Shrine Skit - The Sheridan Press

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Great American recalled on Veterans Day
Editor’s note: This is part of
a series of columns on “Great
Farmers” by guest columnist
Hayden Porter. He is a retired
pastor and educator. He and
his wife, Nancy, live and ranch
on the family homestead at
Decker, Mont.
Veterans Day 2005 is a
great time to celebrate the life
of a great veteran farmer. There
have been so many, from the
"embattled farmers" of
Lexington and Concord to the
Afghanistan-Iraq veterans. It's
hard to choose just one. The
farm boys have always been
there and "borne the battle."
Perhaps we could represent
all of them with a good remembrance
of old Rufus Parr. He
wasn't always old, but he
seemed that way. He farmed
until he was 91, and lived to
102, so those still living who
knew him remember him as
being old.
Rufus worked for a neighbor,
running a horse-drawn
mower, at age 9. That is a good
point to start reviewing his
great agricultural career.
In 1905 or '06, the Parr family
moved from Illinois to
Kansas. The move was for the
mother's health. It was felt the
drier climate would help her,
but she died soon after. Ruf
was left motherless as a subteen.
That's hard business. He
dearly missed his mother, but
Laya’s
the hard work
of farm
chores and the
assurance that
she was in a
better place
helped the lad
handle his
grief.
At age 14,
the strapping
farm kid hired
out to a bachelor
neighbor.
Ruf had some
interesting
duties. He
milked the
cows, fed and
harnessed the
horses and fixed lunch and supper
for the boss. Ruf was on his
way to becoming an all-around
hand.
At age 20, in 1916, Rufus
went on his own. He had accumulated
some horses and
machinery, rented 320 acres
and planted a crop.
In 1917, Ruf took some time
off from farming and enlisted
in the Navy. He had to sell his
horses and machinery and
relinquish his lease, but it all
brought a good price.
After training, Rufus' unit
shipped out for France. It was
duty like that of the Navy
Seabees today. They built airfields
for the Army Air Corps.
There was constant moving of
equipment and construction of
new airfields as the battlefront
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moved ahead.
The old World
War I airplanes
had a short
range, so they
had to be close to
the front.
After the
Armistice, Rufus
was assigned to
sea duty on a
troop ship. He
finished out his
enlistment bringing
the doughboys
home.
Mr. Parr later
said one of the
saddest things he
ever saw was the
troops coming back from the
front. They were tired, ragged
and dirty.
In 1997, Mr. Parr was one
of the last remaining four
Kansas WW I veterans. He was
101 years old but totally lucid
and ambulatory. In a moving
ceremony arranged by the
Garden City Veterans of
Foreign Wars, the French government
awarded the old gentleman
two medals.
They were the French
Legion of Honor (the highest
award for a non-French citizen)
and the French WW I Victory
medal. The medals were presented
by a French official
from Kansas City. The place
was teeming with flags — both
the Stars and Stripes and the
French Tricolor. A state official
from Topeka presented Mr.
Parr with a properly folded
American flag. Friends and
family were present.
As could be expected, there
were lots of tears and lumpy
throats.
In the 1920s, the Navy veteran
successfully courted the
local school teacher. Marrying
school teachers was almost traditional
for Western farmers
and ranchers in those days. The
Kansas farmer took care of his
ailing wife in her sunset years.
She passed away before her
husband.
Rufus was a copious reader.
He read everything he could get
his hands on. About midlife, he
began to read his Bible more
and to attend church regularly.
Mr. Parr could successfully
operate his tractor into his 90s
after his sons hooked up the
equipment and got things
ready. Starting at age 9, he
farmed 82 years, minus two
years in the Navy.
One son, Rod, lives at
Wyola. Two delightful granddaughters
and five lively greatgrandchildren
live in the
Sheridan area. The granddaughters
were rodeo queens,
so they are quite well known.
Veterans Day 2005 is a
good time especially to honor
the memory of Rufus Parr — a
great farmer, a great veteran, a
great American.
Jim’s doctor in Sturgis found his cancer
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The doctors at Regional reviewed various treatment options with Jim,
and together they decided TomoTherapy was the best treatment option.
Thankfully for Jim and his wife, TomoTherapy, the most advanced
cancer treatment for Jim’s type of cancer, was available at Rapid City
Regional Hospital. Jim was able to continue to work throughout
his cancer treatment. Plus, TomoTherapy took less time and he
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Now Jim has regular check-ups with his doctor in Sturgis,
and is moving on with his life.
The Sheridan Press, Friday, November 11, 2005 7
‘Dear Soldier’
• Mississippi schoolchildren
open their hearts in book
DALLAS (AP) — The handwritten
pages of the book are decorated with
carefully drawn flags and little traced
hands. They contain prayerful wishes
and innocent questions.
‘‘How do you take a bath?’’ a child
writes in one letter to a soldier. Another
letter informs a service member: ‘‘I like
apple pie. My mom has got me to likeing
it.’’ One child simply says, ‘‘I don’t
want you to die.’’
There are several smile-producing
and sometimes moving children’s letters
in the book, ‘‘Dear Soldier, If You Get
Hurt Call My Mama,’’ a small collection
of letters from Mississippi schoolchildren
to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
First published as a fundraiser for
American Legion Post No. 16 in
Pontotoc, Miss., excerpts from the book
are included in an exhibit to be unveiled
on Veterans Day at the Contemporary
Art Center of Virginia in Norfolk. The
exhibit is called ‘‘Care Packages: Letters
from Iraq and Afghanistan.’’
The letters, copied from originals,
contain uncorrected grammar and
spelling and carefully printed words.
Some pages are adorned with large U.S.
flags or drawings of tiny uniformed soldiers
saluting or praying.
‘‘Kids don’t have any agenda, and
they speak directly from the heart,’’ said
Barbara Warfield Baldwin, of Pontotoc,
who self-published the book with her
two daughters. ‘‘There’s no preconceived
ideas, and they weren’t prompted.
They’re just fresh and pure and honest.’’
The women are collecting letters from
across the nation in hopes of attracting a
major publisher.
‘‘These kids just ache for the soldiers,’’
said Amber Baldwin D’Amico of Dallas,
one of Baldwin’s daughters and a former
Veterans Affairs public information officer.
‘‘We know you’re going to do a great
job,’’ reads one letter, which contains a
heavily traced outstretched hand and the
words ‘‘Let’s Pray’’ written inside.
Baldwin began reading the letters while
packing care packages for overseas troops,
which include her son in Afghanistan.
‘‘They were great, some were really
serious and some were so funny that I’d
stop and read them aloud,’’ she said.
‘‘About halfway through I stopped and
realized these are precious. They’re treasures,
they tell about the war, and when
people look back at them, they’re recorded
history.’’
The women compiled the book for the
American Legion fundraiser. Then,
D’Amico said, they reached a partnership
with the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial
Foundation.
The foundation distributed 85,000
copies of the book in a direct-mail campaign
to donors this year, said Larry Rivers,
a past commander of the Veterans of
Foreign Wars and chief operating officer of
the disabled veterans memorial foundation,
which is trying to raise $65 million to build
a monument honoring disabled vets.
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