The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 52

The KanSM City Star ThumUy September 16 1993 Continued from F-1 border of Kansas 1 00 year ago today Oklahoma the dugout He kilted a badger with a spade in May then sold the hide for 1 I drown by a boy ofl 5 who participated in the no tor land In the Clarence to Rilla: get so lonesome down here I can't rest at all go over to my place most every Shortly before he was WiU bought about SIS worth cooking utensils and furniture lime forClarence to go Kansu gnd claim his bride' two were married Nov 23 and Rilla wore atark blue that she had described in let Chrencf Os their claim in homa me first three -of the cMrj seven children were Later they would move to Goto- -redo then to Missouri Salina Kan where they ran a gro- -eery store for many years Rilla -died in 1934 and Clarence ditfiff 1936 Two of their grandchildren still live in the Salina area Bessie Dutton their daughter who now lives in Scammon Kant remembers her father a fifNby man quick with a joke who was kindhearted like his wife About her mother Rilla Ion says: was the sweetest person that ever lived She wu' good to everybody" A feint photograph survives of-Clarence and Rilla and three daughters standing in front of frame house on the Oklahoma' homestead A windmill and some livestock can be see in the back-: ground and the land looks (isolate and rough Caroline Dean their granddaughter said the image of jpat treeless land could be deceiving For a young couple in love those' 160 acres were full of promise jmd adventure did not come from dftti- tute or poor families" Dean said that land wu their chance 1o make it on their own to buijfg life for It wu a promise Clarence reminded himself of many times he worked his claim far away from his love In September 1894 a year after' the land race he wrote to Rilla: like to go over on our claim anymore since Will got married It looks so lonesome over thcrefhnd Darling you are the only one that can change it from a lonesome old claim to a happy and loving home with you my love -the claim is my home but without you it is nothing to me" returned home to Kansu to seriously court Rilla Stone It wu 60 years later after Rilla died that a family member reached to the back of Rilla's closet and found a deep tobacco tin bra Inside were 70 love letters tied in silk ribbons hand-written in pen and ink or pencil many decorated with tiny flower paintings or words such THINE" and The letters were written in 1894 when Clarence and Rilla were separated from each other while Clarence returned to Oklahoma to make improvements on his claim Rilla stayed with her family in Kansas The letters are rich with detail about life in the Cherokee Strip 100 yean ago and also with the romantic yearnings of two young people eager to start their lives together For several years the letters have been carefully protected and studied by a granddaughter of Clarence and Rilla's 8-year-old Caroline Dean of Shawnee mother 85-year-old Bessie' Dutton of Scammon Kan hu decided to give the letters to the 'Kansu Collection at the University of Kansas where curator Sheryl Williams values such treasures for their historical worth to researchers Dean and her mother traveled to Arkansu City Kan this week to be among the thousands of people along the Kansas-Oklahoma border celebrating the 100th anniversary of the land run letters are very romantic" Dutton said in a recent interview wu surprised that my mother and dad were that much in love They sort of got over it through the years sure they loved each other but they were not showy about it" One of the earliest letters Feb 28 1894 wu written by Clarence to Rilla by lantern light as he traveled to Oklahoma He told of camping by a one night Jk Tin wu the scam at tha southern Cherokee Strip which is now part of and of shooting a chicken and fry- ing it for supper When he arrived in Oklahoma in March 1894 he reported that most people lived in sod houses and dugouts like a sod house and I am just poor the rest of them so Darling I am putting up a dugout in the ground four feet and the rest built up with sod I am digging it 12 by 16 feet It will not be very good looking but it will be warm in the winter and cool in the And then Clarence posed an important question about their future: want you to tell me just what you think would you rather live with me next summer in a dugout or wait until I am able to build a better house?" He had to wait days for her answer but Rilla's tetter must have Tilled him with pleasure: boy in regard to that question you ask me I am ready for my love when he comes for me Any place where you dwell is good enough for me mistaken about my never having lived in a dugout We lived in one three years and I eqjoyed myself too" As the months passed Clarence wrote in detail about improving his claim: diggin a well planting wheat and corn breaking ground for a garden working three horses on a plow and ordering a door and two windows for married of for his dugout In one tetter Clarence carefully listed each item so that Rilla would have an idea of what it took to start housekeeping stove one bedstead one dishpan one skillet one stewpan' one mill" he began on a list of more than SO items He included the wash tub molasses pitcher Hostetters Almanac and one tin bucket Will and fully stocked dugout might have seemed ideal if not for the timber rats" that kept them awake all night says he loses so much steep he can hardly work the next day" Clarence wrote him and Gertie is up all hours of the night trying to kill rats I feel sorry for them but I sleep in the wagon so I know how bad they can bother a person" In October on his own claim Clarence finished his dugout apologizing to Rilla that it be very fancy is 8 by 20 feet I made it narrow so that there would be no danger of the roof breaking in on us some night I will have three ridge logs on the part where we will steep and one on the front room We can make two rooms out of it so you see there will be lots of room in it for us Finally in November it Sunday and walk around until I get tired" He made note of one weekend event a picnic in September celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Cherokee Strip run Several couples got married and there was also a baby contest with five or six contestants 1 the women that had children bom in the Strip was to get up on a platform together with their babies and then they picked out of the crowd three old bachelors and three old maids to pick out the prettiest baby It would have made you laugh to see how mad the rest of the women were to think that their baby the best One thing that made Clarence pine for Rilla was the sight of his brother Will with his new wife Gertie Will also ran in the Cherokee Strip race and had staked a claim a half mite from Gertie and Will were married in September and they set up housekeeping on their claim Will comes in from the field he always kisses her before me and oh my darling I can hardly stand it" Clarence wrote go outside by myself and sit for hours and do nothing but think of my little blue-eyed sweetheart so many mites away" When reign is over America will stay in that she not use the words or At one talk she slyly described bow doctors wear gloves for protection is important to put on a glove Make sure it is a latex glove" she said speaking slowly and deliberately She added with a wink hope you understand what I is unusually articulate for a young woman of her age" said Leonard Horn head of the Miu America Organization well-poised and able to handle herself with the best of them under any circumstances She wu the epitome of what we believe Miu America should The requirement that contestants select a cause wu introduced four years ago to make them rote models not irrelevant beauty choice of AIDS pre Leanza Cornett will have TV Job and remain active in AIDS cause By NANCY PLEVIN ThtAaaoolaM Pratt ATLANTIC CITY NJ Leanza Cornett is wrapping up her year Miss America with $33000 in scholarship money $200000 in speaking fees a job on television and just one complaint: taxes But it appears that success and its penalties will continue for the time being for the 22-year-old woman from Jacksonville Fla Cornett a communications major is negotiating for a job with the syndicated TV show but cannot sign a contract until she passes the Miss America crown to her successor Sept 18 Meantime been busy making her final appearances Miss America filling in for host Mary Hart and moving to Los Angeles where shell continue her studies at UCLA and be closer to her new beau Mark a 29-year-old sportscaster whose last name she reveal cents He prided himself on learning to cook biscuits a pot of beans quail on toast and prairie dogs must catch a pair of prairie dcs this evening for he wrote drown them out just after a rain and salt them down in a salty brine They keep fine that way They are aU the go down Bade in Kansas Rina kept busy with housework her own garden sewing new dresses and quilting But she dreamed of working beside Clarence on their farm In one tetter she wrote we both live tiU next summer then I can patch your clothes for you and sew your buttons on and you can chop wood for me" Clarence had similar visions: can feed chickens and make garden white I farm and when come in at noon a warm dinner will be on the table for me and a sweet little wife will come running to meet me for her noon kiss and hug" One problem for the two lovers was how to fill the long Sundays white they were apart Rilla to Clarence: Clarie what do you do on Sundays? so lonesome here that I know what to do I am almost "tempted to work" this Miss UI think a lot of people who watched the Royals watched Channel 62 for the first time They discovered programs that they didn't know we had" Jim McDonald KSMO general manager tion Network a series of 24 two-hour movies with recognizable lead characters and plots that are heavy on action and danger Due in March is a series based on the hit movie MacDonald uys he's counting MOMA director to Tha Aaaoctetad Preaa NEW YORK The director of the Museum of Modern Art is stepping down next year ending two decades of leadership that saw the museum attract the blockbuster Matisse exhibit and in- crease in size attendance and endowment Richard Oldenburg 39 uid he will leave June 30 1 994 we approach a new century the museum must look ahead to meeting major he uid recently have' concluded that this is a most appropriate time fra the direction of the museum to be entrusted to new Miu America Laanza Cornett will pass the crown to her successor Saturday night Tax concerns aside Cornett hausting year said it had been a terrific if ex- "I didn't realize it would be spotlight vention and education generated far more attention than the causes selected by previous winners which included motivating youth to excellence domestic violence and increasing parent involye-ment in education Cornett developed an interest in AIDS after befriending a man infected with the virus Before becoming Miu America she volunteered weekly at Florida AIDS hospices so glad it (AIDS) hu gotten the public attention that it has but if I serious aboutit no way I would have bun able to survive" she said too much scrutiny too many questions The preu would have eaten me Cornett said she stop speaking about AIDS when heir reign is over my generation at stake" she said Some dress to be seen and others 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WMtbrookeVBage Shopping Center Phone: 631-3115 MTHF SAT 10-9 SUN 12-6 CLOSEDTUESANDWED FOR RESTOCKING ESMO strives to please its new busy it hu she said in a telephone interview from Hous-' ton traveled 20000 mites a month a different city every other day" About 73 percent of those stops were made to educate people about AIDS which Cornett chose her Miu America cause Throughout the year Cornett said she struggled against claims that she wu using a frivolous job to discuss a grave subject expected people to have a perception of what a Miu Ameri-a is and does based mi history" she said spite of the criticism I think that overcome She recalled winning over one skeptical audience of doctors told them stories" she said get the opportunity to travel 20000 mites a month and see children who are living with this disease and talk to mothers who are kicked out of their homes because they have the disease" In Florida she managed to get her AIDS-preventkm message across at several school assemblies despite demands viewers on these new shows to push view-ership levels even higher Recent measurements show that- during the entire broadcast day Channel 62 attracts 7 percent of the viewing audience on aver- -age a jump over the 4 percent audience share recorded three years ago like to see an 8 percent share" MacDonald said think attainable like to see the ratings from 9 to 10 pm rival some of those on the network stations and I think that can happen he uid like there not to be one human in the Kansas City market who doesn't know what KSMO has to offer" resign next year Oldenburg became director in 1972 Under his stewardship the museum organized several hugely successful exhibits included last Matisse retrospective and the 1980 Picasso show Since 1972 the museum has doubted its size increased its attendance from 833996 to 128 million a year and boosted its endowment from $20 million to $180 million Oldenburg was appointed director emeritus and a honorary trustee effective when his as-yet unchosen replacement takes over Bay Mil trade with Star Ctaaiflcd Ads To place yow ads dial J4-4004-Adv Contlntiod from F-1 think a lot of people who watched the Royals watched Channel 62 for the first MacDonald uid discovered programs that they know we had I think our late-night franchise own some of its success to the Royals being on the station done what I expected and more" he uid of the Royals games really set the table for The 9 pm slot will be filled with a different show every day On Mondays there is which starts its second season On Tuesday is which had been seen on KSHB Channel 41 Wednesday and Thursday nights are for and Fu: The Legend Continues" both of which will start their first full season this fall show is HEAT" which begins with a two-hour movie Sept 29 It stars' Catherine Oxenberg the head of a secret international coalition that deals with crime and terrorism MacDonald opted for this lineup mostly because fellow independent station KSHB Channel 41 decided to present news at 9 pm uw a tremendous opportunity when they put the news in there to go after that action-adventure audience that was watching Sfer Trek he said MacDonald also uw an op portunity to improve ratings be- tween 3 and 6 pm traditionally an important time period fra independents with Matters" and Nest" felt that Matters' is powerful enough to give (on Channel 41) a run for its he Hid He considers Nest" to be perfect bridge" from the kid-dominated afternoon audience to the more adult evening viewers New federal regulations require all TV stations to carry programs that are primarily designed to educate children Syndicated program producers responding to the new rules created a batch of kids shows that inform and entertain Channel 62 snatched up several: Presents Bill Nye the Science Guy" (9:30 am Saturdays) the language program in (8:30 am Saturdays) direct from the Disney Channel and (2:30 pm weekdays) featuring a Brazilian hostess of a hit multicultural show in South America Like network stations MacDonald also is counting on a lift from programs scheduled to begin in midseason The best known of these is 5" a science fiction story that drew good ratings and reviews last season as a two-hour movie scheduled to start early next year Also scheduled fra an early 1994 debut it the Universal Ae- I It.