William Allen White
For
half a century, Emporia newspaper editor William Allen White had something
to say on virtually every topic that had anything to do with Kansas
or the nation. Born in Emporia in 1868, he grew up in El Dorado, attended
the College of Emporia and the University of Kansas and worked on newspapers
in Topeka and Kansas City before buying The
Emporia Gazette in 1895.
Thereafter until his death in 1944 he wrote countless editorials as
well as articles and books that earned him the title of the "Sage of
Emporia."
Yet one of his most lasting pieces dealt not with politics or business
but was written in the Gazette as a eulogy
to his daughter, Mary. Mary died in 1921 at the age of sixteen after
she was knocked from a horse by an overhanging tree branch. Telling
of her zest for life, her interests, her friends, Mr. White created
an unforgettable portrait of a young girl, forever vibrant and forever
young. Later, White wrote: "My baggage for the short trip into posterity,
which I may possibly take, will probably consist of one article less
than a thousand words. It would please Mary that she and I should go,
hand in hand, together, in our little visible journey, before our road
turned into oblivion."
Address
Annals
of Kansas
Article - Kansas
Heritage, Summer 2005
Article - Kansas
Historical Quarterly, 1974
Article - Kansas
History, 1976
Article - Kansas
History , 2005
Bibliography,
1947
Bibliography,
KSHS
Biography
- Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame
Cover - Kansas
Historical Quarterly, 1974
Cool Things - Books Inscribed by
Edna Ferber
Cool Things - Jaguar Rug from Theodore
Roosevelt Cool Things -- Edna Ferber Books
Cool Things -- Jaguar Rug from Theodore
Roosevelt
Cool Things -- White's Printing Press
Cool Things -- White's World War
I Press Passes
Editorial - Mary White
History of Kansas Newspapers - White
William Allen White House State Historic Site
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