Here’s Mickey Joe Theatre Review: KenRex, a one-person musical, based on Ken Rex McElroy, who was killed in Skidmore in 1981. This review is for the London production. It opened in New York in April 2026.
Including the YouTube-generated transcript so it shows up in searches.
Here’s a list of 15 Grand Army of the Republic posts in Nodaway County. The GAR was a veterans organization of Union soldiers and sailors in the Civil War. This list is compiled by the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. Names of the posts could be anybody in the Civil War and didn’t have to be local oriented (unlike the current chapters American Legion and VFW which are named for local residents who were the first to fall in World War I). Maryville’s Sedgwick Post is named for Gen. John Sedgwick from Connecticut, who died in 1864 in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
The Posts were social functions and included reunions both locally and nationally. . GAR was active in the 1917 dinner on the Nodaway County Courthouse lawn, in which 8,000 meals were served when Nodaway County boys left for World War I.
The GAR actively looked after graves and erected numerous GAR markers at cemeteries, which were still visible everywhere into the 1960s. Unfortunately, the markers became collector items and were almost all stolen (as happened with our family markers)
The most prominent GAR figure in Maryville was Nathaniel Sisson, who stayed very active until passing in 1932 (and is buried in Miriam Cemetery). He is also depicted in a painting on the Freedom Rock in Franklin Park. Above is an image AI colorized/enhanced image of him in GAR gear. Below is an AI-enhanced view of his Civil War photo.
Caption: From Left, Jonnie Small, Mindy Thompson, Britt Small, Penelope the dog
Image colorized/enhanced from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-maryville-daily-forum-festival-famil/159592466/
The original 200-acre college farm (on the northwest side of the campus, mostly south of the Wabash tracks in the high-rise dormitory area). This farm was part of the original massive Faustiana Farm, which stretched around the college on the west and north, as opposed to the later, much smaller Townsend Faustiana, which was mostly south of the highway. It was a working farm providing milk and chickens for the college. Among the livestock were Daisy and Queen, mules used to dig the foundation for Martindale Gymnasium, which opened in 1926. For the record, Northwest adopted the Bearcat mascot in 1916, and Central Missouri adopted the Mule as mascot in 1922. The image is AI colorized/enhanced source image is below. Continue reading
In 1942-43, Washington High School students painted a mural on the lower level that depicted the school’s history. When the school was torn down in 1999, the mural, as well as plaster pseudo-classical Greek sculptures that adorned the school auditorium, were moved to the Nodaway County Historical Society Museum. Pictured in the photo above, which was AI colorized/enhanced, is longtime Maryville educator Laura B. Hawkins showing the painting to new students in 1951. Below is the story.
AI colorized St. Joseph News-Press March 11, 1984 photo of the computer library terminals at the newly opened B.D. Owens Library replaced the old card catalogs of Wells Library when Owens opened in 1983. Northwest embraced computers blindingly fast. Northwest in the library doubled down on a remarkable computer connection, providing a mini-museum of alumni. Jean Jennings Bartik (1924–2011) was one of the original six women who programmed the ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer. The university houses the Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum in Maryville, which honors her work and showcases an original ENIAC decade ring.
Since I’m trolling other papers to post material more recent than 1977, I found this article in early 1985 Gallatin article that explains the techie background of Northwest’s efforts
In the early 1980s, the St. Joseph News-Press ran this great black-and-white photo in an advertising supplement about Maryville. The photo before the Nodaway Historical marker was placed in front of the courthouse. I got a kick out of seeing the two telephone booths on the grounds of Main. This has gotten me searching for more, but they have been surprisingly hard to photograph. This photo was AI. colorized/enhanced.
Perhaps the most iconic high school portrait photo in Maryville is that of educator Laura B. Hawkins. This photo still graces the Laura B. Hawkins Education wing of the Christian Church, and a scholarship is still awarded each year in her name.
Her portrait had a strange, ghostly hold on me, and I swear it moved around the Washington School, which is possible. When it was dedicated on the occasion of her 50 years in education in Maryville at a Laura Hawkins Day presentation in the Washington School, the 1949 Yearbook said it was on the top floor of the school, by her classroom. I could have sworn it was on the main floor close to the principal’s office (which was possible because it was a principal. For many years, I thought the portrait was of Journalism teacher Opal Eckert, and when I found it wasn’t Opal, I wondered why the school had such an “ancient” photo in the hall.
Here are a couple of stories about her background
On March 16, 1965, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, the church bell from the steeple of St. Patrick’s Church was removed and shipped to the Moila Shrine in St. Joseph. The space was to be used for Carson’s Apartments.
The caption for the top photo says
Fred Foster is showing Dr. Roy Canon the inscription on the bell, while Virgil Nelson stands behind Foster. and Charles Riley, right, look on.
The images in this are from the online Forum and have been colorized and enhanced using AI.
I believe this was the last class with St. Patrick’s name to graduate from the school on First Street in 1961. This was the highest grade there, which was 8th grade. In 1962, when St. Mary’s and St. Patrick’s merged to form St. Gregory’s, the school was renamed St. Gregory’s. The building was closed in 1963 when the new school in its present location opened. This class has 25 students. There were 5 in the 1959 class. I have so many questions, including where the students ate in 1962. Previously, the cafeteria was in the basement of St. Patrick’s Church, but it was condemned in 1961. I’ve spent more time working on this photo than any other. Among the annoyances is that the caption lists students in alphabetical order rather than in the order in the photo. The original online Forum was very low resolution and dark, so I had to use AI to brighten it, which may have introduced artifacts or altered faces.
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