If you're sick of the package shows coming out of Nashville (or wherever), try rural radio. It's like nothing you've ever heard. Add your favorite rural radio station so others can enjoy.
The Washington Post came to West Plains, Missouri, intent on doing a story about an angry, hopeless town. If only the reporter had come with an open mind, he would have seen a town of hope.
When a blizzard shut down highways running through northwest Missouri on Christmas Eve, one small church found a new purpose — and the best way to celebrate Christmas Day.
When you live out of the way, as we do in northwest Missouri, you do for yourself and for others — or, many times, it doesn't get done. Every Christmas, we do a lot.
The town of West Liberty, in Eastern Kentucky, dedicated a monument this week commemorating women in the military. (See photo above.) Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader tells the wonderful story of how the statue of three service women came to stand in West Liberty's Tredway Memorial Park.
The Morgan County Woman's Club has been working on the project for two years. The women collected some state money and raised funds locally to purchase the statue. The club has a veteran's committee, which should be growing, since women are the fastest-growing population of vets. "It's probably still considered a man's job," Emily Elam told Hjalmarson. Elam is the woman's club veterans chair who led the effort to install the monument."
Air Force Major Gen. Verna Fairchild, who spoke at the dedication, said women in the military struggle with a sense that they are invisible. But, she added, "Here's a group of women in small-town America, and they've taken such pride in establishing this monument."