About Me

Thank goodness for kind old carpenters who build birdhouses. I don’t remember his name and the newspaper tearsheet is long gone, but I remember my trembling knees as a journalism student at the University of Missouri in search of a story for the newspaper’s “People” page. I drove around, peeking in yards, and found my first “People” – a retired fellow who built fancy bird hotels to give away, just for the sheer joy of it.

Hundreds of published articles later, I’m still searching for stories that leave readers saying “ahhh.” Some of my favorites: A “senior” prom where the high schoolers invite the elders to a dance to remember; an international friendship among Kansas teens and a forgotten Holocaust heroine, Irena Sendler, that brought long overdue recognition to Sendler; a combination kindergarten and nursing home in Oklahoma where the halls ring with laughter; and two sisters’ successful restoration and re-opening of their grandpa’s candy store.