1953 Tri-State Miners 

In writing about area baseball I have mentioned Mickey Mantle"s twin brothers and Mick's first cousin, Max Mantle. You can see them here. Roy and Ray I saw play in Galena and Max in Miami. The subject of Max came up in an unexpected way a few short years ago. I attended a bluegrass festival in Bon Aqua, Tenn., July 1, 2017, and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver headlined the show. I noticed the Dobro player for Quicksilver. I have an affinity for that instrument and have written for major publications about its history. I took an opportunity to talk to the Dobroist when the band finished its set. The relatively young fellow was Eli Johnston, from -- of all places -- Columbus, Kansas. Our conversation quickly switched to baseball. It seems he played baseball (in a much later era than mine) under the tutelage of Max Mantle and spoke highly of him. He is familiar with some of my Columbus relatives (mostly pretty girls) and others in the town -- Bryce Martin

Eli Johnston: guitar, Dobro guitar, banjo, vocalist, songwriter

Back Row: Ray Mantle, Johnny Lafalier-Cardin/Picher, Oklahoma; Leroy Scoles--Miami, Okla.; Steve Green, -Picher, Okla.;- Don Boyd-Joplin, MO; Mash Spangler-Welch, Okla.: Jack McGoyne and Roy Mantle, Commerce, OKla.

 

Front Row: Gaylon Enos, Joplin, MO; Max Buzzard and J. E. Landon-Seneca, MO, Howard Scheurich, Joplin, MO; Max Mantle-Commerce, Travis Kunce and Bill Drake, Joplin, MO.. (Seven of the guys played pro ball. All the Mantles, Max Buzzard, Travis Kunce, Gaylon Enos and Bill Drake

...

From John Hall:

“In 1953 the team for whom three of the Mantles played was known as the Treece Tri-State Miners. They called Treece, Kan. their home so as to be eligible for the National Baseball Congress Tournament in Wichita. Max recalls going to that tournament where they took on some of the best amateur teams in the country and placed third. Although Ray and Roy played for the Tri-State Miners they didn’t qualify playing with the team in the Wichita tournament. They still hadn’t graduated from high school. In 1954 both of the Mantle twins and Max were signed by the Yankees and sent to McAlester, Okla. One night all three were playing the outfield at the same time. Max recalls the Rockets were wearing the hand-me-down New York Yankee uniforms from three years earlier. When he checked the name on his uniform it turned out to have been worn by Cliff Mapes. Oddly enough, Max’s cousin Mickey was the one who replaced Mapes with the Yankees. Even more amazing, Mickey Mantle is the one who influenced Mapes to move to Oklahoma. Mickey got the job done by telling him of the great hunting and fishing sites in the area.”

The KOM Flash Report

John Hall

Week of May 8—14, 2016

ZABONIK NAME ASSOCIATED WITH SPORTS 

My grandniece Kaytlan Zabonik excelled in varsity soccer and volleyball for her Verdigris Cardinals high school teams in Claremore, Okla. She graduated in 2015 and sister Karmyn followed in her Adidas', graduating in 2019. Karmyn landed at East Central University in Ada, Okla., where she is involved with the volleyball program.  It's a family thing. Mom Kacey supplies the Band-Aids and rubbing alcohol for the bruised muscles. Father Curtis Zabonik kicked three field goals for Durant (Okla.) High School in an October 12, 1990, football contest with Tecumseh. One was a school-record breaking 44-yard boot. He also had a 42- and 24-yarder in the contest. An older brother, Jeff, was a star running back for the Galena (Kan.) Bulldogs, and for several years now has been the baseball coach and a teacher in a Marietta, Okla., high school You'll notice here that Kaytlan travels in good company.

Karmyn Zabonik

MY AUNT MARGARET RICE'S GIFT TO THE WIDE WORLD OF MUSIC, HER SON LEWIS

AND THE LOW, LOW SOUNDS HE EXTRACTED FROM THE TUBA. THE SOUNDS OF WHICH ARE STILL ECHOING SOMEWHERE EVEN AMONG THE RUBBLE OF THE OLD, DISCARDED HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING. LEWIS MAY HAVE ABANDONED THE BRASS INSTRUMENT ONCE HE DISCOVERED TUBA PLAYERS DID NOT ATTRACT GROUPIES                                                     

1946-47 ALL-SCHOOL BAND

I Slipped on Slimp

And The Shoal Creek Playboys

Avery Slimp 1955

Galena's Chief of Police in 1955. I recall seeing a flyer posted on the wall of the fire hall by the wide open door on Main announcing a big Saturday night dance at a Spring River location featuring the musical strains of "Avery Slimp and the Shoal Creek Playboys." I wonder still, since I missed the dance and music, who comprised the band. 

 Daughter Marcy and husband Tim 

The California couple relax at Pop's in Arcadia, Ok, along historic Route 66 

 From the Diary of One Devil Dog 

Boot camp at MCRD in San Diego required 12 weeks when I joined ranks. Infantry training at Camp Pendleton was another 4 weeks. It wasn't until my 16th week that I had liberty, and that turned out to be a 26-hour weekend stint. We weren't allowed to unbutton our top button (on our utilities' blouse) until the final, 12th week of boot camp. We had a 7th week drill eval(uation) and an 11th week drill eval. Some of those in my boot unit (77 members in Platoon 156) in 1964 had been drafted into the Marines. The Marines reinstituted the draft about that time for additional cannon fodder in Southeast Asia. Not long after, to assembly-line more bodies, boot camp was shortened from 12 weeks to 8 and ITR from 4 weeks to 2 weeks, unless your MOS was infantry and then it was the same as previous. I slipped from 220 on the range (250 max) on Wednesday to 205 on qualifying Friday to earn a manhole cover. I shot sharpshooter some years after, and expert other times. I had never fired a firearm before then. I also qualified with a .45 pistol, made in Ithaca, New York. There were some fabulous shooters back then. A rifle team was comprised of seven Marines and we had M-60s and BARs to go with our M-1s. to create a true "wall of fire." A bayonet we called a K-bar and a C-rations can opener was a John Wayne Key. Assigned then to 29 Palms, my billet was next to HQ. My MOS was assigned as  AdMan (Administration Man), and in true  military parlance, I was a "Remington Raider" (Get it? Remington typewriters). I sat with my typewriter in front of me and a short distance directly across the usually open door of the base commander's office, a two-star general. Later I was reassigned back to artillery and that's when I became the platoon guide for the newly created base artillery school. Comprised of 990 square miles of mountains and desert sand, there was ample room to host such training,  The projectile for the 155 self-propelled howitzer weighed 90 pounds. I've been on OPs 20 miles away from the gun and seen it hit its target squarely once the coordinates are called in and the order to “Fire” takes place. You could get hit with a projectile from that far away and never even know it was coming... if you were the unfortunate enemy.

...

GALENA-BORN FILM ACTOR STRUCK IT BIG IN HOLLYWOOD WITH EXCITING CAREER

Galena's Joel Allen on the Big Screen

Joel Allen was born on April 3, 1913 in Galena, Kansas. He died at age 72 on September 22, 1985, in Los Angeles, California.

He is best remembered for his portrayal of the staunch Deputy Bates in "Man from the Black Hills" (1952). Born Joel Edgar Allen, Jr., he was raised within a traditional farming family. After serving in the United States Army during World War II, upon returning to civilian life following the end of the war, he settled in California and under the G.I. Bill he attained his degree in theatrical arts from the UCLA and began his career as a leading man on the stage in stock companies. Upon being discovered by director Edward Ludwig during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, he was so impressed by his dark good looks, manly physique, and baritone voice, that he took notice of his potential and arranged for him to begin a career in the film industry beginning with him appearing under his supervision per a supporting role in "The Fighting Seabees" (1944). From there, he would go on to flourish as a notable character actor appearing in over 45 features; often typecast as husbands, fathers, relatives, playboys, mechanics, technicians, sergeants, soldiers, military men, lieutenants, pilots, blue-collared guys, clergymen, photographers, policemen, detectives, reporters, and businessmen. He appeared in such feature films as "Ladies Courageous" (1944), "The Story of Dr. Wassell" (1944), "Objective, Burma!" (1945), "God Is My Co-Pilot" (1945), "Shortest Way Home" (1946), "Fighter Squadron" (1948), "White Heat" (1949), "Beyond the Forest" (1949), "Sunset Blvd." (1950), "Dial 1119" (1950), "Three Guys Named Mike" (1951), "Strangers on a Train" (1951), "The Maverick" (1952), "The Man from Bitter Ridge" (1955), "Cell 2455, Death Row" (1955), and "Red Line 7000" (1965). On television, he appeared in numerous guest spots on such syndicated sitcoms as "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock," "Your Favorite Story," and "The Adventures of Kit Carson." During his career, he was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, was a regular parishioner of the Baptist church, was a member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, presided on his local charters of the American Red Cross and the Boy Scouts, was a notable wood craftsman, had been the celebrity spokesman for John Deere and Autolight Spark Plugs, had been a theatrical instructor for the Pasadena Playhouse, was the official stand-in for actors John Wayne and John Ireland, and he was cited as being "Hollywood's Most Steadfast Supporting Actor" per gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Following his 1965 retirement, Allen, who never married nor had any children, spent the remainder of his life being involved in charitable and religious ventures until his death.

Bio by: Lowell Thurgood

 

RAND MINING DISTRICT IN RED MOUNTAIN/ATOLIA, CALIFORNIA

Just as much a moonscape as Galena's chat piles and mound heaps. They left Galena for this? It does have a richly stark beauty.

Pittsburg Olden Day Rockers Still Getting Notice

Have you ever wondered what Pats supercoach Bill Belichick keeps in the pouch of his hoodie? I haven't. As it turns out however I did find it interesting.

Conny and The Bellhops at

Super Bowl XLII in Arizona

Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel, on Belichick’s hooded sweat shirt: “That is his little woobie. That’s his little security blanket. He has got that pouch, and he keeps all his stuff in it. You would like to see what is inside that pouch, I bet.” 

A video camera, an iPod featuring the music of Conny and The Bellhops, a Dunkin’ Donut, 37 cents, a Koosh stress ball, an advance copy of the book “19-0: The … ” and a hobgoblin.

The Denver Post, January 29, 2008, “Day for media — no news fit to print,” By Woody Paige.

OPEN WIDE AND SAY 'AHHH'

She gave me my first paying job. I was not quite 9 when, as a second-floor boarder at her 509 East Seventh home in Galena, she asked if I would gather the dead, dry leaves on her back lawn to feed her goat. She supplied a wicker basket for the chore. A long and tall cylinder, it would take some filling. That was because she had strongly emphasized "dry leaves," and it had just recently rained. I received a dime for my effort. More than fair. Sadly, she passed on not long after. I much admired her and her place in life. Even at my young age, I knew her being a dentist going that far back in time was unusual for a woman.

Myself, with my grandparents, had been forced to move from our humble ("modest" would be an upgrade) house in Cave Springs that would soon be leveled to make room for a chemical fertilizer plant.

Lolo D. (Blanton) Gillespie, born April 5, 1867, in Asheville, No. Caro. She was 84 when she passed away in Galena on Feb. 22, 1952. She married Charles Parker Gillespie in 1884. He began a dentistry practice in 1885.

Her one daughter, Dora, was born November 3, 1885. In 1908 Dora married George M. Barrell, in Columbus, Kan. Dora passed away in December 1972. Around 1908, her one son, George, was attending Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Mo. He passed on in 1965 at age 76.

GALENA MUDHENS SOUNDS BETTER BUT SPONSORS PAY THE BILLS, SO GO! YOU 1936 MERCHANTS BASEBALLERS

Galena Kan., April 25.- A baseball game will be played on the Ninth Street diamond Sunday afternoon between the Galena Independent baseball team and a Webb City team. Members of the Galena team include Harold Herrelson. Jay Simon, Neal Murray, {and ace pitcher Bob Tillman}.

Semipro ball teams form 8-club league

Eight semipro baseball teams of the District have perfected organization of a league to be known as the JaySee League. A split season was agreed upon at a meeting last night at Duenweg. Teams entered are the Webb City Tigers, Joplin Sunflowers, Galena Merchants, Carterville Merchants, Belmont Badgers, County Liners Prosperity All-Stars, and Duenweg Mudhens.

Joplin Globe - Sunday, April 26, 1936, Joplin, Missouri, Pg. 10 

...

 SOLID GALENA COUNTRY BAND VINYL LP

Review from Slipcue.com

The Solid Gold Band "Meet The Solid Gold Band" (NSD Records, 1981) (LP) 
(Produced by Jim Rowland, John Green & Ray Edwards) 
A hard-working mainstream country band from Galena, Kansas, a little postage-stamp town in the southeast end of the state, just across the border from Joplin, Missouri. Indeed, these fellas worked a nightclub in Joplin called the Gold Dust Lounge -- according to the liner notes, they weren't just the house band, they actually owned the place! The SGB was formed in 1974 by lead singers John Green and Jim Rowland (the guys who bought the bar) and played steadily throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. They had a working relationship with Tom T. Hall and his band the Storytellers, who helped them in the studio for this album, while Tom T. himself contributed to the liner notes, and seems to have promoted them in Nashville. The disc is impressively packed with original material, most of it penned by Jim Rowland, and got a big writeup in Billboard when it came out. The band included Alan Abbott (drums), Mike Bartlett (guitar), John Green (bass) Tyler Ogle (keyboards) and Jim Rowland on rhythm guitar... I'm not sure what became of these guys -- from their vantage point in Joplin, they were well situated to break into the Branson scene, but that's just speculation on my part. (By the way, I can't resist going into the history of their bar, which seems to have changed hands many times over the years... According to a 2011 news story in The Joplin Globe the bar opened in the late 1940s as the Freeway Cafe, and over the years was known as Dan's Branding Iron, The Wells Fargo, The Stampede, The Gold Dust Lounge, The Paint Stallion, The Horse Shoe Saloon and was slated to reopen as The Crazy Town Rockin' Saloon at press time in 2011, soon to be renamed The Blue Rose. Phew! Personally I like the Blue Rose best of all, but Lord knows what's there now. Probably a Starbucks.) Solid Gold Band also put out a few singles, including a western swing ditty, "Cherokee Country," which apparently hit the national charts in '82, but is not included on this album.

...

 

Crowning Our Bishop  

Bishop J.E. Moore

GHS '57

Pentecostal Bishop of Churches of the Apostolic Faith

1939 ~ Present

Bishop J.E. Moore was born in Galena, Kansas, May 24, 1939. He attended the Galena grade and high schools, graduating May 23, 1957. While in school he played the trumpet in the school band, sang solos at many school and city functions. He was in track and field, lettering all four years in high and low hurdles, and long jump. He also lettered in football and boxed in the Golden Gloves. 

After high school, Bishop Moore moved to Joliet, Illinois, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, February 1958. While in the Marines he played in the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps, and served with the Military Police. He graduated from their Field Music School and he was honorably discharged February 26, 1961.

In April 1961 he became a member of the Apostolic Faith, attending Church at 800 Princeton St. Lockport, Illinois. February 17, 1962 he was united in Holy Matrimony to Tecola Williams and to this union five children were born. 

Bishop Moore has served the Christ Temple Church of 212 Richards Street since its inception in November 1965. He has served on the Board of Big Brothers and is presently serving on the Central YMCA Board. He has served the Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith as Convention manager, managing the Annual and Biannual meetings of the P.C.A.F. He is a professor and treasurer at Midwest Apostolic Bible College of the College in Chicago, Illinois. Bishop Moore is dedicated to serving people. Bishop Moore presently serves the P.C.A.F. as Assistant Presiding Prelate.  

...

 

 TENNIS ANYONE?

FAMILYGRAM

JOPLIN TORNADO UPENDS LIFE

In the late afternoon on May 22, 2011, Marilyn (Martin) Tennis not only found her surroundings in shambles but her life as well in the aftermath of the historic Joplin Tornado (NOTE: Joplin has had many of them but this one was big enough to be called THE Joplin Tornado). "I was renting in the upstairs of a house on 22nd and Kentucky," she said. "That area was soon referred to as 'Ground Zero' by the media. I came out OK, but some possessions blew away." Marilyn found refuge at the home of John and Linda Carver in the Carver Hill region of neighboring Galena, Kan. After seeing her life was not returning to normal any time soon, jobwise and economically, she realized her limited displacement possibilites and accepted son Thad's offer to join him and wife Carrol Ann at their home in Greenbrier, Ark., until the situation improved to return. Her older sister Barbara in Joplin was doing fine, according to Marilyn, and another sister, Donna, lives in Baxter Springs and was unaffected by the devasting twister. Escaping the annual arrival of the whirling monsters is a near impossibility. There are, however, other dangers presented by Mother Nature as well. On February 27, 2011, a 4.7 earthquake hit just outside of Greenbrier. The quake was felt in several adjacent states, and as far away as Iowa.

+++

Marilyn married Phillip George Tennis. George died August 25, 2003, at age 57.  

VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU...

Brenton Thad Tennis and wife Carrol Ann are members of the Springhill Baptist Church in Greenbrier, Ark., where they also serve on various church committees.

+++

TENNIS TWOSOME VISITS GRAND OLE OPRY IN 2002

Marilyn (Martin) Tennis informed me that her and hubby George would be coming to Music City to attend a Grand Ole Opry show, back in 2002. I met them at their motel near the Nashville International Airport (George drove his big Caddy) and I brought Marilyn my binoculars as she had requested so she could zone in on Vince Gill that evening. Marlyn surprised me by giving me an old baseball Mickey Mantle had signed for me in 1955 at his home in Commerce, Okla., one that her dad, Noah, had kept for me. George told me about how he and schoolmate J.E. Lewman had once attended a professional baseball players' tryout together. I drove them around the next day and showed them the old Twitty City in Hendersonville, Tootsies, Bluebird Cafe, Hillsboro Village, The Ryman, and my old bar hangout, the Idle Hour on Music Row. Fun, but short time for the three of us.

...

 Cherokee County Kansas, 1961

County names are abbreviated. In travels far from Kansas across this U.S., I always look for "CK" when I see a Kansas plate. I've honked people over to ask "What town?"

 

Galena, Kansas All-School Band

1940s

The lower and upper school grades combined pupils to form a big-band sound. My cousin, Lewis Rice (at left with tuba) must have ushered my Aunt Margaret's nerves to tatters at home. 

Ca. 1947

1st Row: Jenkins, Bynum, Bankson, Cox, Rosenberry, Hulvey, Endicott, Archer, Hayward, Martin, Swain. 

2nd Row: Rice, Rosenberry, McGraw, Vanderpool, Poole, Link, Plyler, Abbott, Cantrell, Carter, Shryock.  

3rd Row: Harrelson, Williams, Ferguson, Hollingsworth, Price, Bullard, Waugh, Willis, Thomas, Moore. 

4th Row: Vogel, Himes, Wheelan, Messer, Wantland, Thompson, McMillan, Williams, Neeley, Tackitt, Booe, Thompson, 

There's belief! Right here in Galena City!

PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT BEGINS...

...

 

Roy Tremble,  From On High

Roy Tremble, bottom left

As a regular congregationist at the Assembly of God church in Galena. I remember Roy Tremble, holding his father's bright red Bible while pop, Bob, passed around the collection plate up and down the pews. Roy was a 1964 GHS grad. For most of the 1970s he sang tenor with the legendary Cathedral Quartet, one of the premier Southern Gospel groups of all time. Locally, Roy joined in with the chorus at church and sang at various school programs. Roy was originally hired as a baritone for the fabled group. He is a member of the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame with the Cathedral Quartet. His tenure with them was during their peak years. The group gained its first Grammy in 1977 with Roy.

I hear he has been in ill health recently. You might remember him and want to seek him out. Prayers, too, are a big deal.

You can donate at Roy Tremble Medical Fund at gofundme.

Several already have.

Roy sings in GHS '64 grad program

...

 

---

Elvis And Parents

Elvis was we and we him

By Bryce Martin

Born in the Kansas Ozarks (look it up). When knee high to a grasshopper I became exposed to the sayings, taboos, and stories most often associated with Midwest and Southern culture and language. As a young burrhead I witnessed horse-team pulling matches held in pastures with local farmers in faded Big Smith overalls and beet red faces, days long Indian pow-wows, Negro baseball teams, convict rodeos, sorghum cooking, cattail harvesting, most often while licking on a horehound candy stick. I took that background to Bakersfield, California, fitting  right in with the large population of displaced Dust Bowlers with similar backgrounds.

Oh, and my favorite meal is still a bowl or plate of white beans seasoned with ample chunks of hamhocks and sprinkled with sweet onions and cornbread. Yes, dear Lord, that is a meal!

My grandmother Edna May sipped her coffee from a saucer, my grandfather Poppy spit the juice from his Tinsley plugs into a rusted red Folger's Mountain Grown tin while we (back when I was knee high to a grasshopper) listened to the Grand Ole Opry from their big blonde radio on the parlor table that got its juice from a car battery since they had no electricity. I listened enough times to know that Rod Brasfield was from a place in Tennessee called Hohenwald and that biscuits would never be right without the aid of Martha White. That, though, was only partly right. They wouldn't really be right unless they came from Grandma's skilled hands and her special clabbered milk that had sat on a window sill until how many days she deemed it ready. Young, I hadn't given much thought as to how people from where I hailed measured up against the rest of the country. Somehow, though, I had the feeling people in places like California and New York, especially in those places, were more sophisticated than people I knew and grew up with as a poor boy of Tennessee heritage and growing up rural on the Missouri/Kansas state line. I couldn't judge how we fit into the picture, until Elvis came along. You ain't nothin' but a houn' dawg... The hell you beller. Elvis sang and spoke our language. Us white, God-fearing country folks. And people all over liked his ways. We not only liked Elvis, we were Elvis and he was us. For Elvis to be so popular being the same as us meant we had to be right with our ways and ideas, otherwise how could so many people from so many places far and near be so accepting of Elvis? We must have been the envy of the nation in those early Elvis days, weeks and months, especially to those folks in California and New York who were not like us but after taking in a good dose of Elvis and knowing how white, God-fearing and country he was, wished they could be just like us. I was certain those who were not of our sort were cultivating every opportunity to become so. Who wouldn't want to be Elvis, or as much like Elvis as they could reasonably expect to become. Thanks to Elvis, I felt better about myself and about how the world was and how it should be. I felt better just knowing all I'd been taught to believe up to this point had been correct and now I could start concentrating on what I wanted to do in this world and this life. Thanks to Elvis. ...

 1923 GHS Football Bulldogs Recognized

The Business Men's Association entertained the high school football team with a banquet at the high school at 6 o'clock Tuesday night. A three-course dinner was served by the domestic science department of the high school under supervision of Miss Dugger. The table was artistically decorated with bouquets of blue and white carnations. Music was furnished during the dinner by Miss Floy Petty at the piano. Ira C. Perkins, president of the association acted as toastmaster. The following toasts were given: "Play the Game," Superintendent G. L. Wycoff; "Touchdown," the Rev. W. G. Carey; "Make It Snappy," Jesse R. Bender; "Hold the Line," E. B. Morgan, and "Sportsmanship," A. S. McNay. Charles Simmons was elected captain for the 1924 team. James Campbell, the retiring captain presented the "pigskin" to the new captain, who made a brief speech of acceptance. Coach J. P. Biggs presented letters to the 1923 team. 

Joplin Globe, January 1, !924, Pg 15

 

And Now... Heeeeere's Jim

Jim Porter on Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1991. The pair talked for 22 minutes about whittling, something Mr. Porter explored as a hobby on his hilltop home two miles south of Galena near the park.

Of course there was a bigger reason he was on the popular nighttime national TV show. The "curtain" is actually the nearly a mile long continuous wooden chain he carved over a 7-year period.

How hard did it rain?

It rained so hard that...

An item so old none of us witnessed the event in Galena back in 1891 when a famous actor came to town.  As you know, no matter what happens, the show must go on.

The celebrated old-time actor,  Walker Whiteside, related that in his barnstorming days he “once played in a dingy “opery (sic)-house’ in Galena, Kan., when it rained so hard the ushers had to wear rubber boots, and the audience sat upon the backs of their chairs.”

The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, January 30, 1916, Sec. 4 pg. 2,The Stage, By Leone Cass Baer

...

A MOST SOBER DAY IT WAS 

1932

The Rev. Dow Booe, pastor of the Apostolic church of Galena, Kan., who baptized Lew Worden in Spring River last week, will accompany the condemned man on his walk to the gallows.

Sheriff Harry Stephens will spring the trap in the presence of 100 witnesses.
The Worden brothers and Pete Stevenson awaiting trial at the April term of circuit court were accused of assaulting three girls the night of last November 15 in a series of highway holdups. Lew Worden was convicted of assaulting a 15 year old Jasper County girl. (The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, Thursday, March 3, 1932, page 7)

LEW WORDEN IS HANGED AT 6 O'CLOCK TODAY

In the First Gray Light of Dawn, the Trap was Sprung in Carthage Jail Yard
160 Persons were Present
Worden Pleaded Guilty to Attacking a 16 Year Old High School Girl

Galena, Kansas - America's First Pentecostal Congregation

The Galena, Apostolic Faith Assembly in 1907

"Sin and whiskey are the ruin of people" -- Lew Worden

Carthage, Mo., March 3 - Lew Worden, confessed attacker of a high school girl, walked calmly but without bravado, to death on the gallows here today.

In the first gray light of Dawn, the trap was sprung, while more than 100 persons looked on and nine gospel workers who had spent the night praying for the condemned man sang I live on.
The 34-year-old war veteran whose greatest regret was that the American Legion due to the manner of his death denied him military burial, spoke quietly to his guards as they escorted him to the scaffold at 6 a.m.
Then under prompting of the Rev. Dow Booe, who had been with him through the night, he spoke briefly to the crowd, asserting he believed his punishment was too severe, but that he bore no malice and thanked all for their favors to him. In his hand he carried two roses taken from a bouquet sent him last night. These he handed to a guard as the harness and the black cap were adjusted.
Preparation for the hanging required only a few moments, and the trap was sprung a few minutes after six. Two physicians declared the confessed attacker dead in a few minutes later.
Worden was accused of attacking a 16-year-old high school girl last November 15. He pleaded guilty before Judge Harvey Davis, who condemned his crime as one meriting no mercy and sentenced him to death.
Harry Worden his brother also is under death sentence for alleged participation in the same crime. He was sentenced by Judge Davis after a jury had found him guilty.
The condemned man had spent the night quietly in his cell with the Rev. Booe, and the gospel workers all of whom had come from Galena, Kansas.
As the hours before his death waned, they sang and prayed Worden taking an active part in the services.
At 4 a.m. Worden had his last meal, fried chicken, hot biscuit and pie. He ate heartily.
Shortly before the brief journey to the gallows was begun, Worden called for the correspondent of the Kansas City Journal Post and gave him the following statement as reported to the Journal Post.

This was my first time in trouble. Whiskey did it. If I had been able to keep from drinking, as my mother urged me to do, I would not be here in this cell tonight looking out at the scaffold where in a few minutes I will die.
Right after I was arrested for this crime, I walked into my cell and began praying and have been praying ever since. For many days it seemed as though I would not get an answer to my prayers but when I sent for the Rev. Dow Booe to come over from Galena and explain passages in the Bible, everything began to look brighter.
He sang some songs and prayed for me and I was baptized on Feb. 22. Since then I have been saved. There has been no fear of meeting God from that day. I was prepared from that hour. I would like to tell everyone that sin and whiskey are the ruin of people. I wish to thank everybody for many things they have done for me. May God be with them is my prayer.

Then Worden who could neither read nor write, glanced at newspapers which told of his approaching execution. He smiled, but said nothing.
Sheriff Harry D. Stephens sprung the trap standing inside the jail, where he could not see the gallows.
The father of the girl Lew Worden confessed he attacked saw the condemned man hanged at the county jail here today.
His daughter also had requested that she be permitted to see the execution, but her father flatly denied her entreaty. 

The Chillicothe Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, Thursday, March 3, 1932, page 1

...