This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Mom’s first exposure to the University of Kansas was during five summers spent in Lawrence when she was a kid, four when her father was working on his master’s degree, one when he was rolling gunpowder for the war.

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

In Winifred, Mom found the spot where her grandfather, Gottfried Keller, built what everyone called the big house, a place where the family gathered for Christmases when Mom was a little girl.

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

It was in Summerfield, Kansas, in first grade in 1935, that Jeannine became Jeannine, which is actually her middle name. Up until that time, she had been Carol, which sounded a lot like Harold, her brother’s name, a coincidence they used to their advantage as in, “I thought you were calling Harold,” and “I thought you were calling Carol.”

So when her parents delivered her to Miss McDonald’s classroom, they told the new teacher that her name was Jeannine, a development that came as a complete surprise to Mom. “I wondered what the heck was happening,” Mom recalled. It was thus, ever after.

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

In White City, Kansas, we visited the house Mom lived in in high school, now abandoned, peeking in her bedroom window. She remembered swinging on the porch swing, watching the cute boy next door come home from dates. Her mother fed hobos from the train tracks behind the house on their back porch.

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

We stopped at the gas station in Republic, Kansas, where Mom remembers, when she was 4 years old, Grandpa sitting sideways in the car and telling her, “You have a new baby brother.” She was thrilled with the idea of a new playmate. But when they brought him home and set him on the library table in a basket, all she could see was his little fists waving as he cried, and she said, “You should take him back.”

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

We knocked on a random door in Wayne, Kansas, population 68, where Grandpa Prichard was teaching when Mom was born, and found Jane Maddy, the local historian, who recognized Harley Prichard’s name and, in her many three-ring binders, had a picture of Harley with his 1927 basketball team, which included Jane’s father, “Champ” Campbell, far left. She told us the school had burned and was now a pig sty. I thought she meant it was a mess. Not!!!

This summer we took Mom in The Epic Van on a tour of all her old Kansas haunts. We’re calling it the Origins of Jeannine Tour.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

The Origins of Jeannine Tour commenced with a family reunion in Marysville, a visit with her sister-in-law, Margie, in Riley, a doorbell reunion with college pals, and a stop at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Concordia, where it all began. The historic plaque must be in the shop for repair!