CHS alum Mike Smith–noted editor–dies in Minnesota

By Con Marshall

Mike Smith kept close ties with Chadron friends

A 1953 Chadron High School graduate who miraculously survived a horrific automobile accident the following year while he was attending Chadron State College and became a noted journalist died Monday, Sept. 9 at age 84 in the Coon Rapids, Minn., hospital.

A celebration of life for Mike Smith will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Kolzak Funeral Home in Blaine, Minn.  A cousin who is a retired Jesuit priest will conduct the services. Inurnment will take place next June at the Calvary Cemetery in Chadron, a family member said.               

The auto accident occurred 65 years ago, a few hours after Chadron sports fans had listened to the first radio broadcast of a Chadron State football game when the Eagles played South Dakota Tech in Rapid City at night some four months after KCSR Radio had gone on the air. 

Both Frank Clark, who was the play-by-play announcer, and Smith, who had been the spotter, were sophomores at Chadron State.  En route home from the game, they missed the turn in Custer south to Hot Springs and Chadron and wound up in Newcastle, Wyo.

After getting their bearings, they traveled to Lusk to connect with Highway 20.  In the wee hours of the morning, Clark fell asleep at the wheel of his 1949 Studebaker, which rammed into a bridge between Crawford and Whitney.

A bridge railing split as it penetrated the front of the vehicle. The upper portion went through Smith’s upper leg and left side, and even into the trunk, pinning him in the passenger seat. Clark tried to both attend to Smith and flag down the few vehicles that were on highway, but it was still quite dark and the car had gone into the ditch and into a pasture about 50 yards, according to the patrolman’s report, before coming to a stop.

About 45 minutes after the accident had occurred, help arrived. The Chadron Record story said Dr. Leo Hoevet and the Chadron Rescue Unit headed by Paul Thein and Alden Rasmussen sped to the scene. Crawford authorities also were alerted and Dr. Ben Bishop brought blood plasma.

The first problem was how to get Smith out of the car. Someone raced to the Ross Drinkwalter farm about a half mile away and borrowed a saw.  Smith, who remained conscious during the ordeal, was in pain, but not unbearably so, he said years later, believed Rasmussen did the sawing, both in front of Smith and behind the seat. It was about 7 o’clock when he was removed from the car, placed in an ambulance, given a blood transfusion and rushed to the Chadron Hospital.

While Smith had part of his hip bone sheared off, a cracked lower vertebra and a ruptured spleen, no vital organs or arteries were hit. Dr. Hoevet removed the chunk of creosote timber, apparently with the aid of Betty Thompson, a surgical nurse.

Frank Clark and Mike Smith re-unite in Chadron - 2002

Smith remained hospitalized several weeks, with updates of his condition reported frequently by KCSR and the Record. Years later, he recalled being well enough to attend one of Chadron State’s late-season football games and was introduced to the Elliott Field crowd.

Sometime that fall, Smith said he also went to a dance at the college and sat at a table where Clark, who had remained in close contact with Smith during his recovery, and his date, JoAnn Dollison, were seated.  Dollison, a native of David City, Neb., also was attending Chadron State.

“Frank introduced Jo and I and we had a pleasant visit,” Smith said. “I certainly didn’t dance that evening, but I did take a shine to Frank’s date. We were married a couple years later when I was attending Fresno State.

”Smith said he also took over Clark’s job as sports director at KCSR after Clark transferred to Iowa State in the fall of 1955 to earn a degree in communications. Clark later spent 20 years in the Navy, much of it as an officer on submarines. 

After both left Chadron, the men had little contact until the 1990s, when they renewed their friendship, visited each other’s homes and began exchanging e-mails.

Sports reporting became Smith’s ticket to success.  After graduating from Fresno State and with the encouragement of Maurice Van Kirk, publisher of the Chadron Record during the 1950s and then the editor of the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Smith joined that newspaper as a sportswriter. He also wrote sports for about three years at the North Platte Telegraph, and worked seven years at the Omaha World-Herald, some of them as the Nebraska editor, before moving to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1967.

During much of the 1970s, Smith was the Star Tribune’s sports editor during the era when Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Rod Carew were starring for the Twins and Fran Tarkington and the Purple People Eaters were leading the Vikings to the Super Bowl.

Smith also was that newspaper’s Sunday magazine editor before retiring and he and Jo moved to Arizona in 1991.

He was an athlete.  He played basketball at Chadron High and was a member of the Chadron American Legion baseball team and the Elks’ town team in its latter years. 

The Smiths never lost contact with Chadron.  Several summers during the early 2000s, they avoided the Arizona heat for a few weeks by living in the High Rise at Chadron State and “stuffing envelopes for the CSC Alumni Office,” in Jo’s words. 

Smith also faithfully attended Chadron High Class of 1953 reunions, including the 65^th in the fall of 2018.  Classmates and other friends remember him as being “a happy-go-lucky, life-of-the-party” type who despite his successes, never took himself too seriously.

During a 2002 interview when both he and Clark returned for the Chadron State homecoming, both called Smith’s survival “a miracle.” He credited Chadron firemen and Dr. Hoevet “for doing everything perfect” during the rescue and ensuing surgery.

Because four of their six children live in the Minneapolis area, the Smiths moved back there about 10 years ago.  There are 12 grandchildren. 

Chadron lad became a Beverly Hills Cop

(Editor’s Note:  A northwest Nebraska native who spent much of his career in Beverly Hills returned to Chadron in July for his Chadron High School class reunion during Fur Trade Days.  In preparing for the reunion, Ted Turechek shared some of his life story with classmate Mike Smith and fellow CHS graduate Con Marshall.  They edited the story for publication in the Chadron Record.  Ted, Mike and Con were kind enough to also share it with Dawes County Journal.  We’ve included a few additional photos.)

He never got in the movies, but both he and his wife rubbed shoulders with some elite movie and television stars while he was serving as a Beverly Hills policeman.  He also had other interesting experiences during his 20-plus years on the beat.

For instance, while trying to catch a bad guy in the attic of a hotel, he once burst through the ceiling of a hotel employee’s office.  He also was forced to arrest a robot for panhandling because that’s against the law in plush Beverly Hills.

Ted Turechek as a Freshman at
Chadron High School in 1950.

He’s Ted Turechek, said to be just as quiet and unassuming as he was 62 years ago when he graduated with the Class of 1953.  He’s now retired and comfy in his Simi Valley home.  He had never attended his class reunion until he showed up at his 60th two years ago.  This year, he and his wife Dee Dee, who looks like a movie star in the photos with this story, decided to return.

There were lots of Turecheks attending the Chadron schools beginning in the 1920s and spanning the next 35 years until all of them had graduated from the high school.  William and Mary Turechek had 10 children during a 20-year stretch, and they all graduated from CHS.  There also were three Turechek cousins in the Chadron schools during that era.

The oldest of William and Mary’s brood was Bill, who graduated in 1934.  He lived at Gordon most of his life and won at least a half dozen Nebraska horseshoe pitching championships.

The other family members and their graduation dates are Phebe, 1936; John, 1939; Marie, 1941; Margie, 1944; Lou, 1947; Lucille, 1948; Jim, 1950; Ted, 1953; and Dennis, 1955, a small, but pesky basketball player for the Cardinals.

Several of them also attended what was then known as Nebraska State Teachers College at Chadron.

The family vacated Chadron each summer.  That’s because the Turecheks owned a 2,400-acre ranch 20 miles south of Rushville.  The ranch had been homesteaded by Mary’s parents, John W. and Phebe Mann.

As soon as school was out, the clan went there and put up hay, then returned to Chadron and lived in a large home at Fourth and Morehead Streets when classes resumed.

Ted didn’t go to college after graduating from CHS, but he spent two years in the military, had various jobs in the Black Hills and Denver before moving to the Los Angeles area.  He initially worked as a life insurance investigator, but a friend suggested that he check into a career in law enforcement.

He soon saw an advertisement for police officers in Beverly Hills.  He applied, was hired, went through the training process and spent 24 years with the department before retiring in 1986.

In 1973, ten years after joining the force, he married Dee Dee, who was from Swift Current, Newfoundland.

The Turechek Family

Ted notes that his parents were capable people.  Besides giving birth to and raising 10 children, his mother took classes at the college and earned her teaching credentials.  She also was a pianist, and his dad played first violin in the college’s symphony orchestra well into his 80s.  Both also played for dances at the Odd Fellows Hall, he recalls.

Ted is proud of his family’s heritage, but relates that not everything went well for his great-grandparents and his grandfather, Wesley J. Turechek, who was five at the time, when they came to America from Czechoslovakia in 1864.

It took the ship 73 days to cross the Atlantic.  The ship was blown so far off course that it encountered icebergs (even though it was summer), and food and water were in such short supply that the passengers were allowed only half portions during the last phase of the voyage.

After landing in New York City, the Turecheks headed for Cleveland by train.  A river was out of its banks and while crossing a bridge, the baggage car broke through and all the clothing and bedding were lost.  That left the family with only the clothes they were wearing.

Great-grandpa Turechek worked in a foundry in Cleveland, then moved to Covington, Kentucky, where he was a tree grafter for a nursery.  The family, which included seven children, eventually moved to Iowa City.  Wesley was married in 1881 and moved with his family to Knox County, Nebraska, in 1885 and finally settled in Bloomfield, Nebraska, where he lived to be 92.

Attic Antics

Beverly Hills cop Ted Turechek
and partner pose with "hot" furs. 

Although Ted undoubtedly had more hazardous duties, he prefers to tell about two humorous incidents that occurred during his 24 years as a Beverly Hills cop.  He’ll also discuss his relationship with the stars.

He recalls that he and fellow officer Bob O’Connor received a radio call one evening to respond to Trader Vic’s Restaurant, an upscale business located adjacent to the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  A customer had consumed a large meal and a couple bottles of expensive wine, then tried to pay for it with a stolen credit card.

When the waiter confronted the customer about the status of the card, the man attempted to flee.  However, the waiter and the maitre d’ were able to restrain him.  While being held pending the arrival of police, the suspect asked to use the bathroom.

“That’s where he is now, officer,” Ted was informed when he arrived at the restaurant.’”  I told the waiter to stand outside the door to ensure that the suspect didn’t get away,” Ted remembers.  “I swung the door open and stepped inside.”

Officer Turchek began the search, but to no avail.  But he noticed a hatch in the ceiling above one of the commodes.  The suspect must have somehow hoisted himself up through the hatch, replaced the cover and escaped into the attic.

Ted jumped on the commode, tried to push open the hatch, but it wouldn’t budge.  He thought the bad guy must be standing on it.

Ted hurried back to the maitre d’, asked about another route to the attic, and was shown a narrow stairway.  He was in hot pursuit.

The attic was very large and there were no lights in it.  Ted’s flashlight was his only source of illumination.  He shined it through the darkness, but to no avail.  He realized he must step on the joists as he made his way into the darkness in search of the guy who was playing hide-and-seek.

Ted tells the rest of the story:

Curt and Betty Thompson (at left-both now deceased)
visited the Turecheks in the 1990s.  Curt Thompson had
coached Turechek in Junior High sports in the 1940s. 

“Things were going fine until I thought I sensed movement and swung around to see what it was.  That’s when my left foot slipped off a joist and landed on the plasterboard, which failed to support my weight.

“As my foot came crashing down through the ceiling into the office below, I heard a woman scream.  I broke my descent by grasping an adjacent joist and hooking my right leg over another.  But by this time my leg was fully inside the office, dangling from the ceiling like some grotesque chandelier.

“After some effort, I managed to extract my leg out of a now-gaping hole and stuck my head through the hole to assess the situation.  A middle-aged woman in a business suit stood staring at me with a look of terror on her face.  She demanded to know who I was, what was happening, and what I was doing up there.

“Those were good questions!  I tried to assure her that I was a police officer and everything was under control.  She didn’t seem convinced, and I still had a suspect to find, so I resumed the search.  As I cautiously crawled along another joist, I suddenly realized my flashlight was missing.  It had gone sailing across the attic when I took my spill.  Now the only source of light was that coming from the hole I had just exited.  Then I heard the maitre d’ calling from the stairway.

“We got him, officer.  We got him.  You can come down now.’’  Apparently the commotion had scared him back down through the hatch into the waiting arms of Officer O’Connor.  His stint at playing hide-and-seek was over.

“If someone comes across a 3-cell aluminum flashlight in the attic of Trader Vic’s Restaurant, and they read this, they’ll know how it got there.”

Ted has another unusual story to tell:  The Robot:

One afternoon while patrolling the Beverly Hills business district, he received a dispatcher call that citizens were complaining about a “robot” soliciting in the 400 block of Beverly Drive.

“I wasn’t sure I had heard right,” Ted says. “This is Car 7, did you say ‘robot?”

“Affirmative, Car 7, a robot.”

Again, Officer Turechek tells the story:

“In Beverly Hills, soliciting passersby is strictly against the law, be you a ‘robot’ or a life form.  So I hurried my patrol car up Beverly.  As I approached the 400 block, I noted a number of pedestrians gathering around something or other on the sidewalk.

“I parked and moved quickly through the crowd.  There stood an object that surely answered the description of a ‘robot.’  It was a round-shaped object approximately four feet tall with a glass globe on top that contained electrical equipment.  In a side tray I could see numerous business cards that the ‘robot’ was inviting people to help themselves to by using a high pitched, metallic-sounding voice.

“I turned my attention to the folks and asked, ‘Who does this thing belong to, do any of you know?’  Several shook their heads ‘no.’  One older man said, ‘There wasn’t anyone around.  The thing was just standing out here all by itself.’

“I really felt silly, but I did what I had to do.  I turned back to the thing and said, ‘Robot, it’s against the law to solicit anything here on the street.  Did you know that?’  With what appeared to be a camera inside its globed-head pointing at me, it said, ‘I’m not doing anything wrong, officer.  I believe this is a free country, and I’m entitled to free speech.’

“I noticed then that the folks around us were grinning.  One said, ‘Did you give him his rights?’  Another chimed in, ‘Why don’t you handcuff him?’

“It looked as if the robot might gain the upper hand and win the crowd over, so I decided it was time to silence him by pulling his plug.

“As I tried to find something on the thing to hold on to, it yelled, ‘Police brutality!,’ and tried to run away.  I struggled to hold on and finally put a choke-hold around his glass-globe head.  I was able to turn him, and I located some power wires on his back.  I yanked the wires, it became immobile and no longer argumentative.”

Ted says his first thought was to put the robot in the back seat of the police car, just like he would a human he had arrested.  However, it was too big.  So he summoned a flatbed tow truck that hauled it to the police station.  Several hours later, a man arrived to claim ownership.  He explained that his 17-year-old son had pulled the caper, unbeknownst to him, and it was ‘just a joke.”

“Oh, yes, I did advise him of his rights.  Probably not many policemen have arrested a robot during their careers.”

The stars were shining

Over the years, Ted says it was a fairly common occurrence to come in contact with Beverly Hills celebrities.

One “uncommon” occurrence was a celebrity basketball game that was put on every year between the “Hollywood Stars” team and the Beverly Hills Police Department.  The game was a charity fund raiser and played at the Beverly Hills High School gym.  It always drew a packed house.

Ted says Hollywood’s roster included Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Buddy Hackett, Marty Allen, Max Baer (Jethro of Beverly Hillbillies fame), James Caan and Don Rickles, just to name a few.

The game was played for fun, almost no fouls were called, even though violations ran rampant at times, Ted remembers. 

“The games had comical moments and it was obvious whose side the fans were on.  In the end, we always made sure the ‘Stars’ won.  It was a definite crowd pleaser.”

After each game, Ted says, Hackett threw a party at his house for the players and their guests.  Female stars he and Dee Dee enjoyed meeting included Doris Day, Liza Minnelli and Charo.

“Charo can be seen giving me a hug in one of the photographs I sent,” Ted says.  “And I remember that Buddy Hackett, Max Baer and Marty Allen, among others, always made sure they got to squeeze my Dee Dee.“It was a great event.  The participants, their guests and the spectators had a great evening, and we raised quite a bit of money for a charitable cause,” the Chadron High grad says.

 

“It was a good time and place to be a policeman.”

Chadron native Ted Turechek retired as a police officer in Beverly
Hills.  He and his wife Dee Dee live in Simi Valley, California

Assumption had big sports legacy - Part I

We're happy to present a two-part series that hits the highlights of athletics at Assumption Academy in Chadron during its 38-year history.  Written by Con Marshall, these newspaper stories were originally published in August of 2011.  Thank you, Con!

Chadron Assumption had many athletic highlights

by Con Marshall

While Mike Smith and his wife Jo were avoiding the heat in Arizona and resided in Chadron during much of July 2011 (When our high temperature reached at least 90 on 20 dates and topped 100 degrees seven times.), I wrote a sports column about Chadron Prep and Assumption Academy closing 50 and 40 years ago, respectively.

The column recounted numerous athletic highlights that the two high schools had during their existence.  Bolstered by its three Class C state basketball championships of the 1950s and the limelight that went with the titles, Prep received quite a bit of the spotlight.

Mike, a 1953 Chadron High graduate whose career included being sports editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, didn’t quibble with that. But he gently suggested that I could have named some of the Panthers who made Assumption a small-school powerhouse at times.

Assumption Academy in its early years

Since the column already contained more than 1,500 words (so does this one), I had avoided listing names by noting there were too many standouts to mention.  There were definitely a lot of exceptional athletes who wore the Blue and Gold through the years.

But Mike was convincing and helped by asking Dan Konrath, a loyal Assumption alum who has a wealth of information about the school, to loan me a copy of the 2010 Alumni Directory that Dan put together. It is a masterpiece that contains individual photos of all the 597 graduates during Assumption’s 48 years of operation.

Mike’s prodding and Dan’s book inspired some additional digging. It was interesting.  I found so much material that it will stretch over two issues of the newspaper.  This episode will discuss some interesting events from “way back when.” Next week, we’ll talk mostly about the final 20 years that the school was open.

Some great Assumption teams

Mention was made in the earlier column about Assumption’s undefeated and unscored upon 11-man football team in 1932. Despite considerable research nothing more has been learned about that team.  Since there are only 15 players in the team photo, they had to be iron men and it had to be a fantastic season. Few teams anywhere have duplicated it.

Nearly 80 years later, it seems fitting that their names are printed again. In alphabetical order they are Jack Berkheimer, Eugene Chalfant, Lester Clemens, John Coyle, Dan Jordan, Richard Lecher, John Masek, John McDermott, Richard McGannon, Francis Joe Montague, Don Rapp, Bill Riley, Orin Riley, DeLong Satterlee and Lester Wilson.  As noted in the earlier column, their coach was Claude “Bud” Rook, who had played on Chadron High’s undefeated football team in 1927 and was the founder and long-time owner of ABC Electric in Chadron.

Even before that, Assumption had at least one big moment in sports. In 1929, when Assumption was in just its fifth year, the basketball team went to the state tournament.  I learned about that team in May 1990, when Marion Talcott, the team’s coach, visited his hometown. He was 84, but still full of energy and information.

This Is What It Looks Like at the Center of America

Daughter Jill Miller first alerted us last December about a wonderful collection of online photographs of the American heartland.  New York-based photographer Andrew Moore did a splendid job of capturing these images for an exhibit dubbed "Dirt Meridian," which opened last month (January 2014) at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City.  We viewed the photos, appreciated them a bit, then promptly forgot about them -- until friend Mike Smith reminded us again this week, not only of the photos, but about the story that accompanied them online.

The Murray House in Sheridan County, Nebraska (2013) - New York Times Magazine

The collection contains numerous images that were taken in the area along the 100th Meridian in Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.  Most were captured west of the meridian, and all of them are truly remarkable.  A portion of photographs included in the exhibit can be found at this link to the New York Times Magazine, which begins with a photo of an 1890 Sheridan County homestead.  And there are plenty of Dawes County shots, too.

We've also linked to the story that accompanied the photos.  It was written by Inara Verzemnieks of Iowa City, Iowa, and is entitled "Life Along the 100th Meridian."  

And thanks Jill and Mike for the heads up on the photos!

Warming up in Sun City!

Chadron area folks living in Arizona routinely gather every winter to socialize and share memories of years gone by.  And Chadron State College coordinates an alumni gathering at around the same time.

It's a great opportunity for "expatriates" to get together.

And even with the cooler weather that swept across the southwest this winter, it still beat the sub-zero temperatures back in Dawes County Nebraska!

Mike Smith has been attending these gigs for several years -- I think since he decided that the ice of Minnesota wasn't nearly as accommodating as the warmer climes of Arizona.  Thankfully, he's alway had a camera along for the event and has kindly shared a few snapshots from the latest gathering.

That was at the Sun City Country Club and Golf Course, the same locale as the 2010 gathering.

But we saw a few new faces this time.  Although I believe he's attended previous gatherings, we hadn't seen photographs of one-time Chadron Eagle editor and cheerleader Ted Turpin.  Even with the hat hiding his hair (we remember curly locks), we were pretty sure that was Turpin.

Although emigrating from Nebraska to the southwest several decades ago, Turpin continued his journalistic activities and was a newpaper publisher for many years in Arizona.  Of course, there were lots of other folks at the event, too, along with the familiar faces of Chadron State College folks, led by President Janie Park.  We saw pics of Connie Rasmussen, Karen Pope, and Brad Smith, too.

You might enjoy taking a tour of the photographs we've posted in our  "Arizona Gallery" from this and earlier Chadron meetings in Arizona.  And thanks again to Mike Smith for sharing! 

We always enjoy getting glimpses of these folks when they gather -- and share stories.  We had the good fortune to participate in the 2005 gatherings.  

After the icebox experience we've had this winter in South Dakota, we may be signing up to attend the CSC Arizona events in 2012! 

Chadron women named Honorary Mayors

Every year, a fairly good-sized group of former Chadron area residents gather for a luncheon and get-together in Mesa, Arizona. Long-time friend and retired newspaper guy Mike Smith is a regular attendee of Chadron Area Reunions (CAR) and provided the Chadron Record with the following story. He has kindly allowed us to use the story on High Plains Almanac. You'll find additional photos from the event in our photo gallery for the Chadron Area Reunion.

By Mike Smith

Evelyn Roberts and Lois Christensen, Chadron residents until they retired to Arizona in the mid-1990s, were recognized Saturday, February 6, as “Honorary Mayors” of Chadron for the day for their decades-long contributions in the Chadron area.

Chadron Mayor Donald Grantham issued proclamations and certificates of appreciation for their service and good-neighbor achievements. The documents were presented – to their surprise – at the annual Chadron Area Reunion in Mesa, Arizona.

Mrs. Christensen was born in Chadron in 1919 and celebrated her 90th birthday December 27. She ranched with her late husband Franklin and family most of her life. Mrs. Roberts, now 95, moved to Chadron in 1928 as a youngster and ranched with her late husband Vic near the Christensens, 15 miles north of Chadron below the South Dakota border.

Family members attending were Mrs. Roberts’ brother-in-law Bob Roberts and his wife Barb of Mesa, and Mrs. Christensen’s son Ron Christensen and his wife Sonya, and her daughter Jerrie Roberts.

The reunion drew 37 former or current Chadron area residents.

The next day, Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope of Chadron State College were hosts at a CSC reunion in Sun City, Arizona. Their event attracted 17. Mrs. Rasmussen is executive director of the Chadron State Foundation; Mrs. Pope is director of CSC Alumni and Giving.

Attending the Chadron State reunion:

Rich and Micki Seiwert, and Harold and Daisy Mundschenk, Sun City West, AZ; Marcella Warren, Peoria, AZ; Carl and Diane McManis, Goodyear, AZ; Fred and Delores Fisher, Surprise, AZ; Maria Daniels, Darrell Dedic, and Mike and Jo Smith, Sun City, AZ; Cash and Deanna Franklin, Gering, NE; and Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope, Chadron.

Attending the Chadron Area Reunion:

Evelyn Roberts, Ron and Sonya Christensen, and Lois Christensen, Tempe, AZ; Bob and Barb Roberts, Clayton Luther, Wilma Quelle, Hank Reitz, Brian Wadsworth, Bill and DeeDee Smith, and Dick and Sharon Colacino, Mesa, AZ; Dorothy Gregson and Jack and Lora Miller, Apache Junction, AZ; Jerrie Roberts, and Larman and Olga Wilson, Phoenix, AZ; Ron and Cheryl Moody, Chandler, AZ; Joan Van Sant Shoop and Will Louis, and Harold and Daisy Mundschenk, Sun City West, AZ; Fred and Delores Fisher, Surprise, AZ; Mike and Jo Smith, Sun City, AZ; Harold and Norma Lee Perkins, Sidney, NE; Charles and Marge Finley, Sutton, NE; Caryle Colerich, Farmington, NM; and Connie Rasmussen and Karen Pope, Chadron.