Excelsior Springs Through a Mother’s Eyes: A Letter from 1946

The following article was written by Excelsior Springs native Paul Stevens, whose father, Walt, was the Editor for the Excelsior Springs Daily Standard from 1946 to 1948 and went on to work in journalism for more than 50 years. Paul is an accomplished journalist himself. He spent over 36 years in journalism, including three years as AP’s correspondent in Wichita, 19 years as AP’s Chief of Bureau in Kansas City, and six years as AP’s regional vice president for newspapers in 15 states, including Kansas.

Stevens retired from the AP in 2009, and in 2012, he began publishing a daily newsletter for AP journalists called “Connecting” which he still publishes today. Although he and his wife live in Lenexa, KS, they still love to visit Excelsior Springs from time to time to reconnect with their family history.

A Portrait of Excelsior Springs Post-WWII

By PAUL STEVENS

Discovered years ago in the treasured belongings of my parents, Ruth and Walt Stevens, was a four-page letter written by my mom from their small apartment in Excelsior Springs.

It was dated May 14, 1946, and written in her calligraphy-caliber handwriting in blue ink on fragile thin writing paper. How it survived intact for all those years is nothing short of miraculous.

The letter was written to her mother (Amelia Petersen) and sister (Helen Anderson) in Hartington, Nebraska, where mom and dad met while working at the weekly Cedar County News. Her newspaper training led her to not bury the lead: She and dad were expecting their first child – who just happened to be me.

Just months after his release from the Army after three years of service in the European Theatre during World War II, dad was named editor of the Excelsior Springs Daily Standard and began work in January 1946. He had proposed to mom (Ruth Marjorie Petersen) several weeks earlier in Hartington on her 27th birthday, on Dec. 10, 1945.

On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 1946, they married at St. Ann Catholic Church, then located across the street from the Elms Hotel. Officiating was Father William Cleary, founder of the church (in 1919). Only their two attendants (friends from Hartington) and some new friends on the Standard staff attended. Travel was expensive in those days for their immediate families to attend. Hartington was six hours away. Their wedding breakfast was held in the Elms and they honeymooned for three days in Kansas City before dad got back to work.

Mom’s letter not only announces my birth but also provides a slice of what life was like in Excelsior Springs for two people in their late 20s, months following the war – the dawn of my Baby Boomer generation when everyone was busy making up for lost time.

It mentions one of the busiest people in Excelsior Springs back then, Dr. Eugene Bissell Robichaux, who delivered hundreds of babies – me included – at Excelsior Springs Hospital. Returning soldiers and their spouses wasted little time in starting families. Dr. Robichaux retired in 1971 after 38 years as a physician in Excelsior Springs and died in 1975 at the age of 65.

It mentions President Harry Truman and his visit to William Jewell College in Liberty to receive an honorary degree on May 20, 1946 – two days before mom wrote the letter which told how dad covered Truman’s appearance and she got to tag along to see him for the first time and snap a few of her own pictures. Two years later, dad – who by then was editor and publisher of the Standard – covered Truman’s 1948 election night visit to Excelsior Springs and the Elms, and later interviewed him following his re-election.

Who is not mentioned is Nancy Elmore. It would be a year later, in June 1947, when dad hired the 18-year-old high school graduate onto the Standard staff as a proofreader. Nancy was one of the first to see me when mom and dad would carry me into the office. She worked for the next 69 years at Excelsior Publishing Company, most of them as business manager, and died in 2016 at the age of 87.

Another not mentioned in the letter was Dr. Bill Baird and his wife. He was an Excelsior Springs dentist who later took mom and dad on as patients. They shared a lifetime friendship.

My parents lived modestly, moving into the Anderson Apartments after they were married. Their first car was one dad had when he went into the service – a 1939 Dodge four-door. Dad taught mom how to drive. They were befriended by Mary McDermott, wife of a Standard employee, who invited them to dinner a lot. When my sister Jan was born in November 1947, our family moved to a house, at 813 Wilhite.

Our family might have stayed in Excelsior Springs a lifetime – but the proverbial fickle finger of fate intervened. As dad told it, the Standard was sold and a nephew of the head of the new owners came back to run it as publisher. Dad moved back to editor and started looking for another job. He found an opening in Fort Madison, Iowa, for managing editor of the Daily Democrat and the family moved there in 1949.

I caught the journalism bug from my parents. After all, I got my first byline at less than a month old in the birth announcement my folks mailed to family and friends. I grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where dad was editor of The Messenger daily newspaper for a half century. Mom died there in 2011 at the age of 93 and dad died in 2013 at the age of 96.

My 36-year career with The Associated Press, started after college and military service, took me to five cities before in 1984 landing back next door to my birthplace as Kansas-Missouri chief of bureau based in Kansas City, in charge of operations of the news service in the two states. I retired in 2009.

In their traveling years, mom and dad would drive down five hours on Interstate 35 from Fort Dodge to visit our family in Lenexa, Kansas, which includes my wife Linda and three children and four grandchildren.

In some of visits, we’d drive up to Excelsior Springs to visit their first city as a married couple and reminisce and tour the Standard, and on a few of those visits, we’d take Nancy Elmore to lunch. After my folks died, I came up to visit the Standard and meet its publisher Brian Rice and visit Nancy (who once told me, “I can’t figure out why you drive so far to see me.”) You’re an extension of my family, I would tell her. On her 65th anniversary with the Standard, in 2012, I was honored to represent dad and say a few words about her.

One of my latest visits came when Linda and I parked outside the Elms to view the total solar eclipse in 2017. My family history there made it all the more meaningful.

And just a few months ago, I got to meet the owners of the Excelsior Citizen, Jason and Courtney Cole, and their daughter Mackenzie. It was over lunch at the Elms that I told them about my mom’s letter – and they asked if I’d write a story about it. Courtney also has a history with the Standard – her grandfather Joe Morgan was publisher of the Standard at one time.

So here is the letter – which I transcribed into text using my iPhone, quite a contrast with these delicate sheets of paper that provided a glimpse of my family’s history and my start in life.

Finally, if you knew my parents and have a story to share about them, I would love to hear from you. My email is – stevenspl@live.com

Wednesday, May 22, 1946

Dearest folks,

Perhaps I should have headed it “Grandma, Aunt Helen and Uncle Ted,” ‘cause that’s what you’ll become next winter! Surprise!! The doctor says our wee one will arrive November 27 or later, and I’m in hopes he’ll arrive on my birthday. We both would rather have waited a year before starting our family, but these things can’t always be governed, and regardless, we’re mighty happy over this whole thing. I made my first trip to the doctor last Thursday morning after much coaxing by Walt – no doubt you can imagine how I tried to put off that trip! I wasn’t too bad, though, and Dr. Robichaux tells me I should have no trouble at all. He’s quite young, served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander overseas, and has a terrific number of babies on his to-be list. I have really felt pretty rotten most of the time – constipation, nausea, morning sickness all day, and belching. Started this heaving episode about 3 weeks ago- it’s the funniest thing- you feel just swell, and all at once, you’re making a bee-line for the bathroom, and it’s no respecter of time. Morning, afternoon, or night. This belching is what is bad – and I even embarrass Walt by my loud outbursts, but it can’t be helped. I should be over all this before long tho, at least I hope so. My craving has been for fruit and I eat lots of oranges and apples between meals, which is a good thing too. This is the reason I’d to come home now, before it’s evident, for I know there’d be much finger-counting going on in Hartington even though it’s legal as all get-out. However, the doctor doesn’t want me to take that long a trip until I’m past my three months, which should be next week. I’d love to be there Decoration Day, but I guess I’d best wait till the following week. We both hope it will be a boy, but we won’t be unhappy if it should be a girl. A name discussion has been underway here for weeks and I think Walt will give into the name of Paul. Of course, we’ve lots of time for that.

Enuf about the baby for a while! Received your letter this morning, Mom. We had received our News Sunday, so noticed the honor Shirley had received. I’m surely glad for her, and that scholarship comes in handy, as long as she plans to go to the University next fall. We, too, thought that was a terrible picture of her in the paper; she surely is much cuter than that.

I had quite a thrill Monday in seeing President Truman at Liberty – in fact, I was in the front row of the roped-off territory, not more than 25 feet from the walk he marched on with the processional to and from the auditorium. Walt had a press ticket so he was inside the auditorium in the orchestra pit. I was really quite impressed after seeing and hearing him talk. He is quite short and stocky and has such a broad friendly grin. His voice is also much better than it sounds over the radio. Walt said there were newsmen there from all over the country; he sat next to a reporter from the Baltimore Sun. At any rate, there were plenty of them taking pictures of the President. I had Walt’s camera and took four snaps of him, but I got so excited, I forgot to cock the camera on two of them which I’m certain would have been good. Walt got such a bang out of that, but it griped me. I hope I’ll be able to send you some of them. Will also include a paper containing the story Walt wrote of sidelights of the President’s trip – I gathered several of the stories while outside in the crowd. 

Last Thursday night the office force held a farewell dinner for Paul and Mildred and presented him with a Schaeffer pen and pencil set. And last night, Paul and Mildred and Walt and I drove to K.C. To have dinner with Perry Olsen and Dorothy Buschman. We had a wonderful steak meal. That same afternoon I was invited to a tea given by the Sinawik club at one of the classy homes in the city here. I attended with Mildred. There were about 200 women there and it was a lovely party. They served little decorated cakes, peppermint ice cream, dainty sandwiches, nuts and mints, coffee or tea. The program consisted of several accordion selections by a chaplain at the Veterans hospital, a lady harpist from K.C. played, and her husband sang, and three girls from the Independence high school dramatics class gave readings – and all were excellent. The hostesses all wore formals. I met so many people that I’ll never remember them.

Received a nice note from Evelyn yesterday thanking me for the cookbook. Sounds as if they had a swell trip. We also had a letter from Eve Smith – finally. She’s certainly been tied down for a change with all that company. That cologne I sent her arrived the day before Mother’s Day, and she was so pleased with that. Also heard from Bev. She’s not too fond of Elgin – says it’s hard to become acquainted there.

We received a wedding gift from Veronica Bonander – six cork-back table mats with a linoleum-like surface in three designs done in pastel flowers. They’re very pretty and will be so practical.

So Otto and Thea are planning a plane trip to California? Thea will be in her glory in a plane, won’t she? Bet Frank and his wife are happy over their event, too.

We were quite surprised to know that Russ is back in Yakima. They’ll at least have a nice place to live there and it’s no doubt a good deal for Russ. I must answer their letter soon, too.

I baked cinnamon rolls again Saturday and they were good this time too. Sunday, we had Marge and Jack over for dinner. I fixed a pork roast in the cooker and it was delicious – made the best brown gravy too. Also had corn, a vegetable salad, and ginger bread with bananas and whipped cream for dessert. We drove to Lexington, Mo., that afternoon; that’s quite an old civil war town, you know. Also saw the Wentworth military academy there. Jack took us to Phillips Tavern for our supper that night.

Thursday morn

Didn’t get this finished yesterday, so I’ll try to get it finished this morning. Last night, Walt had Lions Club so Marge and I decided to eat downtown too. Then we went to the show “Miss Susie Slagles.” That was a good show, wasn’t it? Tonite Walt and I are invited to a dinner for Paul and Mildred at the Russell Kennings (he’s manager of the light and power company here). Sooo, you see I’ve done very little cooking this week. We’re getting a little tired of so much society and will be glad to have an evening at home. I must iron this afternoon.

The Lioness Club net Tuesday night, but since we went to K.C. I didn’t get to attend. It’s really getting to be quite a joke about all the p.g. women in the club and every month finds a few more. We haven’t told anyone but the Jugers and Marge and Jack about ours, tho. And we’re not telling anyone else but our folks for the time being. We were so amused when Irene wrote us they are expecting December 14th. Little do they know we’re going to beat them!

Irene and Les Jacobsen sent us some pictures we had taken out there, so will send them on to you. Guess we’ll try to get out there Sunday, if it doesn’t rain (it does every Sunday). Hope they still have some strawberries.

How many rooms you have back of Ted’s shop? Will you have to get rid of some of your furniture? Is Helen working yet?

I’m still up in the air about coming home for Decoration Day I think I’ll check up on the schedule from here to S.C. If Irene and Otis came up home on that day I could probably ride with them. I’d hate to take that bumpy bus! Could you meet me if I shouldn’t get a ride from S.C.? I’ll check and drop you a card at once.

I should start lunch now and it seems I’ve written plenty of news.

Lots of love,

Ruth, Walt and (Paul)

ADDED NOTE FROM WALT:

Dearest folks,

What do you think of the big news – we are most happy about it and hopeful that everything comes out all right. Ruth has had her share of early-pregnancy sickness but should be feeling better soon. Our sense – as I know you are – that she will make a wonderful mother (if she can keep the doting father from spoiling the child).

All is well – except that it is much too warm here today.

Love, Walt

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Excelsior Springs Through a Mother’s Eyes: A Letter from 1946