110-year-old house sparked the imagination of Terry Silvey. With its Victorian architecture and authentic English feel, the house quickly filled a unique niche in the small community of Versailles.

Terry, a busy man, knew firsthand about the number of restaurants suited to the on-the-go routine. What Versailles needed was a place to unapologetically slow down.

So, what had for years been a fondness for the comforting liquid and a fascination with English culture became a staple in this Missouri town’s lifestyle.

“Tea is the second most-consumed beverage in the world,” Terry says. “I’ve got to think that’s because people crave something different than their daily habits. There aren’t many places in the hustle and bustle of life that allow people to relax and enjoy life.”

Every item on the Shady Gables menu is fresh and made in house, and the teas are of a loose-leaf blend. The personal touches at this teahouse are evident as Terry lives on the premises.

“I’m opening my beautiful home up to people to enjoy it as much as I do,” Terry says.

An English tearoom through and through, small details such as tea bells to ring for assistance and rules against pagers and cell phones ensure you’ll enjoy the experience just as much as the company you bring with you.

“Women with families and careers need an outlet to spoil themselves,” Terry says. “They come here to get lost for a few hours.”

Getting lost is easy at Shady Gables when entering through the tree-lined pathways, wandering around the English gardens, and leaving satisfied, pampered, and relaxed. www.shadygables.com 300 E. Newton Street, Versailles•573-378-2740

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Cheesecakes•Ice Cream Sandwiches•Deli 121 E Broadway St., Brunswick, MO 660-548-3600 • www.kaitlynns.com MENTION THIS AD AND RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR CHEESECAKE ORDER FROM FEB. 1 - APRIL 30!

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THE OFFICIAL BRATWURST OF

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A Family Business that treats YOU like Family!

We have over 60 varieties of Award Winning Bratwurst!

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12 miles south of Hermann on Hwy. 19 in Swiss, MO y 800-793-SWISS y www.swissmeats.com [65] February 2013

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Augusta

THE SWEET SPOT IT WAS INSANITY that led Judy and Robert Gross to open Rebecca’s Cafe and Desserts in Augusta, Judy says. Neither had ever owned a restaurant.

The previous restaurant that occupied the space on Locust Street in Augusta had recently closed, and Judy was about to graduate from East Central College’s culinary program in Union. Everything fit, Judy says.

In the tourist town of Augusta—one with breweries, wineries, and bed and breakfasts—this cafe, named after the owners’ daughter, fits right in. It is a restaurant with a focus on local products, which Judy and Robert use whenever possible. Admittedly, this is easier in the summer, Judy says, but the pair uses local ingredients in its dishes year-round. Rebecca’s Cafe has a local pork supplier and works with local farms such as Centennial Farms and Orchard for its apples, blackberries, and honey to offer customers the rich tastes of the area.

Because of this focus on locality, the menu is always evolving based on what is in season. The duo makes everything they serve themselves. Customers will be hard-pressed to find any processed food on the chalkboard listing.

The daily fare is one typical of a cafe, including soups, sandwiches, and quiche, but the cafe specials broaden the menu offerings. Barbecue pork steak, crab macaroni and cheese, and homemade chicken Parmesan have all graced the restaurant’s china.

Of course, desserts take a starring role. The cheesecake is the cafe’s most popular sweet choice, and customers can order from an array of options that sits underneath the display glass, including blueberry, turtle, and pumpkin (when it’s in season). But it’s the plain cheesecake that takes the top spot, especially when drizzled with the restaurant’s homemade caramel or chocolate sauce.

“For some reason, people just want plain,” Judy says.

The cafe offers a slew of pies. Throughout the year, customers can order pumpkin, sweet potato, pecan, or apple, among other decadent indulgences. The restaurant also makes many types of cupcakes, Judy says, and customers can always call the restaurant and order a whole pie or cake to take home.

The restaurant hosts seasonal dinners as well. These are popular five-course affairs featuring the bounty of local harvests. One seasonal dinner featured pork chops with locally sourced pork, blackberry sauce with local blackberries, and blueberry cheesecake with local blueberries. The dinners are reservation only. —Rachel Kiser This restaurant is one of sixty-eight restaurants, wineries, breweries, and farms featured in Savor Missouri: River Hill Country Food and Wine, by Nina Furstenau. To order the book,which will be available in April, visit www.

MissouriLife.com or call 800-492-2593.

Facebook: Rebecca’s Cafe & Desserts 5501 Locust Street•314-703-3098

SARAH HERRERA

SHOW-ME

MISSOURI LIFE TASTES MENUS WORTH THE DRIVE.

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Liberty

Volcanic Sushi TUCKED AWAY in Liberty’s western side is Moonlight Sushi, a spacious dining room decorated with Asian-inspired friezes, green bamboo stalks, and a hand-written specials board. Deep cerulean and rich orange set off the wide windows and make a great backdrop for the culinary artistry you can expect to enjoy. Moonlight offers a choice of booth, table, or bar, where you can watch the skilled sushi chefs work their magic. We stopped in for lunch and ordered a sashimi appetizer, which came

Stanberry

on a carefully arranged plate with a small dab

Farm Fresh Food

of wasabi and a mound of shaved pink ginger offering complexity to the folded servings of white tuna, yellow tuna, and salmon. The white tuna was earthy when dipped in super-salty soy sauce. The lunch special is a generous invention:

THE WABASH Junction restau-

pickles, and Dijon mustard. Dinner selec-

rant in Stanberry features uptown meals

tions include grilled chicken alfredo,

at down-home prices. Katie and Jason

barbecue pork loin, and steak caprese.

Thomas, along with business partner

Jason grinds a combination of short rib,

Mike McQuinn, source produce, honey,

chuck, and round for half-pound “naked

eggs, beef, and pork from local farms.

burgers.” Prices are reasonable, ranging

Menus change weekly. The chefs say

from $7 for lunch to $20 at the high end

they make “every sauce, every dressing,

for dinner. Wabash Junction has Global

every stock” in house. With a comfortable

Cuisine night on Wednesdays, Ladies

atmosphere, Wabash Junction is perfect

Night on Thursdays, seafood specials

for a romantic date night or a relaxed fam-

on Fridays, prime rib on Saturdays, and

ily dinner. For lunch, the restaurant offers

a brunch buffet on Sundays. Bring your

sandwiches, salads, and daily specials.

appetite and a friend, and make the trip

two rolls of your choice as well as miso soup or ginger salad, all for $8.95. A favorite at the Moonlight is the volcano roll. Arriving like a flower on a plate, a circle of sushi anchors the dish while loops of hot chili sauce bring color and fire. A mound of baked tuna and salmon top it all. It’s a unique flavor well worth trying. Stop

by Moonlight Sushi in Liberty for an enjoyable dining experience. —Emily McIntyre

EMILY MCINTYRE; CAROL CARPENTER

www.moonlightsushi.com•8678 N.E. Flintlock Drive•816-407-7878

Try the Cuban Panini. Grilled home-

to Stanberry for delicious fare.

made sourdough bread, roast pork loin

—Carol Carpenter

and ham, Swiss cheese, homemade

www.wabashrestaurant.com 100 W. First Street•660-783-2200

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PROMOTION

How Beef Goes From

Pasture To Plate T

en calves trot onto the auction floor at Callaway Livestock Center at Kingdom City.

After staying in pens overnight, getting early morning immunizations from the on-site veterinarian, and waiting for their turn, it’s finally their moment to shine, as dozens of buyers sitting in blue plastic stadium seats flash paddles to bid. Beneath those forty hooves, a scale weighs the small herd, and a big screen television displays more than six thousand pounds.

Their farmer has slipped a handwritten note on lined paper to the auctioneer, who reads their specifications: all had the common seven-way shot to protect against bacteria, the heifers had been running with a bull, and they are from Vichy. The first paddle goes up.

Because Missouri ranks second in the nation for number of beef cows, with 1.865 million, according to the USDA—chances are high that much of the beef Missourians eat comes from their home state. Here’s a look at how beef gets from the pasture to your plate.

COW-CALF OPERATIONS In the springtime, nearly any Missouri highway winds through landscapes peppered with cows and new calves nose-down in the grass.

All these animals help people and the planet.

BY TINA CASAGRAND

“We can’t digest lignin in grasses, but ruminants are magical in that sense,” says Mary Hendrickson, associate professor with University of Missouri Extension. “Ruminants are really part of a sustainable landscape and diet. If you’re going to have productive landscapes where people can make livelihoods, then ruminants are an important aspect. They also fertilize. Wellmanaged pastures can provide for diverse bird species and habitats.”

Because Missouri ranks second in the nation for number of beef cows . . . chances are high that much of the beef Missourians eat comes from their home state.

Erodible soils are especially good for grazing because they support cows better than crops. Indeed, most of the top counties for cow numbers and pastureland are in the southwest part of the state, according to Missouri Beef Industry Council data. “This is one of our best resources in the state of Missouri,” Mary says of our pastures. MU Extension specialists help farmers around the state raise the best beef they

can while staying responsible to the environment because the two go hand-in-hand.

TRADITIONAL STEAKHOUSE BEEF Once farmers wean heifers and steers, they may continue to let them graze pastures, start them on grain diets, or sell them at auctions and sale barns. At Callaway, Richard Case explains, some sellers travel from as far as Texas and West Virginia, while many buyers come from Kansas and Nebraska. “I guess the market is good here,” he says, throwing up his hands. “I’m not for sure.” When people come from out of state, they stay at local hotels, and buyers might also visit other nearby auctions. “After they come here on Monday, they’ll go to Cuba on Tuesday, Vienna on Wednesday, Bowling Green on Friday,” says Michael Husky, barn manager.

On sale days here, between 1,500 and three thousand cows and calves get sold, and where they go next is up to the highest bidder. Richard says local farmers buy cows to increase their herd size or calves to put in their feedlots, and butcher shops and other small buyers buy calves to butcher. The rest go to large feedlots owned by firms such as JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and National Beef. Feed yards such as these feed cattle a grain-based diet for about

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It takes about seven pounds of corn to put on one pound of meat. In addition to being a costeffective way to get beef calves bigger, faster, Mary says corn also provides a different kind of well-marbled fat. “You can cut that piece of meat with a butter knife,” she says. “If you want juicy, traditional steakhouse taste, you’re going to get that from an animal that comes out of the feedlot system,” Mary says.

Many beef cattle are “finished” in feedlots on grain-based diets because “finishing” on grass alone would require more time, about two years, before butchering, which affects farmers’ yearly incomes. But also, finishing on grass only allows farmers to finish cattle up to choice-grade beef, but not prime.

Because beef fed solely on grass and without any grain doesn’t have rich fat patterns, it re-

Many beef cattle are “finished” in feedlots on grain-based diets because “finishing” on grass alone would require more time, about two years, before butchering. quires long, slow cooking methods. That’s not great for grilling, but some people might like the “beefier, meatier, stronger taste,” Mary says.

Organic production is difficult and more expensive for farmers because the certification requires organic pastures and grain, no antibiotics or growth hormones, and unrestricted outdoor access. At butchering plants, processors must segregate organic animals

from non-organic and in the cooler or freezer.

The processors must also pay for certification and fees, which further raises the cost to farmers and consumers. Some farmers use less stringent certifications such as “naturally grown,” and both can be found at farmers markets or in local grocery stores.

AT THE BUTCHER SHOP Going from live beef to hanging carcass takes about an hour, says Nick Fantasma, at Paradise Meats in Trimble. Nick is the co-owner, along with his parents, who bought an old-fashioned meat locker in 1995. Like larger chain packing plants, Paradise Meats is inspected by USDA inspectors. Paradise Meats specializes as a private label processor for farmers who sell directly to restaurants and at farmers markets. Paradise also sells to some chefs in New York City.

Paradise butchers dry-age beef for a minimum of ten to twelve days. Often, they average fourteen to twenty-one days. “With a muscle structure that’s as big as a beef, it really takes time to age,” Nick says. “The aging process breaks down muscle mass, making it less dense, which makes it more tender.”

He offers an analogy: “You think about a tree that falls down into the woods. Once that tree

SIRLOIN TENDERLOIN CHUCK

RIB

SHORT LOIN

TOP SIRLOIN

ROUND

BOTTOM SIRLOIN CUTS OF BEEF Here are the various cuts of beef to enjoy.

To learn more about the Missouri beef community, visit MoBeef.org

BRISKET SHANK

PLATE

falls down, those organisms and those enzymes start feeding on that organic material and begin to decompose it. The same thing happens to beef.” Requests for dry-aged meat are up, as it makes flavors more robust.

Paradise slaughters mostly Angus and Hereford breeds from farmers, but don’t do as many custom cuts for retail.

“The bottleneck is the slaughter floor,” Nick says. “We go through six to eight loins on a regular basis and to do three to four beef a week just for those steaks takes up a lot of time on our slaughter schedule. We’ll get sixty pounds of steak, and the rest is roasts and hamburgers.” Because of that, they carry Vintage Natural Beef, cut from Holsteins from the state of California, and Texas-sourced Wagyu brisket beef for barbecue competitors.

Not all butcher shops work this way. Some source their cattle from auction barns, and some buy whole or pre-packaged beef from plants like Tyson Foods.

BACK TO THE PLATE Of course, most consumers get their meat from grocery stores. Recent spikes in energy costs have pushed prices up and consumption down in recent years—in 2011, annual nationwide beef consumption was down to 25.6 billion pounds, compared to its 28.1 billion pound peak in the mid-2000s. But ground beef is still king.

“It’s versatile. You can use it for a lot of different things,” says Dave Baumhoer, butcher shop manager for Moser’s Discount Foods in Fulton, which also gets its beef from national packers.

At his store, where they do custom cuts, he says ground beef is more popular in cooler weather.

“It’s an image builder,” he adds. “I feel that if you have a good ground beef program and people trust your ground beef and know it’s consistently good, you have a good meat department.”

The other kind of cuts customers buy varies depending on what is on sale, he says. But whether people buy custom steaks or coolerbin specials, one thing is for sure: their meal was orchestrated by a lot of Missouri people who care about good food.

FLANK SHANK

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PROMOTION

MISSOURI SCULPTOR

HARRY WEBER

by Marty Willadsen

H

arry Weber kneeled on the hardwood floor to make sure his shoe laces were tied tightly. He had done this many times during the last three years of his eight year existence.

The setting was familiar—a family-owned art store in St. Louis. He knew where things were; sketchbooks on aisle three, pencils and charcoal around the corner at the end of aisle five. Art gum erasers near the cash register.

But who needed erasers? His shopping list was tucked away as a mental image under his neatly

combed Ivy League haircut, and erasers were not on it. He assumed an awkward sprinter’s starting position and waited for the approving nod from his father. Once the signal was relayed, the youngster had ninety seconds to retrieve everything he could from the store.

Ninety seconds in an art store. No better way to celebrate a birthday!

Though his parents, of course, footed the bill for each expedition for art supplies, his father saw it as merely a way for his son to

pass time. No living could ever be made by drawing pictures, he reasoned. One of the few bits of advice the elder gave his son was to “quit wasting paper” by drawing only one thing on a sheet of paper. The advice was well received by Weber, who from that point learned to put as many sketches as possible on a single leaf.

In later years, Harry Weber, one of Missouri’s premier sculptors would describe his passion for art as a “bad habit.” He was rarely found without a pen or pencil in tow, and he employed

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PROMOTION

whatever was at hand to be the recipient of his impromptu creation: a menu, a cocktail napkin, a handout at a funeral. Nothing was sacred.

Weber’s passion for art and his unique style has served him well through all facets of his life. Scorning his father’s desire for Weber to become an engineer, the young man would attend Princeton, allowing the Navy to pay for his education. He would repay this debt over the next four years, including two as an antisubmarine officer on the Destroyer Charles Berry and two as a Patrol Officer in charge of ten river patrol boats in Vietnam. Weber would use the down-time to sharpen his drawing skills, sketching the service men on patrol, resting, or in the aftermath of a fire fight. By then his skills as an artist were unquestioned.

After his discharge in 1969, Weber became a part of the corporate world, as he found employment at a consumer marketing firm and later opened his own consumer research firm.

In 1977, the same year he started his company, Weber joined a fox hunting club, as a pursuit of his love for horses and riding. Knowing of his skill with a pencil and sketchbook, the membership, in 1980, asked Weber if he would entertain the notion of sculpting a fox hound for display at the club. Confident that he could, and to the surprise of no one, the sculpture was

deemed a success by all parties. Encouraged, Weber went on to create a second bronze piece which he called Coyote at the Creek.

Weber was now curious as to the marketability of his new found skill, so he placed both sculptures on display in a gallery on Madison Avenue in New York. When the gallery was robbed and Weber’s sculptures were taken along with those of classic artists Frederick Remington and Pierre Jules Mene, Weber realized that there must be some value to his work.

In 1995, Weber traded his office and suit for a shed and apron, and began his new career path as a full time sculptor; a decision which he has never regretted. He has become one of the premier sculptors in America with more than 140 of his larger-than-life pieces on display. While not confined to just athletes, Weber has 27 pieces displayed at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and ten of the greatest St. Louis Cardinals guarding the entry to Busch Stadium. The likenesses of Frank White, Larry Bird, Bernie Federko, and Doug Flutie have also been created by the hands of this master artist who lives with his wife, Anne, on a neatly appointed horse ranch just west of St. Louis.

Says Weber, “My sculptures seek to embody that spark, that special energy, there is about just being alive. You can see it in human beings

and in animals, and it is entirely admirable.

Choosing the moment to portray in a sculpture is often about feeling. I want to capture the wonder of what human beings and animals can achieve when they’re at their very best.”

A study of Weber’s work will prove him to be an artist which Missourians can be proud to call one of our own.

Harry is currently working on three pieces for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame; busts of soon to be named Missouri Sports Legends Pete Adkins and Mike Shannon, and a larger than life sized statue of Norm Stewart. All three will be unveiled along the Hall’s Legends Walkway in 2013. www.mosportshalloffame.com 417-889-3100

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Inspiring PEOPLE

Harp therapist Cynthia Green Libby teaches students the basics of music therapy at Missouri State University.

Cynthia is also a skilled oboist but turned to the harp to comfort her mother after she became ill.

Harp

Missouri harp therapists bring peace to those in pain.

MY GRANDMOTHER lived with us for the last year of her life, enduring increasing pain from cancer and senility from Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the few things that calmed her was the peaceful sound of my harp. Often, I sat by her bed and played simple songs she recognized, exercises, and classical repertoire. Her face would grow quiet as she listened.

It turns out I was unofficially practicing harp therapy. Harp therapists spend time with those who are in pain or very ill under hospice care.

A clinical study done at San Diego Hospice demonstrated a skilled harp therapist can help seventy-one percent of patients breathe more easily, lower anxiety levels in eighty-four percent of patients, and reduce pain for sixty-three percent of patients.

Harp therapists, or practitioners, often undergo intensive certification processes, which teach evaluation of patients, adaptation of music to suit the particular needs before them, and bedside manners. Standards of practice for therapeutic musicians have been established by the National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians (NSBTM).

The harp therapy movement has slowly grown since the nineties, and Missouri has its fair share of talented harp practitioners with stories to tell.

Meet Amy Camie of St. Louis and Cynthia Green Libby of Springfield.

AMY CAMIE While many harp therapists came to the harp later in life, Amy Camie, adopted by two music teachers, began studying classical harp in fourth grade.

BY EMILY MCINTYRE

After years studying under talented teachers, attending camps and workshops, and touring Europe with an orchestra, her shift toward the freer art of composing and improvisation began with the recording of a tape for a family friend going through hospice.

“This music was not a performance, but a sharing of love from the inside out without any attachments to the outcome,” Amy says.

Amy’s exploration into therapeutic rather than performance music forced her to face her fears and uncertainties about her ability to play harp without any sheet music, an insecurity common to classical musicians.

“The pathway from my heart to my fingers was opening as my self-judgments and inner critics were dissolving,” she says. “This music is simply an expression of my love. It became the only way to share music.”

COURTESY KEVIN WHITE

HEALING

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COURTESY JULIE ENSTALL

Several of Amy’s healing harp CDs have been used in nine different research studies indicating how they reduce pain, distress, and anxiety levels. The Magic Mirror, Amy’s first original CD, has been shown to increase neurological functioning in cancer patients and support the immune system after one listening.

In 2010, Amy was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and began her own experience with the healing power of music.

“Rarely in life does one have the opportunity to receive for herself the benefits of her gifts,” Amy says. “Now I am one of those patients being comforted by that same music, expressed from the deepest part of my soul.”

Amy feels her own experience with a lifethreatening disease has helped her connect with her patients more deeply and added a depth to her music.

Currently, Amy is healthy and thriving after her journey with cancer and continues to create inspired books, musical CDs, concerts, and healing events. www.amycamie.com CYNTHIA GREEN LIBBY Cynthia Green Libby started as an oboist.

She’s studied in Germany and Canada, and she received her doctoral degree from the prestigious Eastman School of Music.

Serving as the professor of oboe at Missouri State University, the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, and as principal oboe of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, she has toured America, Europe, Scandinavia, and the former Soviet Union as a performer and has had nearly twenty oboe pieces by women composers dedicated to her. Cynthia’s journey into therapeutic music began years after her interest was first awakened.

“To be honest,” she says, “as a young person I had too much ego, too much to prove first as a performer. So the motivation has been more about my spiritual journey than anything else.”

In 2005, however, Cynthia’s mother passed away after a battle with cancer,

Amy Camie has been studying the harp since the fourth grade. She created Magic Mirror, an album which has been proven to reduce pain and stress in patients.

providing the strongest nudge yet. During her mother’s illness, Cynthia had realized her inability to comfort her mother with the piercing sounds of the oboe. A sabbatical from Cynthia’s teaching position coincided with Cynthia learning about an intensive program teaching harp therapy, and soon Cynthia took her first step in learning to play the harp. She bought one.

Now she teaches Introduction to Music and Healing, an introductory class in harp therapy at MSU. Open to non-music majors, in the course of sixteen weeks the class acquaints students with the harp and with

basic principles of music therapy.

This groundbreaking university-level course has been highly successful, receiving coverage twice in Harp Therapy Journal.

“Becoming a harp therapist has changed my life in important ways,” Cynthia says.

“It has positively affected my approach to music-making in all situations. Now I always enter the room with two instruments: the oboe or the harp and my spirit. It is no longer about me; it is all about channeling God’s love through the music.”

Amy and Cynthia are only two of the many dedicated harp and music therapists who bring peace and healing to people enduring illnesses of every kind in Missouri.

For more information on harp therapists, visit www.harprealm.com.

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Join us on May 4, 11 am-7 pm!

Art

Missouri Life Festival at

Tickets: $20 early bird price per person through March 31.

Visit MissouriLife.com/2013festival or call 800-492-2593 for tickets.

Limited capacity, so reserve your festival ticket today!

Contact Kiersten Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dell at 660-888-0735 or kiersten@missourilife.com or visit www.MissouriLife.com

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SHOW-ME

Homes

The ra Frank Lloydomniendelis Wright home in Kirkwood a prime Bus doles sequam, volorep erepudaeis ilexample ofdolupta the architect’s style incorporating laborum, odia adis quam quam, nam quis et dolBusorganic and a bond between site and structure. doles raarchitecture sequam, omniendelis volorep erepudae The home is situated in a thicket of persimmon trees.

Gateway TO WRIGHT A Frank Lloyd Wright home showcases organic architecture in St. Louis.

Although the former owner, Russell Kraus, had Wright’s original blueprints, he was never able to carry out plans for the gate. A year ago, the home’s nonprofit manager, using Wright’s original design, had the gate built and installed.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHEREE K. NIELSEN

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ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE, a term coined by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1908, promotes harmony between human habitation and nature through design. The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, formerly owned by Russell and Ruth Kraus, is a prime example of organic architecture. Land and structure mesh as one with the goal of interweaving the beauty of nature into the practicality of everyday life.

A wood and brick hallway compresses visitors until they are released into an opening created by large glass terrace doors (shown on next page). Wright used this compressionand-release technique to create balance.

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ML

SHOW-ME

Homes

Wright took inspiration from Japanese design with this table and chair set. The home’s former owner was a stained glass artist, and he designed the terrace doors.

Horizontality, simplicity, and monumentality are three architectural principles that inspired Wright during visits to Japan. Evident in the home’s rake joints, the brick’s recessed mortar emphasizes the horizontal line of the home. “Wright envisioned the structure paralleling and nestling into the earth,” says Joanne Kohn, board chairman for the home.

Around the late 1930s, Wright started designing Usonian homes. These were small, one-story dwellings with radiantfloor heating, flat roofs, and motor courts of natural materials for those of modest or middle income.

After World War II, Russell, a multi-faceted artist, began searching for a suburban home to live in with his wife, Ruth. He purchased a 3.6-acre tract with a persimmon grove and an additional half-acre tract within Kirkwood city limits. After the initial land purchases, Russell considered several architects to design his home. His search ended when he read in The Washington Star that newspaperman Loren Pope commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build a home in Falls Church, Virginia, for the meager price of $3,500. (Pope also received a loan from the Star for the

exact amount.) This went against the popular belief that Wright was a rich man’s architect.

With high hopes, Russell penned a letter to Wright stating, “I now feel like a man

A hexagon-shaped light table, believed to be the only one designed by Wright, was used for cutting stained glass.

who suddenly holds in his embrace the woman who for years he could only worship from afar.”

He received an acceptance response. This would be the first of five Wright-designed Missouri buildings. Russell signed a contract

to purchase the home, but he spent considerably more than the original price of $3,500.

The final completion amount is unknown.

Keeping Russell’s needs in mind, the home’s floor plans consisted of two intersecting parallelograms. The equilateral parallelogram (or diamond module) defined the home’s geometry with natural building materials, sharply angled bricks, and brick retaining walls.

A strong visual connection between interior and exterior was key in Wright’s Usonian homes. Wright and Russell situated the home in the persimmon grove. Terrace doors faced west for tree views and comfortable breezes. Natural tidewater red cypress and brick was used throughout.

Groundbreaking occurred in April 1952, but there were several construction delays.

No one could supply the special angled brick for the building corners—until Ruth found an old building in St. Louis with similar products and convinced Alton Brick to make a special mold. Then Russell and Ruth faced more obstacles: a depleted supply of cypress wood, surrounding land getting purchased by others, and illness. Although the couple moved in New Year’s Day

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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AROUND MISSOURI

• • • •

The Krauses used cypress in the home but substituted plyboard for the modular furniture to keep costs down. The dividers in the bookcases align with the lines of the floor plan.

master bedroom. Russell waited until Wright’s passing in 1959 to install air conditioning.

Ruth passed in 1992, and Russell lived there until 2001. He passed away in 2009.

The home, acreage, and contents were purchased by the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park and donated to St. Louis County, which leased Study Bed it back to the nonprofit.

The nonprofit manages the house Bath Master Bed Bath and its restoration. The newest adPlanting Motor Court Lanai dition is a Cherokee Red iron enLiving trance gate built by Eureka Forge from Wright’s original plans.

Dining Carport Terrace Tours are available Wednesdays Work Space through Sundays by appointment.

Studio The mission and vision of the Frank Lloyd Wright House is to preserve the home and grounds and serve Wright designed the St. Louis home to consist of two as an educational tool relating to intersecting parallelograms. This gave the home a strong Wright’s architecture and design. geometry to be complemented by organic building materials.

With no space wasted and seamless designs, many regard Wright as a green architect and a man before his time. match the unique geometry of the house. www.ebsworthpark.org Wright didn’t believe in attics, basements, 120 N. Ballas Road, Kirkwood or air conditioning, but he did provide am314-822-8359 ple storage with two walls of closets in the lD ave Gr

e riv

supervising children. Interior steel reinforcement supports the cantilevered hearth.

Interesting patterns from recessed and threedimensional lamps reflect off the ceiling, creating a soothing ambience. Even the beds

Entry

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Ki

Tools

en

1956, the home’s interior would take more than ten years to finish completely, primarily due to financial issues.

Wright’s use of the “compression and release” technique created balance in the home. A narrow cypress and brick hallway welcomes you in the compression stage. Then, when you turn the corner, you are “released” to see artistic glass terrace doors connecting the home’s interior to the outdoors.

The concrete red-hued floor gives way to the dominating unit of the parallelogram in the Usonian home.

This geometric shape and its components of triangles and hexagons are carried over to the modular furniture as well.

Nothing in Wright’s design or concept of interior home-decorating was extraneous. The house itself was the decoration. No extras were needed.

The open living room and central hearth exemplified Wright’s idea of family interaction. The adjacent kitchen, in full view of the family room, is perfect for

Terrace

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four memorable suites, each with a private hot tub and a “bird’s eye view” Quiet & relaxing with Convenient access to Branson, only 3 miles from the 76 strip 1-800-933-8529 • 417-334-4720 w w w. c a m e r o n s - c r a g . c o m

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The property features cozy cabins and suites, along with wooded trails, water gardens, a Missouri wine cellar, a chapel in the woods, a charming reception and special events conservatory and lots of back-country appeal.

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PRESERVING

Missouri

WITH A LITTLE HELP: Friends of the James Farm keep the grounds young.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH ALBAN

NOT ALL KIDS are glued to their cell phones. At the Jesse James Farm in Kearney, at least one embraces history by retracing Jesse’s steps on his old stomping grounds.

At the Black Powder Shoot last summer, thirteen-year-old Nathan Rozzel stepped up to a ten-pace line and pulled back the hammer on a .45 Long Colt Bisley, ready to take his shot.

Forty others had gathered for the shoot sponsored by Friends of the James Farm. By paying a $20 contest fee, the Friends help preserve the home. Contributions go to Clay County, which bought the farm in 1978 and runs the daily upkeep. Friends, who ebb and flow in the hundreds, add charm to the farm. They restore artifacts such as Frank’s wife’s diploma. They bring Civil War historians on site to speak and promote research.

Vince Powers, a member, is an actual James relative. A recently discovered James cousin, Vince drove eight hundred miles from Texas to learn about his relatives. Just a year ago, Vince didn't even know about the Jameses.

That all changed after Vince used an online ancestry service, and he learned about his roots. Then he went to track them down. A Friends docent gave him a house tour for free, after which he veered off on the property to explore on his own, at one point knocking on the house as if to test its durability. Vince left no rock unturned in his quest to explore his roots.

Thirty-five years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible. Owned by descendants, the James Farm lay in disrepair.

“I can’t even describe how derelict it was,” former Friends President Christie Kennard says. “The roof had completely collapsed on the west side. There was a mildewy smell. Everything was overgrown. ” In 1978, Clay County opened the house to tourists, many wondering how they could help. Thus began the Friends of the Jameses.

Despite being experts on the past, the Friends are unsure about the future.

“Most of us grew up knowing who Jesse James was,” says Kevin Mackel, Black

Powder Shoot co-organizer. “But if you’re a video-game kid,” he trails off. “How do you reach that next generation?”

Nathan might know how. But he couldn’t be bothered. He was too busy shooting his gun under the sun, as Jesse had done, to ask.

BECOME A FRIEND OF THE FARM

816-736-8500 • www.jessejames.org

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PROMOTION

MER AMEC CAVERNS One Million 80 Years And Counting

By H. Dwight Weaver

Eighty years ago Lester B. Dill, a native of the Meramec River valley near Sullivan, went looking for a cave. Times were tough. The Great Depression was on, and Les was broke. He was a young man with family responsibilities and had lost his job as the operator of Fisher’s Cave in Meramec State Park.

The park was created in 1928 and is noted for its many wild caves. Through the urging of his father, Thomas Benton Dill, who was appointed Park Superintendent, Les secured the concession to operate the park’s largest cave, Fishers Cave, as a commercial attraction. Things were going fine until Missouri politics changed in 1932 just as the Depression reached its peak; that’s when the new politicians gave the cave concession to someone else. Les was devastated.

At that time Les had only two assets on his resume—he knew how to farm the river bottom and how to show a cave to the public. The family farmland had gone to the state park so he went looking for a cave to commercialize, one that had three show cave essentials: the cave needed to be large, it had to have impressive cave formations, and it needed to be as close to Route 66 as possible—or reasonably close, because none of the county roads leading off into the hills from Route 66 were very good in those days.

There are hundreds of caves in the Meramec River valley, but he heard about one not

far from home where dances and community gatherings had been held in the early 1900s. It was called Saltpeter Cave. Charlie Rueppele, a local mineral prospector, owned the cave. It was near Stanton and three miles off the highway.

Les went to look. The cave was indeed large.

For 700 feet it was gigantic and had an even floor of hard packed clay. In addition, there was a “secret” passage that intrigued him. It led to a couple of upper level rooms packed with beautiful formations, even some very strange ones.

So he bargained with the old German, and, thanks to Charley’s two sisters, Minnie and Nina, was able to make a deal to buy the cave.

But circumstances meant that Les and his family would have to actually live in the cave while they were fixing it up for visitors.

What Les did not know at the time, and couldn’t possibly have foretold, was that he had just acquired one of the largest, most spectacular and historic caves in America. But then nobody else knew it either. Mark Twain once said of the cave that Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher got lost in near Hannibal, “no man knew the cave, that was an impossible thing.”

Well, nobody knew Saltpeter Cave either. It held many undiscovered secrets, and Les painstakingly uncovered them one by one and made them available to the travelers along Route 66. It took decades of exploration, hard work,

clever marketing, creative thinking, and plain backwoods savvy, something Les was born with. By the time he was 62 years old, he was famous as the No. 1 Caveman in America, a feat probably never before equaled by someone who gambled his livelihood on a hole in the ground. He chose to call his magic hole in the ground, which was in his way of thinking full of buried treasure, Meramec Caverns.

Meramec Caverns is so old it is even older than the hill in which it lives, which sounds impossible but isn’t. The cave is considered alive because its formations are still growing and the underground river that partially formed it is still working, still carving and rumbling through its limestone interior. The creative process began more than a million years ago. Much of the cave was born even before the valley and

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PROMOTION

What Les did not know at the time, and couldn’t possibly have foretold, was that he had just acquired one of the largest, most spectacular and historic caves in America. hill in which it is located were carved out by the Meramec River. It was full of water in its early states. It was the river’s valley-making process that in time cut the cave’s main passage open, created the entrance, drained the cave of water, and let air take the water’s place. That was eons ago. Afterward, small and delicate as well as huge and massive stalactite and stalagmite formations of exquisite color and radiance formed in the air-filled cavern, and all of it happened in total darkness.

Then Lester B. Dill appeared to develop the cave and illuminate its remarkable beauty for everyone to see and treasure.

The modern paved walkways and many lighted chambers in the cave today are a direct link to every geological event that has happened in the natural history of the portion of the cave viewed by

the public. Every visitor learns about this natural history on a tour, and the corridors of Meramec Caverns also shelter cultural history. They bear witness to all that has transpired in the cave since mankind put in his appearance and Native Americans sheltered in its large opening.

In this year when we celebrate the cave’s 80th anniversary of Lester B. Dill opening it to the public, we also recognize its 470th anniversary.

Men from Hernando De Soto’s expedition in 1542 became the first Europeans to venture into the cave. We also recognize the cave’s 292nd anniversary of the time Frenchman Philip Renault quartered several hundred slaves from Santo Domingo in the cave and began mining saltpeter and manufacturing gunpowder. And if that were not enough, we are commemorating 150th anniversary of the Civil War period

Les and Mary Dill at the entrance of Meramec Caverns.

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FAMOUS FACES Throughout The Years

when Union Soldiers, Confederates, General Sterling Price, and Frank and Jesse James riding with Quantrill’s Irregulars, clashed at the cave and destroyed the most celebrated saltpeter mining and gunpowder making operation west of the Mississippi River.

The cave’s colorful living history is now part of the tour. Visitors can see a replica of an authentic saltpeter vat such as those that were used in the cave’s 144-year history of saltpeter mining and gunpowder making. The display and the narration given by guides focuses especially on the cave’s involvement in the Civil War. American history as well as Missouri history did not pass this cave by. Lester B. Dill made sure that every visitor to Meramec Caverns who toured the cave’s water-carved corridors soaked up a good history lesson. He knew how to make the tour a real adventure in living history whether serious or in fun. Also known as

the “Sleepy-Eyed Rustic of the Meramec Valley,” Les had a prankster’s sense of humor. He was not above pulling a stunt for the sake of publicity. For instance, he teamed up with Art Linkletter in the 1960s for a segment to be used on the People Are Funny television show. A young newlywed couple dressed up in caveman and cavewoman outfits and waited in a small room along the tour route. They would perform “caveman style” for visitors as the tour passed by. The week-long stunt earned the couple a honeymoon trip to the Bahamas, and today’s visitors see the room and hear the story.

The famed singer Kate Smith became a personal friend of Les Dill’s. Her recording of “God Bless America” is played on the tour as a colorful image of the American flag is projected on impressive cave formations known as the State Curtain. Most visitors love it!

Purists who tour the cave may frown at some

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of the more fanciful aspects of the cave’s 20th century history, but life can often be taken too seriously. It’s the real as well as the fanciful that makes the natural and cultural history of Meramec Caverns fun for young and old alike from every walk of life.

The cave is a testament to the marketing skills of Les. In his day (1898–1980), he courted the stars of the Hollywood. He knew the famous and the infamous and saw that they had a place in the cave’s unique history, and it’s all on display within the cave’s spacious chambers. Rory Calhoun, Charles Laughton, the Ames Brothers, and Pearl Bailey have walked the cave’s corridors. In 1966, an epidsode of the Lassie television show was filmed in the cave. In the episode, Kevin Brodie and Donald Losby were teenagers.

Today the cave is owned and operated by Les Turilli Sr., Les Dill’s grandson and his wife, Judy, and Les Turilli Jr., Les Dill’s great grandson. They

strive faithfully to carry on Les Dill’s legacy.

On this 80th anniversary you can spend a few hours or a full day having fun at Meramec Caverns. It’s open all year. Some outside opportunities are of course seasonal but you can picnic and play in its big park, stay in the Cavern Motel, canoe on the Meramec River or take an excursion ride on the Cavern Queen, enjoy some thrills on the Caveman Zip Line, pan for gems, eat in the underground restaurant, browse the cave gift shop, which is housed in the building that is air-conditioned by the cave, or peruse the many historic displays along the paved corridor that takes you to the ticket booth well inside the cave where tours begin. At this amazing cave, you are actually underground and can see some of its natural beauty even before you buy a ticket for the 90-minute tour. Take a day and venture back in time by way of the underground at Meramec Caverns.

Visit Meramec Caverns year-round!

Located off Interstate 44, Exit 230, in Stanton, approximately 60 miles west of St. Louis.

www.americascave.com 573-468-CAVE (2283)

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Musings ON MISSOURI

CONVERSATIONS WITH COYOTES

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW BARTON

BY RON MARR

THE COYOTES have been singing in quadraphonic harmony of late. Their yips, barks, screams, and howls emanate from every point of the compass. If I walk outside around 3:30 in the morning, the wild canids (or canidae if you want to get all picky about it) are busy providing an audio track reminiscent of a 1940s Dracula flick. It’s Transylvania with a Missouri twang, the children of the moon tilting heads and giving full throat to an eons-deep genetic heritage. The not-so-lonesome bay, amped to the max, is a haunting din that impales me from all sides.

The scientific community offers a number of explanations as to why coyotes howl. They say these territorial prairie wolves cut loose to advertise their presence to other packs, the rough equivalent of a surly old man hollering, “Get off my lawn!” at a covey of pierced and tattooed teenagers. They say the mournful cries might be an attempt to reassemble pack members who have been out on solo hunting expeditions. They say it could be a mating call, a warning signal, a reaction to storms or barometric pressure.

Maybe that’s the case, but I prefer to ignore science, biology, and common sense and believe something entirely different. I think the coyotes are just having a good time, playing and singing for the sheer joy of it. Maybe they’re laughing themselves silly over whatever kind of jokes coyotes find amusing. Perhaps they’re boasting of their latest kill.

Perhaps they get a kick out of knowing their collective banshee wail raises the hair on the necks of smartphone-addicted, Disney-educated humans who have forgotten that wildlife is still wild.

I would never hear this wee-hours concert if not for my odd nocturnal patterns. Please trust that it’s not my fondest desire to fall out of bed at 3:30 AM. The reason for this particular form of weirdness can be laid directly at the paws of my pups, Jack and Hugo. More nights than not, the dogmatic duo make a tactical and strategic pattern of jumping on my stomach, licking my RON MARR face, and dragging me from slumber for a trip

outdoors. They try to hide their snickering and snide comments as I bash into furniture, stub my toes, cuss like a longshoreman on a gin jag, and stumble barefoot into the freezing night.

Make no mistake; Jack does not think he’s a coyote. Jack thinks he’s the king of all canine breeds no matter their size, shape, or lineage. I’m pretty sure he is. Hugo, who is in utter and complete awe of Jack, shows off by running around the yard like a maniac, jumping atop my battered picnic table, barking at his distant cousins, and making a general spectacle of himself.

My senses generally start to function about thirty seconds into this show, roughly consistent with the time it takes for my toes to start freezing. That’s when I notice I’m immersed in a beautiful and inescapable cloud of coyote philharmonic. It’s a transcendent sort of reality, a musical hallucination that sends me hurtling backward in time. It’s the same fourlegged mesh of resonance and modulation heard by our distant ancestors, the monosyllabic ones who wore fur and carried spears.

For the briefest of seconds you are there. You are in the cave lying beside the dying embers, senses coursing with high voltage as your eyes scan the fields for movement and your ears strain for the slightest hint of potential danger.

The ancient lament brings forth some sort of buried and instinctive memory, throwing the limbic system into high gear and making you feel alive. That’s not something most people are fortunate enough to experience in their routine day-to-day lives. People are creatures of habit and pattern, and in our hubris we often forget what goes on just beyond the safety of locked doors and four walls.

I give a nod of thanks to the invisible phantoms that roam the edges of my land. I round up the boys and start to head indoors, back to the blankets and a few more hours of shut-eye. Often, before I close the door and just for the hell of it, I cut loose with a few yips and yowls of my own. Often, I receive a response. Believe it when I tell you there are few things more happy-making than talking to a coyote. Such events remind me of a very simple truth.

It’s a jungle out there. It always was, and I hope it always will be.

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ď Ž 2013 MSHSAA Schedule of Championships Date(s)

February 14-16 83rd MSHSAA Wrestling Championships February 15-16 36th MSHSAA Girls Swimming & Diving Championships

Event

Mizzou Arena, Columbia + City of St. Peters Rec-Plex, St. Peters

Location

March 7-9 March 7-9 March 14-16 March 14-16

87th MSHSAA Boys Basketball Championships (Class 1, 2, 3) 41st MSHSAA Girls Basketball Championships (Class 1, 2, 3) 87th MSHSAA Boys Basketball Championships (Class 4, 5) 41st MSHSAA Girls Basketball Championships (Class 4, 5)

Mizzou Arena, Columbia + Mizzou Arena, Columbia + Mizzou Arena, Columbia + Mizzou Arena, Columbia +

April 19-20 April 25-27

62nd MSHSAA Speech, Debate & Drama Championships 62nd MSHSAA Music Festival

Univ. of Missouri-Columbia campus, Columbia + Univ. of Missouri-Columbia campus, Columbia +

May 3-4 May 13-14 May 17-18 May 17-18 May 23-25 May 24-25 May 24-25 May 27-June 1 May 31-June 1

18th MSHSAA Scholar Bowl Championships 74th MSHSAA Boys Golf Championships 87th MSHSAA Boys Track & Field Championships (Class 1, 2) 39th MSHSAA Girls Track & Field Championships (Class 1, 2) 85th MSHSAA Boys Tennis Championships 87th MSHSAA Boys Track & Field Championships (Class 3, 4) 39th MSHSAA Girls Track & Field Championships (Class 3, 4) 64th MSHSAA Baseball Championships 29th MSHSAA Girls Soccer Championships (Class 1, 2, 3)

Univ. of Missouri-Columbia campus, Columbia + various sites @ Dwight T. Reed Stadium, Jefferson City # Dwight T. Reed Stadium, Jefferson City # Cooper Indoor/Outdoor Tennis Complex, Springfield Dwight T. Reed Stadium, Jefferson City # Dwight T. Reed Stadium, Jefferson City # T.R. Hughes Ballpark, O'Fallon Blue Springs HS & Blue Springs South HS

Dates and sites are subject to change due to weather and other site considerations.

Please visit the MSHSAA website (www.mshsaa.org) for the latest information, tournament brackets, results and media information regarding the 2012-13 MSHSAA Championships. (+) (#) (@)

Indicates facility on the campus of the University of Missouri, Columbia Indicates facility on the campus of Lincoln University, Jefferson City Class 1 - Silo Ridge Golf Club, Bolivar; Class 2 - Fremont Hills Country Club, Nixa; Class 3 - Sedalia Country Club, Sedalia; Class 4 - Rivercut Golf Course, Springfield

This ad brought to you by the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau in support of the MSHSAA Championships [90] MissouriLife held in Columbia.

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ALL AROUND

Missouri FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013

featured event >

SOUTHEAST KING’S BALL

ER

RACE TO THE ROCK

n Cuba to the ile run from downtow r-m fou e iqu Un > ba Mar. 23, Cu 1,000 participants nning with more than Fa in er ck Ro st rge La s World’ 1 AM. $25-$30 registraMizell Funeral Home. 9-1 at s gin be ce Ra d. cte pe ex jog-inc.com ors. 573-205-1866, www. tion fees. Free to spectat

Feb. 2, Ste. Genevieve > This French-inspired event celebrates the time of the Epiphany. The ball has been celebrated in Ste. Genevieve for more than 250 years. Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall. 7 PM. $10-$5. Reservations. 573-883-2099, www.historicstegen.org

BREWER AND SHIPLEY Feb. 2, West Plains > This duo has been performing unique acoustic concerts with vocal harmonies for forty years. Civic Center. 7 PM. $15.

877-256-6034, www.brewerandshipley.com

A TIME FOR ART Feb. 2-24, Poplar Bluff > Artists repurpose clocks into fine art while promoting environmental awareness. Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Noon-4 PM Tues.-Fri.; 1-4 PM Sat.-Sun. Free.

573-686-8002, www.mham.org

EAGLE VIEWING Feb. 8 and 22, Salem > Learn about the resident bald eagles from the park naturalist and view eagles as they tend their active nests. Montauk State Park. 9-10 AM. Free. 573-548-2201, www. mostateparks.com/park/montauk-state-park

ALL THAT JAZZ Feb. 13, Sikeston > Celebration of American music. Depot Museum. 5-7 PM. Free. 573-4819967, www.sikestondepotmuseum.com

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE COURTESY JANE REED

Feb. 16, Rolla > Dancers of all ages and styles compete. Cedar Street Playhouse. 7 PM. $10. 573364-9523, www.ozarkactorstheatre.org

ART WALK

Visit MissouriLife.com for more events!

Feb. 22 and Mar. 22, Ste. Genevieve > Visit several galleries, see regional art displays, and enjoy refreshments. Historic District. 6-9 PM. Free. 800-373-7007, www.artstegen.org These listings are chosen by our editors and are not paid for by sponsors.

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ALL AROUND

CELTIC NIGHTS Feb. 27, Cape Girardeau > Concert features six of Ireland’s most prominent vocal talents and six accomplished step dancers. Donald C. Bedall Performance Hall at SMSU. 7:30 PM. Prices vary.

573-651-2265, www.rivercampusevents.com

SPEAKER’S SERIES Mar. 6, Cape Girardeau > Olympian and World Figure Skating champion Michelle Kwan speaks on what it takes to win. The Show Me Center. 7:30 PM. $10. 573-651-2265, www.showmecenter.biz

ARBOR DAY Mar. 9, Salem > Stop by the Dorman L. Steelman Lodge and pick up a tree seedling. Montauk State Park. 9 AM-3 PM. Free. 573-548-2201, www. mostateparks.com/park/montauk-state-park

TRACEY LAWRENCE CONCERT

off to the races!

RALLY IN THE 100 ACRE WOOD Feb. 22-23, Salem > Champions from coast to coast race in the foothills of the Ozarks. Throughout area. Race 1:30-10 PM Fri; 10 AM-10 PM Sat. Free to spectators. 573-729-6900, www.100aw.org

COURTESY BETH WATSON

Mar. 16, West Plains > Concert benefits cystic fibrosis research. Civic Center. 7 PM. $2-$22. 877256-6034, www.civiccenter.net

DREAMGIRLS Mar. 18, Rolla > A trio of singing girls gets its big break until things begin to spin out of control.

Leach Theatre. 7:30 PM. $30-$40. 573-341-4219, leachtheatre.mst.edu

'SQI NSMR YW SR SYV HE]

2013 Schedule May 2 - May 12

Sept 4 - Sept 14

Grand Canyon

May 13 - May 23 Sept 15 - Sept 25 Reverse Trips

Pikes Peak via the Cog Railway Garden of the Gods Monument Royal Gorge Bridge and Park Great Sand Dunes National Park Mesa Verde National Park Four Corners National Monument Grand Canyon National Park Evening Tour of Las Vegas Sequoia National Park Yosemite National Park Full day in San Francisco USA Tours, Inc.

Rolla, MO

Mesa Verde San Francisco

Only $1970 Per Person... Maximum 18 People Price Includes: Custom Motorcoach - Airfare - Airport Shuttle - Lodging Hotel Breakfasts - Home Cooked Lunches - All Venues Shown Pick up in most cities in Missouri then return directly to your home.

Travel out by custom motorcoach then fly back from San Francisco.

Come join us on our custom-built luxury motorcoach, fully equipped with reclining seats, bathroom, card tables, video systems and a lounge area with couches. It also has a fully equipped kitchen where lunches are cooked for you by your hostess.

Our trips are designed exclusively for 18 people for the ultimate vacation experience.

This is not an ordinary bus trip

1-800-492-2601

www.southwestnationalparktour.com

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CENTRAL AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS Feb. 20-23, Columbia > Realistic satire tells the story of America’s most famed technology icon and the empire he created. In an unusual twist, the playwright gives the audience the chance to adapt and interpret the script. Warehouse Theatre. 7:30 PM. $6-$8. 573-876-7199, www. stephens.edu/performingarts

RODEO

COURTESY BETH DONE

Feb. 22-23, Sedalia > Bronc busting, calf roping, steer wrestling, children’s activities, mutton busting, cowboy poker, and rodeo clowns.

Mathewson Exhibition Center at the State Fair grounds. 6:30 PM doors; 8 PM rodeo. $12. 660530-5600, www.visitsedaliamo.com

OUTDOOR SPORTSMANS SHOW Feb. 23-24, St. Robert > Vendors include resorts, outfitters, motorized watersports, taxidermists, and local artists. Door prizes. Community Center. 5-8:30 PM Fri.; 10 AM-5 PM Sat. Free.

573-451-2625, www.saintrobert.com

bluegrass brings us together!

MARTIN FAMILY BLUEGRASS Mar. 8-9, Versailles > Traditional music performed by five-piece family bluegrass band.

Royal Theatre. 7 PM. $5-$10. 573-378-6226, www.theroyaltheatre.com

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Missouri

ALL AROUND

FIBER ARTS AND QUILT SHOW Feb. 25-Mar. 22, Columbia > Exhibit of contemporary quilts, silk paintings, and fiber arts. Davis Art Gallery at Stephens College. 10 AM-3 PM Mon.-Fri. (opening reception 4-6 PM Mar. 1). Free. 573-876-7199, www.stephens.edu

TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL Feb. 28-Mar. 3, Columbia > Thrilling nonfiction films, presentations, and parties. Downtown and the University campus. Times vary. $25-$700.

573-442-8783, www.truefalse.org

RADIO GAGA ICE SHOW

feel the beat!

DRUMLINE LIVE Feb. 6, Columbia > Performance based on the Historically Black College and University marching band tradition with riveting rhythms, original compositions, and bold beats. Jesse Hall at the University of Missouri campus. 7 PM. $12-$29.

573-882-3781, www.concertseries.org

Mar. 1-3, Jefferson City > Ice skating performances. Washington Park Ice Arena. 7 PM Fri.-Sat.; 2:30 PM Sun. $6-$4. 573-634-6580, www.jeffcitymo.org/parks

CONFEDERACY’S JAMES BOND Mar. 6, Jefferson City > Speaker Mike Dickey presents a program on Vincent Marmaduke.

Missouri State Museum. 5-9 PM. Free. 573-7514127, www.mostateparks.com/park/missouristate-museum

SHOW-ME CRAFTERS SHOW Mar. 9-10, Sedalia > Ninety vendors with unique handmade crafts. Ag Building at the Fairgrounds.

9 AM-4 PM Sat.; 10 AM-4 PM Sun. Free. 660-2811077, www.visitsedaliamo.com

JAZZ CONCERT Mar. 14, Columbia > Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer Group with the MU Concert Jazz Band.

Missouri Theatre. 7 PM. $19-$30. 573-449-3009, www.wealwaysswing.org

DID YA’ KNOW? Mar. 19, Fulton > Educational program explores the museum’s collections. National Churchill Museum. 5:30-6:30 PM. Free. 573-592-6242, www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org

ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN SONG Mar. 23, Jefferson City > Award-winning musician Chris Vallillo uses Lincoln’s own words and stories, period songs, and folk music to shed light on our sixteenth president.

Jefferson Landing State Historic Site. 2-3:30 PM. Free. 573-751-2854, www.mostateparks.com/ page/55183/elizabeth-rozier-gallery

TASTE OF PULASKI COUNTY Mar. 23, St. Robert > Taste foods from area restaurants and bid on gift baskets. Community Center. 11 AM-4 PM. $5-$10. 573-336-5121, www. tasteofpulaskicounty.com

COURTESY THE CONCERT SERIES

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Family Fun, By Nature.

We are Clinton, Missouri; where small town life is still alive and well.

We invite you to cruise the shoreline of Truman Lake or pedal your way down the Katy Trail. This Golden Valley in which we live offers a multitude of opportunities to shop, bike, hunt, fish or just relax. We invite you to come share all the things we love: our events, our square, our nature, and our people. We are Clinton, and we are great people, by nature.

From Exciting Truman Lake... to Quiet Streams...

For more information on Clinton, Missouri, go to www.clintonmo.com

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SOUTHWEST SWEET ARTS GALA Feb. 2, Neosho > Semi-formal fundraising event featuring jazz music by the Jack Mitchell Big Band, buffet dinner, and auction of original art and other goods. Civic Center. 6:30-10 PM. $50.

417-451-2885, www.neoshoarts.org

COURTESY SHANNON ALEXANDER OF 417 PHOTO COM

HOT WINTER FUN BIG SHOW Feb. 4, Branson > Variety of shows by some of Branson’s most famous performers all packed into one night. Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theatre. 7 PM. $9.95-$30. 417-339-3003, www.showsinbranson.com

SUN, SPORTS, AND SUMMER Feb. 5-9, Springfield > Celebrate the Springfield-Greene County Parks’s one hundredth birthday and see how the parks have contributed to the community and its people with images and artifacts of sports, ice skating, springs, wild animals, picnics, boating, playgrounds, caves, lakes, and amusement rides. History Museum on the Square. 10:30 AM-4:30 PM. $3-$5. 417-864-1976, www.springfieldhistorymuseum.org

un bal masqué!

MARDI GRAS ON C-STREET Feb. 9, Springfield > Burlesque and vaudeville performances, costume contests, King Cake, face and body painting, fortune telling, lighthearted drag review, live music with karaoke, and go-go dancers. (Event caters to ages 21 and older.) Six different venues on Historic C-Street. 7:30 PM-1:30 AM. $8-$10. 417-864-4490, www.cstreetmardigras.com

Hunt for treasures and bargains at our 18 antique, resale, and consignment shops

Centrally Located, Just 30 Miles North of Columbia at the Junction of Highways 63 and 24

Come See What’s New in the NEW New Madrid, MO!

Get a FREE New Brochure Delivered to You. Contact us at 1-877-748-5300 or chambernm@yahoo.com www.new-madrid.mo.us

See what's happening in Moberly at:

www.MoberlyChamber.com

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Visit Liberty and Clay County!

Antiques and Vintage Items Handmade Artisan Pieces Old-Fashioned Candy and Soda

EXPLORE

Historic downtown

Liberty Join us February 23 as we all “wine about winter” during the 4th annual downtown wine tasting event.

16 North Main Street In Historic Downtown Liberty, MO 816-781-6839 Find us on Facebook A DESTINATION BOUTIQUE LOCATED ON THE HISTORIC LIBERTY SQUARE

• Fashion Forward Clothing For Women Of All Ages • Unique Accessories • Fun, Personalized Customer Service Monday-Saturday 10 am-5 pm

17 N. Water St., Liberty, MO • 816-781-9288 • www.QuotationsBoutique.com Daily Wine Tasting Gourmet Lunch Gifts and Art Open Tues-Sun

Join us March 21 for the 4th annual festival preview event held at Belvoir Winery, 1325 Odd Fellows Road, from 5 - 8 pm.

Meet artists and see their works, enjoy live music, refreshments and a silent auction.

249 E. Broadway, Excelsior Springs

Bradford’s Antiques 1317 E. County Rd. H, Suite D Liberty, MO • 816-781-4022 www.BradsAntiques.com

Mention this ad for a free souvenir wine glass!

www.shopthemercantile.com The world’s largest selection of Missouri Wines!

"Enjoy life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ..." in an 1889 Victorian in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Download the Free Liberty, Mo smartphone app and explore the many facets of our historic city.

For more information on BOTH of these events:

816-781-3575 www.historicdowntownliberty.org www.libertyartssquared.org

Stone -Yancey House Bed and Breakfast

www.stoneyanceyhouse.com 421 N. Lightburne, Liberty, MO 816-415-0066 Carolyn and Steve Hatcher, Innkeepers stay@stoneyanceyhouse.com

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111 N. Main, Liberty, MO • 816-781-9473 www.jamescountry.com • jamescntry@aol.com

103 N. Water, Downtown Liberty 816-736-8510

See the world’s largest collection of Jesse James 21216 Jesse James Farm Rd. artifacts. Group rates available.

Kearney, MO 816-736-8500 www.claycountymo.gov/HistoricSites

Carrying a complete line of Civil War Living History needs for Ladies, Gentlemen, Civilian, Military – featuring patterns, weapons, accessories, research. Our specialty: the Border Wars.

The best in Historical Accuracy • Documentation Value Service

We Invented Relaxation.

For more information on Shopping, Dining & Events in Downtown Excelsior Springs, go to VISITESPRINGS.COM OR 816.637.2811.

EXTENSIVE, HISTORIC RESTORATION! Celebrating over 124 years of distinctive service.

ELMSHOTELANDSPA.COM OR 816.630.5500.

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TRIVIA NIGHT Feb. 8, Carthage > Teams compete for cash prizes in multiple rounds. Food and drinks are available. Memorial Hall. 6 PM. $10-$160. 417358-2373, www.carthagechamber.com

LAWN AND GARDEN SHOW Feb. 15-17 Springfield > More than 75,000 square feet of vendors with the newest items for your lawn and garden. Ozark Empire Fairgrounds. 9 AM-6 PM Fri.-Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. $4.

417-833-2660, www.ozarkempirefair.com

BRANSON GONG SHOW Feb. 27, Branson > Just like the TV show, there will be wacky celebrity judges, human and pet tricks, and weird talents competing for the $500.17 grand prize. Fundraiser for the Senior Center’s Homebound Meal Program. Hamner Barber Theatre. 6:49 PM. $5-$15. 417-335-4801, www.downtownbranson.org

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK Mar. 1, Springfield > More than twenty-five venues feature art, music, and food. Downtown.

6-10 PM. Free. 417-862-2787, www.ffaw.org

100 YEARS OF BROADWAY Mar. 1-2, Springfield > Revue of Broadway’s

celebrated shows featuring five Broadway stars and accompanied by a New York band. Juanita K. Hammons Hall. 8 PM Fri.; 2 and 8 PM Sat. $10$40. 417-836-7678, www.hammonshall.com

WONDERS OF THE NIGHT SKY Mar. 9, Diamond > Learn about celestial navigation and the Underground Railroad.

Visitor Center at George Washington Carver National Monument. 7-8 PM. Free. 417-3254151, www.nps.gov/gwca

YOGA IN NATURE Mar. 16, Joplin > Instructor-taught yoga on the bank of the Shoal Creek. Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center. 9-10 AM. $6. 417782-6287, www.wildcatglades.audubon.org

MODEL TRAIN SHOW AND SWAP Mar. 16, Springfield > Meet train manufacturers, see a variety of scale displays, operate a train on a virtual railroad, and compete in a track-laying contest. Remington’s. 9 AM-3 PM. $7.

417-883-5350, www.omraspringfield.org

ORCHID SHOW AND SALE Mar. 16-17, Springfield > Juried orchid show, sale, and competition. Botanical Center. 10 AM4 PM. Free. 417-891-1515, www.parkboard.org

NORTHEAST ST. LOUIS FLOCK Feb. 1-May 26, St. Louis > Fiber artists Ann Coddington Rast fills the gallery with one thousand birds in flight. Opening reception Feb. 1, 6-8 PM. Kranzberg Arts Center at Grand Center. Wed.Thurs. and Sat. noon-6 PM; 11 AM-6 PM Fri.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 314-534-7528, www.craftalliance.org

AG SHOW Feb. 2, Kirksville > Agricultural and farming equipment vendors. NEMO Fairgrounds. 9 AM4 PM. Free. 660-665-9828, www.1450kirx.com

LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING Feb. 2, St. Louis > Patricia McKissack discusses writing for children about African Americans who lived during the 1800s. Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. 1 PM. $10. Reservations. 314842-1867, www.nps.gov/ulsg

BOAT AND SPORTSHOW Feb. 6-10, St. Louis > Boats, marine accessories, fishing and hunting gear, special guests, Dock

mi n Casino ~ Perfor g Arts and more!

120 + D ining Options ~ Energetic Nightlife ~ 900+ Hotel Rooms ~

Samuel’s Great tuxedos, Classic Toys, and Pendleton Fashions Downtown Jefferson City 236 E. High Street • 573-634-7267 www.samuelstuxedos.com

VisitCape.com/ ComePlay

ntown Historic Dow

set...Discover the fun Read0·y7,7 7·0068 or info@VisitCape.com that can be found only in Cape Girardeau!

80 VisitCape

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Dogs, interactive life-size pirate ship, and outdoor classrooms. America’s Center and Edward Jones Dome. 5-9 PM Wed.; 2-9 PM Thurs.; noon9 PM Fri.; 10 AM-9 PM Sat.; 11 AM-5 PM Sun. $10.

314-821-5400, www.stlouisboatshow.com

CONTINUING THE LEGACY Feb. 8, St. Louis > Dance performance that takes the audience through black history from slavery to the jazz era to civil rights and modern times. COCA Theatre. 7 PM. $6-$8. 314-725-6555, www.cocastl.org

POLAR BEAR PLUNGE Feb. 9, Kirksville > Wear a crazy costume and jump in the freezing water to help raise money for the Special Olympics. Forest Lake at Thousand Hills State Park. 2 PM. Donations accepted.

573-635-1660, www.somo.org/plunge

COURTESY SCOSAG

CANVASES AND COCKTAILS Feb. 12 and Mar. 14, St. Charles > Bring a bottle of wine or drink and enjoy a guided art-making experience. The Foundry Art Centre. 6-8 PM. $35. 636-255-0270, www.foundryartcentre.org

SWEET AND FIERY Feb. 15, St. Louis > Watch glassblowers create art, work with instructors to make jewelry,

glass beads, paperweights, or a glass tile. Live music at 8 PM. Third Degree Glass Factory. 6-10 PM. Free ($10-$35 to create a piece of glass art).

314-367-4527, www.stlglass.com

JAZZ FESTIVAL Feb. 22-23, Kirksville > Competitions, clinics, workshops, and a concert with special guest.

Truman State University. Times vary. Free to the public. 660-785-4415, www.upsilonphi.org

HOME SHOW Mar. 1-3, Washington > Fifty vendors with products and services. City Park Auditorium. 5-8 PM Fri.; 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; noon-4 PM Sun. Free. 636239-2715, ext. 100, www.washmo.org

MOOLAH SHRINE PARADE Mar. 9, St. Charles > Come see the famous little cars, bands, and lots of clowns. Starts at Riverside Drive. Noon. Free. 800-366-2427, www.stlshrinecircus.com

ANNIE OAKLEY Mar. 21-24 and 28-30, St. Louis > Follow Annie’s adventures through American history.

E. Desmond Lee Auditorium at the Missouri History Museum. 10 AM Mar. 21, 22, 28, and 29; 2 PM Mar. 23, 24, and 30. $7. 314-361-9017, www.repstl.org

live art!

WALL BALL Feb. 9, St. Louis > Silent auction featuring the live creative process of thirty local artists. Artists create custom artwork and patrons compete to take home these one-of-a-kind works. Third Degree Glass Factory. 7-11 PM. $40-$50. 314-865-0060, www.scosag.org/wallball

• Historic Mississippi Riverfront Business District • Restaurants, Winery & Lodging • Turn-of-the-Century Homes • Antiques & Artists • Located in the heart of the Scenic Byway between Hannibal & St. Louis - Route 79

www.louisiana-mo.com • 888.642.3800 [99] February 2013

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WILD GAME CHILI COOK-OFF Mar. 23, Kirksville > Cook-off featuring wild game, children’s hunting and conservation activities, and antler scoring. Ray Miller Elementary School. Noon-4 PM. Donation to Share the Harvest.

660-665-3766, www.visitkirksville.com

ANTIQUE SHOW AND SALE Mar. 23, Paris > Premium dealers with a wide variety of antiques. High School. 10 AM-3 PM. $3.

573-881-4035, www.visitmarktwainlake.com

WURSTFEST

miles and miles and miles of art!

COURTESY KEVIN MASSIGLIA

Mar. 23-24, Hermann > Celebration of traditional German sausage-making featuring sausage competitions, samples, sausagemaking demonstrations, and children’s activities. Throughout town. 9 AM-5 PM Sat.; 10 AM4 PM Sun. Free ($6 for samples). 800-932-8687, www.visithermann.com

GRAVITY ATTACKS!

50 MILES OF ART

Mar. 23-24, Clarksville to Hannibal > Visit more than forty artists and artisans in Clarksville, Louisiana, and Hannibal along a fifty-mile stretch of Highway 79.

Throughout the area. 10 AM-5 PM. Free. 573-560-0863, www.50milesofart.com

Mar. 23-24, St. Louis > Performance by The Passing Zone is the closest thing to a world without gravity. Includes chain saws, torches, and knives flying through the air. COCA Theatre.

2 and 5 PM Sat.; 1:30 and 3:30 PM. Sun. $16-$20.

314-725-6555, www.cocastl.org

Events So You Think You Can Dance Feb. 9 Rolla Edition Presented by Ozark ActorsTheatre

The Lettermen

Feb. 15

The Doo Wop Project

Mar. 4

105th Best Ever St. Pat’s

Mar. 16

Dreamgirls

Mar. 18

Presented by Leach Theatre Presented by Leach Theatre

Presented by Leach Theatre

For more information events visit www.VisitRolla.com

Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce • 1311 Kingshighway Rolla, MO 65401 • 573-364-3577 or 888-809-3817

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LAWN AND GARDEN SHOW

NORTHWEST KANSAS CITY EMANCIPATIONIST VISION Feb. 2, Arrow Rock > Presentation by Joan Stack on a new interpretation of George Caleb Bingham’s painting General Order No. 11. Arrow Rock State Historic Site. 10 AM-noon. 660-8373330, www.mostateparks.com/park/arrowrock-state-historic-site

AFRICAN AMERICANS GO WEST Feb. 2, 9, 16, and 23, Independence > Program explores the lives of African Americans who followed the trails west. National Frontier Trails Museum. 2 PM. $3-$6. 816-325-7575, www.frontiertrailsmuseum.org

COURTESY JEFF SAMBORSKI

FUNVILLE Feb. 2-May 5, Kansas City > Kids can experience grown-up occupations in this friendly environment. They can forecast the weather, do magic tricks, ride a tractor, and work in a babershop.

Crown Center Shops. 10 AM-6 PM Mon.-Wed.; 10 AM-9 PM Thurs.-Sat.; 11 AM-6 PM Sun. Free.

816-274-8444, www.crowncenter.com

Feb. 8-10, Kansas City > Pet pavilion, orchid show, three-thousand-square-foot outdoor water garden, speakers, and vendors. American Royal Complex. 10 AM-9 PM Fri.-Sat.; 10 AM-6 PM Sun. $10.

816-931-4686, www.patrihaproductions.com

FEMININE MYSTIQUE Feb. 9-Aug. 11, Kansas City > A tribute to Betty Friedna’s book, this exhibition of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prints and drawings explores the role of women. Gallery P27 at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. 10 AM-4 PM Wed.; 10 AM-9 PM Thurs.-Fri.; 10 AM-5 PM Sat.; noon-5 PM Sun. Free. 816-7511278, www.nelson-atkins.org

MARDI GRAS CELEBRATION Feb. 12, Marshall > Parade, food, music, gumbomaking demonstrations, and King Cake with a prize inside. Downtown square and Wood and Hudson Bank community room. 5 PM. Free. 660815-0258, www.marshallculturalcouncil.org

LOVE YOUR HEART WALK Feb. 14, Trenton > Meet the staff at the Red Bud Trail for a heart-healthy walk. Crowder State Park. 10 AM-noon. Free. 660-359-6473, www. mostateparks.com/park/crowder-state-park

so much fun!

SNAKE SATURDAY PARADE Mar. 16, North Kansas City > Parade, carnival, children’s activities, and barbecue competition with more than one hundred competitors. Downtown.

11 AM-5 PM. Free (except special events).

816-274-6000, www.snakesaturday.com

kmos.org

MAKERS

Women Who Make America 3 hour event - February 26

KMOS-TV broadcasts in HD on channel 6.1 and includes lifestyle and how-to programs on 6.2 with international news and mysteries on 6.3.

Taking its cue from the Women’s Movement’s motto, “the personal is political,” this film presents first-person, intimate accounts of women who experienced this time of change, and continue to make America great.

These include movement leaders such as author and feminist activist Gloria Steinem and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; opponents like activist Phyllis Schlafly as well as many “ordinary” women like Kathrine Switzer (left), the first woman to officially run in the once all-male Boston marathon.

Receive our monthly program guide for an annual contribution of $50 or more.

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ML

Missouri

ALL AROUND

30TH ANNUAL ART AUCTION Feb. 16, Kansas City > Local artists’ works available in a live and silent auction with refreshments and music. Kansas City Artists Coalition.

6 PM. Live auction at 8 PM. $25. 816-421-5222, www.kansascityartistscoalition.org

PINOCCHIO Feb. 16 and 18, Independence > Puppet show tells the story of Geppetto and his wooden boy. Puppetry Arts Institute. 11 AM and 2 PM. $5.

816-833-9777, www.hazelle.org

SH-BOOM SH-BOOM

dazzling performance!

BATTLE OF ISLAND MOUND

QUIXOTIC

Feb. 9, St. Joseph > Mix of violin-based pop, ballet, modern dance, Cirque du Soleillike aerobatics, and a dazzling light show that fuses movement, sound, and technology.

Missouri Theatre. 7:30 PM. $7-$35. 816-232-1778, www.rrtstjoe.org

FOR SALE OR TRADE our fourplex apartment building in Port Mansfield, TX SEARCHING FOR PROPERTY OR HOUSING in or near Katy Trail, particularly Henry County, Boone County, and Pettis County

Get Away To It All

Photos and information available at goswap.org listing #7367 Call 1-800-530-5343, ext. 6 for additional information

A rcadi a� Va lley� R egion�And� Black�R iv er� R e cr e ation�Area Whether a romantic Valentine’s getaway or to watch the Kayak Races in March, get away to Missouri’s premier parks and the outdoor recreation capital of Missouri!

Dine out at a locally owned restaurant today!

Commercial And Restaurant Equipment, Inc. 588 Keystone Ind Pk Dr. Camdenton, MO 573-346-2912 • 1-800-530-5343 www.caresands.com

Feb. 23, Lexington > Historian Jim Denny highlights the Battle of Island Mound and an exhibit covering Missouri and Kansas black soldiers will be on display through the month of Feb. Battle of Lexington State Historic Site. 2-3 PM. Free.

660-259-4654, www.mostateparks.com/park/ battle-lexington-state-historic-site

COURTESY HILLARY LARSON

Feb. 22-Mar. 23, Kansas City > This group sings doo-wop, which emerged in the mid-1950s with simple melodies and tight harmonies. Quality Hill Playhouse. Show times vary. $29-$32.

816-421-1700, www.qualityhillplayhouse.com

WWW.MISSOURI-VACATIONS.COM

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ARTIFACT SHOW

FANTASIA FASHION SHOW

HOME AND LIVING SHOW

Mar. 2, Agency > Indian artifacts on display and artifact identification and appraisals. Community Center. 10 AM-4 PM. Donations accepted.

816-253-9301, www.windingrivercalendar.com

Mar. 16, Independence > Spring fashion show and luncheon. Bingham-Waggoner Estate.

Noon-2:30. $25. Reservations. 816-461-3491, www.bwestate.org

Mar. 24, Maryville > Displays showcase products and services from the area and giveaways.

Community Center. 10 AM-4 PM. Free. 660-5828643, www.maryvillechamber.com

ANDERSON HOUSE CHARGE

HOME, FLOWER, LAWN SHOW

Mar. 2, Lexington > Reenactment of the charge of Union troops up the stairs to take Southern soldiers prisoner. Battle of Lexington State Historic Site. Noon-5 PM. Donations accepted.

660-259-4654, www.mostateparks.com/park/ battle-lexington-state-historic-site

Mar. 22-24, Kansas City > Hundreds of exhibits, stage performances, and presentations by the Parks and Recreation Department. Bartel Hall.

10 AM-8 PM Fri.-Sat.; 10 AM-6 PM Sun. $9-$10.

816-942-8800, www.kchomeshow.com

BATHROOM HUMOR

LIFE COULD BE A DREAM

Mar. 22-24 and 29-31, Excelsior Springs > Dinner theater with a novel setting. Paradise Playhouse. 6:15 PM Fri.-Sat.; noon Sun. $30-$32.

816-630-3333, www.paradiseplayhouse.org

Mar. 8-April 21, Kansas City > Meet the Crooning Crabcakes who enter the Big Whopper Radio contest. This musical features many great doo-wop hits. American Heartland Theatre. Call for show times. $15.50-$37.50. 816-842-9999, www.ahtkc.com

FREE LISTING & MORE EVENTS At www.MissouriLife.com PLEASE NOTE:

CRAFT AND ART FESTIVAL Mar. 23, Marshall > Booths with unique handcrafted items and pottery and glass-bead demonstrations. High School. 9 AM-4 PM. Free.

660-886-0258, www.marshallculturalcouncil.org

THE CEMETERY CLUB Mar. 15-31, St. Joseph > Dramatic comedy explores the lives of three Jewish widows who meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands’ graves. Robidoux Landing Playhouse. 7:30 PM Fri.-Sat.; 2 PM Sun. $9-$34.

816-901-9100, www.rlpstjoe.org

EASTER BUNNY BREAKFAST Mar. 23, Peculiar > Pancakes and photos with the Easter Bunny. Lion’s Club. 8:30-11 AM. $4-$5.

816-758-6900, www.peculiarchamber.com

The State Historical Society of Missouri Explore Missouri’s Historic Newspapers!

particular about what goes into my pies, “ I’m so I like to do my own shopping. My favorite store is just a few minutes drive for me. “ --Nellie Ogan Resident since 2005

Discover independent retirement living as it SHOULD be.

Call Tammy today to schedule a visit and tour.

http://shs.umsystem.edu/newspaper/mdnp/

660-584-4416

John Knox Village East www.johnknoxvillageeast.com

Higginsville, MO This project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

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Explore

Dive Get to into know Kansas City’s more of the place Kansas vibrantCitians arts call home. scene.

The Local Show kcpt.org/arts KC Week in Review Ruckus SCREENtime Check, Please! KC

Explore

Dive into Kansas City’s vibrant arts scene.

The Local Show kcpt.org/arts

Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato aired to 96% of the national PBS viewing audience during 2012’s PBS Summer Arts Festival.

Photo credit: Chris Lee

Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato aired to 96% of the national PBS viewing audience during 2012’s PBS Summer Arts Festival.

Photo credit: Chris Lee

Host Doug Frost and guest reviewers on the set of “Check, Please! Kansas City”

ARTS LOCAL KCPT-HD KC P T 2 KC P TCreate kc p t . o rg

kcpt.org

ARTS KC P T- H D KC P T 2 KC P TCreate kc p t . o rg

kcpt.org

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[ 88 PLACES TO GO

SIX TEAHOUSES]

THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

40 YEARS OF COVERS

The Presiden Missouri t’s Women

LINCOLN’S

LOVES MISSOURI FRENCH PRESERVING THIS ALMOST EXTINCT DIALECT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ST. LOUIS MASTERPIECE

FEBRUARY 2013 | $4.50 (Display until Mar. 31)

12 Wacky & Weird Museums

www.missourilife.com

1/3/13 10:33 PM ML0213_Cover_AB_1.indd 1

Directory of our Advertisers Connect with us online! www.MissouriLife.com www.facebook.com/MissouriLife • Twitter: @MissouriLife Amtrak, p. 17, www.Amtrak.com Arcadia Valley Region and Black River Recreation Area, p. 102 www.missouri-vacations.com Argosy Casino, Hotel, and Spa, p. 11 ArgosyKansasCity.com Bear Creek Lodge, p. 82 www.bearcreekbedandbreakfast.com Bed & Breakfast Inns of Missouri, p. 82 www.bbim.org The Bent Tree Gallery, p. 23 www.thebenttree.com Big Cedar Lodge, p. 7 www.bigcedar.com Bradford’s Antiques, p. 96 www.bradsantiques.com The Butterfly Inn, p. 82 www.butterflyinn-mo.com Callaway County Tourism, p. 12-13 www.visitfulton.com Cameron’s Crag Bed and Breakfast, 82 www.camerons-crag.com Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 98, visitcape.com Clarksville, p. 21 www.clarksvillemo.us Clay County, p. 97 www.claycountymo.gov/historicsite Clinton, p. 94, www.clintonmo.com Clinton House Museum,

Fayetteville, AR, p. 97 clintonhousemuseum.org Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau/Missouri State High School Activities Association, p. 90 www.mshsaa.org Commercial Restaurant and Equipment, p. 102 www.caresands.com Cooper’s Oak Winery, p. 64 www.coopersoakwinery.com Crybaby Farm Gifts & Design, p. 96 www.crybabyfarm.com Downtown Kirkwood, p. 17 www.downtownkirkwood.com Dragon-Fly-In B&B, p. 82 www.dragonflyinbb.com The Elms Hotel & Spa, p. 97 elmshotelandspa.com Excelsior Springs Downtown Partnership, p. 97 www.visitesprings.com Evening Shade Farms, p. 23 www.eveningshadefarms.com Fahrmeier Family Vineyards, p. 64 ffvineyards.com The Gathering Place Bed and Breakfast, p. 82 gatheringplacebedandbreakfast.com Hermann Chamber, p. 17 visithermann.com

Historic Downtown Liberty, p. 96 www.historicdowntownliberty.org Inn at Harbour Ridge, p. 82 www.harbourridgeinn.com Isle of Capri Casino Hotel, p. 9 www.isleofcapricasinos.com James Country Mercantile, p. 97 www.jamescountry.com Joe Machens Dealerships, p. 107 www.machensmercedes.com John Knox Village East, p. 103 www.johnknoxvillageeast.com John Robinson’s Book King of the Road, p. 27 www.johndrakerobinson.com Kaitlynn’s, p. 64, www.kaitlynns.com Kansas City Public Television, p. 104 kcpt.org KMOS-TV, p. 101, kmos.org Lambert’s Café, p. 64 www.throwedrolls.com Lebanon, MO Tourism, p. 29 www.lebanonmo.org Lodge of Four Seasons www.4seasonsresort.com, p. 3 Louisiana, MO, p. 99 www.louisianamo.com Lutheran Senior Services, p. 15 www.lssliving.org Main Street Goods and Goodies, p. 96 Manitou Studio, p. 23 www.preusceramics.com Marshall Tourism, p. 4 www.visitmarshallmo.com Maryland Heights Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 15 www.more2do.org Meramec Caverns, p. 84-87 www.americascave.com Mexico, MO Tourism, p. 18 www.mexico-chamber.org Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies, p. 23, macaa.net Missouri Beef Council, p. 68-71 www.mobeef.org Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, p. 35 www.ded.mo.gov/mostep Missouri Life Festival Art, Food, Wine, and Fun, p. 77 www.missourilife.com Missouri Life T-shirts and products, p. 76, www.missourilife.com Missouri Pork Association, p. 108 www.porkbeinspired.com Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, p. 72-73 www.mosportshalloffame.com Moberly Area Chamber of

Commerce, p. 95 www.moberlychamber.com Mpix, p. 31, www.mpix.com New Madrid, p. 95 www.new-madrid.mo.us Old Trails Region, p. 64 www.oldtrails.net Overlook Farm, p. 21 www.overlookfarmmo.com Ovid Bell Press, p. 34 www.ovidbell.com Quotations, p. 96 www.quotationsboutique.com The Railyard Steakhouse, p. 64 www.railyardsteakhouse.com Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce, p. 100, www.visitrolla.com Salem Area Chamber of Commerce p. 27, www.salemmo.com Samuel’s, p. 98 www.samuelstuxedos.com Socket, p. 99, www.socket.net St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau, p. 100, www.stjomo.com The State Historical Society of Missouri, p. 103 http://shsumsystem.edu/newspaper/ mdnp/ Stone Haus Bed and Breakfast, p. 82 www.stonehausbandb.com Stone Hill Winery, p. 65 www.stonehillwinery.com Stone Hollow Scrimshaw Studio, p. 23 www.stonehollowstudio.com Stone-Yancey House, p. 96 www.stoneyanceyhouse.com Swiss Meats and Sausage Co., p. 65 www.swissmeats.com Texas Property for Sale or Trade, p. 102 www.goswap.org listing #7367 Titanic Museum Attraction, p. 2 and 93 www.titanicbranson.com, Trailside Café & Bike Shop, p. 64 www.trailsidecafebike.com, True/False Film Fest, p. 88 truefalse.org Truman State University Press, p. 27 tsup.truman.edu University Concert Series, p. 8 www.concertseries.org, USA Tours, p. 92 www.southwestnationalparktour. com Westphalia Vineyards, p. 64 www.westphaliavineyards.com Willow Spring Mercantile, p. 96 www.shopthemercantile.com

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Missouriana Trivia JUST FOR FUN

Last bits on Lincoln’s love, long whiskers, and broken hearts.

BY JIAXI LU

Did you know this?

A dyed-in-the-wool DEMOCRAT, Valentine Tapley from Pike County SWORE he would never shave again if Abraham Lincoln were elected. He kept his words and didn’t shave his chin MUSTACHE from 1860 until he died in 1910, when the whiskers had GROWN to twelve and half feet long.

...and this?

“BROKEN HEART” in French,

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT COLLECTIONS OF PRE-CIVIL WAR ARTIFACTS IN THE UNITED STATES IS IN THE ARABIA STEAMBOAT MUSEUM IN KANSAS CITY.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW BARTON; TOM SULLIVAN

Graduates at MU’s first commencement in 1843, cousins Robert B. and Robert L. Todd, were also cousins of President Lincoln’s wife, Mary.

Creve Coeur’s name derives from a tale of an Indian princess falling in love with a FRENCH fur trapper. The princess’s LOVE was never returned, so she leapt from a ledge overlooking the Creve Coeur Lake. Upon her suicide, the lake turned into the SHAPE of a broken heart

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NOWN OPE

INTRODUCING OUR NEW MERCEDES-BENZ LOCATION: JOE MACHENS. The new facility is conveniently located right off the highway, at 1710 I-70 Drive SW in Columbia. Joe Machens has a showroom like no other for vehicles that are too. Visit us today to see our inventory of new 2013 Mercedes-Benz vehicles and the largest selection of pre-owned vehicles in the mid-west.

Experience exemplary service, performance, and excellence at Mid-Missouri’s all-new Mercedes-Benz Auto Haus.

SALES HOURS

Mon., Wed., Fri. — 8am - 8pm Tues., Thurs., Sat. — 8am - 6pm Closed Sunday

SERVICE HOURS

Mon. - Fri. 7am - 5:30pm Sat. 8am - 1pm Closed Sunday

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Joe Machens

1710 I-70 Drive SW Columbia, MO 65203 (855) 774-7040 machensmercedes.com

1/4/13 10:22 AM

Pork Chimichurri Salad

Tender, juicy and oh-so satisfying, pork gets creative juices going. From tasty pork tacos to simple salads, find your next great idea at PorkBeInspired.com

Š2012 National Pork Board, Des Moines, IA USA. This message funded by Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pork Producers and the Pork Checkoff.

PorkBeInspired.com

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Spine ML0213.pdf

T H E S PI R I T O F D I S C OV E RY

M I S S O U R I

L I F E

FEBRUARY /M ARC H 20 13