Happy birthday, Kansas! Today, our great state celebrates 160 years. Kansas Day is celebrated annually on January 29 to commemorate the anniversary of the state’s 1861 admission to the Union. We became the 34th state. According to the Kansas Historical Society (KHS), Rooks County received the county name from John Calvin Rooks, a private in the Union Army during the Civil War. The county was organized on November 26, 1872.

Herbert Wesley McReynolds, age 92, Hays, passed from this life to the next on January 19, 2021, at Hays Medical Center.  

He was born January 14, 1929 on a farm near Natoma, Kansas, the son of J. J. and Goldie McReynolds. He graduated from Covert Rural High School in 1946 and married Olive Mae Ross on October 15, 1950 at the Methodist Church in Webster. He was a retired farmer and sheep rancher who lived in Osborne County until June of 2019 when he and Olive moved to Hays to be near their children.

Jerald Lee “Jerry” Sterling passed away on January 27, 2021, at the Rooks County Health Center in Plainville, at the age of 71.

He was born on July 8, 1949 to Gabriel and Ruth (Hoyle) Sterling in Columbus, Ohio. Jerry married Patricia Rogers on May 15, 1969 in Wichita, KS. They were blessed with two children: Chad and Lori.

Darrell Wayne Stanton, age 82, of Logan, Kansas, died Monday, January 25, 2021, at his home in Logan.

He was born on February 12, 1938 in Logan, Kansas, to Wilbur Andrew and Della Jane “Dot” (Ashley) Stanton. He attended school in Logan, and was a 1956 graduate of Logan High School where he played football, basketball and baseball. Upon graduation from LHS, he enlisted in the United States Army.