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Visiting with Sedan friends Dick and Nita Jones ...
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... and sharing a laugh with local artist Terry Ricketts.
{Continued from page 10)
The Fish Building was tlx first of 14 buildings that
kurtis bought aixl brought back to life in Sedan, including
an 1880 s stone Ixxise—once used as a livery stable—that's
now a bed and breakfast inn. He transtiirmcd another 1890
beauty into The Art of the Prairie Gallery to showcase
jirairie-inspired art. Kurtis offered the restored buildings
rent-free tor one year to entrepreneurs, then sold die struc
tures at a reasonable price.
"He has literally saved this community by his generos
ity,' Jones says. "When Bill took on this venture, we had 13
vacant buildings. Because of his belief in Sedan aixl because
ol the goodness of his heart, today we have two. Bill hits
been a godsend to this community."
Stained-glass artists and partners Terry Ricketts and
Debby Hewlett bought two buildings last year from
kurtis and opened The Studio in the Hills and Kokopelli
Gallery'.
“Bill came into town and bought buildings tliat needed
work—a new mol or a furnace—-and fixed them up so it
wouldn't lx- a burden on people," says Hewlett, 31. "He
gave us a good deal on the buildings and let us set our own
payments and financed it for us."
“But the best thing he did was purdiase tlx- old lumber
yard," says Ricketts, 56. Now called the Kurtis Arts Plaza,
it hosrs piinting, wcxxkarving aixl other art classes, along
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Kurtis works in Chicago, but he frequently returns to his home on the 10,000-acre Red Buffalo Ranch in Kansas.
with festivals and events that combine art, music and fixxl.
"Its wonderful fun and great satisfaction giving kick
aixl saving a town simply by rehabbing buildings," Kurtis
says. "This is a place where Americas values were' born."
Raised on the prairie
Kurtis, 67, knows small-town values by heart, having
grown up in nearby Independence. His parents owned the
land wliere writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, tlx- Unit Home on
the Prairie author, lived in tlx 184 Is. Tcxlay, Kurtis atxl his
sister, state Sen. Jean Schodorf of Wichita, own the Little
Htxise site, where a replica of the Ingalls' family cabin has
heen built. Nearby is Walnut Creek aixl the well that Pa
Ingalls dug by liand.
In 1962, Kurtis graduated from the University of Kan
sas in Lawrence with a journalism degree, and four years
later was anchoring the evening new's at WIBW-TV in
Topeka, where one career-defining night convinced him of
the piwer of television to save lives. On June 8,1966, lx- was
winding up the newscast when he was handed a bulletin
about an approaching tornado.
"Fifteen seconds later, someone handed me a piece of
paper that said: ‘The Huntington Apartments have just
Ixen wiped out.' I drew a straight line in my mind aixl
saw tlx tornado bearing down on the city and tlx campus
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wlxre my wife aixl child were." Tlx 26-year-old faced the
eamera and blurted, “For Gods sake, take cover!"
Kurtis’ distinctive voice has carried him through 41
years of broadcast journalism from WBBM-TV, a CBS
affiliate in Chicago, to anchoring the CBS Morning Neuy
in New York. In 1990, he formed Kurtis Productions atxl
began producing his popular programs for tlx AAT Net
work, including Imtstifftlne Reports and Cold Case Pita, as
well as Investigating History for The History Channel.
Environmental aixl health topics long Iwve interested
Kurtis, wlxi broke the story on Agent Orange, a herbicide
and defoliant used during the Vietnam War, aixl began
reporting 15 years ago on global warming. Today, these
concerns inspire his ranching on the prairie.
Grass-fed beef
“I'm trying to lead the wave in terms of healthy beef
1 think this is the answer to obesity," says Kurtis, whose
Tallgrass Beef Co. raises grass-fed cows on his ranch.
He has returned to the way that cattle historically were
raised on open range and grass only, without the use of
hormones, antibiotics and fattening in feed kits on corn
and corn products. At any given time, there are some
2,500 to 3,500 cows ranging over the Kurtis ranch.
Leading Chicago restaurants Harry Caray's and
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