Stories from Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Firefighters from several departments responded to a report of a house explosion on Valley Road at about 10 p.m. Monday and most likely remained on the scene until early in the morning. The initial damage appeared to be on the back of the house, but firefighters were unable to stop flames from taking the entire structure...

Bernadine E. Weber, 75, of Fort Scott, formerly of Bronson, died Wed., Oct. 1, 2014 at Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. Graveside services will be 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, at the Moran Cemetery, Moran, Kan. Memorial gifts to Hope Chapel may be left with the Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Memorial Chapel of Iola, which is in charge of arrangements. To sign the guestbook online or leave a condolence, go to www.iolafuneral.com...

Ronald "Ron" Dean Owens, age 68, resident of Fort Scott, Kan., died Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, at Medicalodge of Fort Scott. He was born Aug. 27, 1946, in Iola, Kan., the son of Clyde William and Martha Agusta Minnie Bulk Owens. He was raised in rural Humboldt, Kan., graduating in 1964. ...

Homecoming Royalty was crowned at Uniontown High School Friday night and at Fort Scott Community College Saturday.

Karen Haas has a passion for what she does, as seen by the emotion in her telling of the Gordon Parks story during her Friday presentation to the public. Haas is the curator for the Lane Collection of Photography at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. "She had one photo of two young black kids in front of a movie theater," Jill Warford, executive director of the Gordon Parks Museum at Fort Scott Community College said in an interview...

CHANUTE -- Independence won its third straight championship and its 10th in 11 seasons after finishing well ahead of the pack at the Southeast Kansas League Tennis Tournament here Saturday. Independence, which has won or shared 31 championships since the first SEK girls' tournament in 1973, scored 26 team points while Chanute was second with 17 and Parsons third with 14. Fort Scott finished in seventh place with 6 team points...

UNIONTOWN -- Uniontown rolled St. Paul, 52-6, here Friday night in Three Rivers League and Eight-Man Division I District 1 play on Homecoming. The game didn't break open until the third quarter, when the Eagles (1-0 district, 3-1 TRL, 3-2 overall) scored 32 unanswered points to go up 46-6...

CHANUTE -- Fort Scott Community College's volleyball team, ranked No. 11 in NJCAA Division II, came into the weekend Neosho County Tournament off a sweep by unranked Highland Wednesday night. That loss broke a 15-match winning streak in which the Greyhounds (24-4) lost just two sets...

Fort Scott Community College's football team may have turned its season around Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Dodge City may have taken the final blow in what could turn out to be a lost season. The Greyhounds, who had lost their last four games by a combined score of 226-51, had control of things from the very start and won for the first time in Jayhawk Conference play this season, 49-38, on Homecoming...

Earl Dean Feagins, age 85, a resident of Fort Scott, Kan., died Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, at Fort Scott Mercy Hospital. He was born March 10, 1929, in Fort Scott, the son of Leonard Feagins and Edna Belle Thompson Feagins. He first married Irene Craig on March 30, 1951, at Eureka Springs, Ark. ...