TEG
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016
V V V
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
V V V
Good Evening
VVV
You will be missed,
Mrs. Coble.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
COBLE KNOWN FOR
KINDNESS, DEVOTION
By Bobbi Mlynar
Special to The Gazette
COURTESY PHOTO
Members of the Emporia Game on For Kansas Schools team arrived
in Topeka Sunday afternoon. The team walked to the capitol from
Emporia over the course of three days to advocate for education.
LOCAL EDUCATORS WALK
TO TOPEKA TO SUPPORT
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Educators and parents from
across the state joined together
in the fight for public education over the last several days.
To show their commitment for
public education, they walked to
Topeka as part of Game on For
Kansas Schools.
This was the third year for
the walk and the first year that
Emporia had a group making the
journey. On Friday afternoon, a
small but committed group left
Emporia and began the long walk
to the capital. The team arrived
Sunday afternoon.
Erica Huggard, biology teacher and the president of ENEA,
the local chapter of the National
Education Association, organized the Emporia group, rounding up walkers and support crews
to make the journey possible.
“I’m motivated to do this because of all the negativity surrounding school funding right
now,” Huggard said. “I want to
do something positive to bring
awareness to the needs of our
students and the needs for public
schools. I was excited that this
was an opportunity that Emporia
got invited to so we could maybe
get some people in this area engaged.”
Please see Game On, Page 5
OLPE — Decades of devotion
to Olpe and everything in and
around it came to an end on
March 8 with the death of Theresa Coble at the age of 79.
Coble and her husband Leonard, who died in 2005, had owned
and operated the Chicken House
in Olpe since they purchased the
C&H Cafe in 1958 from Hannah
Taylor. They’d changed the restaurant’s name to spotlight its
centerpiece entree — Leonard
Coble’s exquisitely fried chicken.
Leonard had been cooking
professionally since he was 14
years old, and Theresa Coble
slipped naturally into an assortment of tasks that helped bring
the restaurant to nationwide attention.
The Chicken House has consistently won Best in the Flint
Hills competitions and has been
recognized by an assortment of
national publications and organizations, including being named
one of “50 Great Plates from 50
Great States” in 2000 by USAToday, and one of the top five
fried chicken restaurants in the
country by “American Airlines”
magazine.
The Cobles’ complementary
talents made them a ideal team.
“On the business end of
things, Leonard was there for
you,” said Father Tim Haberkorn
of Topeka, who knew them well
from his eight years as priest at
St. Joseph Catholic Church in
Olpe and St. Mary’s in Hartford.
“For the heart of things, Theresa
was there for you. She was all
about the heart.”
The long-term loyalty of customers and employees alike was
a testament to Theresa’s warmth
and sincerity.
“I never met anyone more
kind or generous than she,” said
Donna Windle Bolen, who had
begun working at the Chicken
House on her 16th birthday anniversary, and continued there
through high school and college.
“She was just the epitome of
kindness and goodness and generosity.”
Please see Coble, Page 5
MATFIELD GREEN
SERVICE AREA
REMODEL TO
BEGIN MARCH 21
Special to The Gazette
Renovations at the Kansas
Turnpike Authority’s Matfield
Green Service Area, located in
the Flint Hills at mile marker 97
on I-35/KTA, will begin March
21. The service area will remain
open with food, fuel and restrooms available throughout the
project, which is scheduled for
completion in late December.
The remodel, included in
KTA’s Long Term Needs Study,
makes customer-driven changes
to better meet the needs of travelers. Construction will be done
in phases to minimize the impact to customers.
Renovations include improved restrooms that can be
sectioned off to allow for easier
cleaning; commercial trash compactors to minimize frequency
of trash service to this rural location and decrease area litter; and
better truck parking for commercial travelers.
“We learned from the 2015
Customer Satisfaction Survey
that 60 percent of our travelers
stop at service areas primarily to
use the restroom,” said Rachel
Bell, KTA’s Marketing and Communications Director. “These
changes will improve the customer’s experience while also
making us, and our partner vendors, more efficient.”
VOL. 124, NO. 219
COUNTRY-CHRISTIAN
BAND TO GRACE
GRANADA STAGE
By Regina Murphy
[email protected]
Award-winning country band Diamond Rio plays the Granada Theatre Friday.
Founded in 1982 as an Opryland
“boy band” called Grizzly River Boys
(later The Tennessee River Boys),
the musicians set out on their own
and in 1989 settled into the lineup
of Gene Johnson (mandolin, guitar,
fiddle, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, Dobro, Danelectro,
banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Marty
Roe (lead vocals), Dan Truman
(keyboards, organ, synthesizer), and
Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone
vocals) and took the name Diamond
Rio.
“Country music has always been
and continues to be dominated by
stars backed by session and touring musicians,” Granada Executive
Director Bryan Williams said. “Diamond Rio is the rare exception to the
rule where all of the members of the
band sing and play their own instruments. Another notable exception is
Exile, who we had here in 2014.”
Please see Granada, Page 5
COURTESY PHOTO/PHILLIP MCAVAY
A grain elevator in Allen caught fire on Friday.
ALLEN FIRES CAUSED
BY BURN PIT
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
ALLEN — Monday, a press release from the Lyon County She &