Ticket 2 Ride

Communities are it’s citizens. Parks, buildings, highways, schools, neighborhoods are all important, but the greatest assets are the stalwart citizens who build, lead and sustain their communities.

Hank Booth was Mr. Everything in Lawrence, KS. He passed away recently after a short illness at age 77. By “everything,” I mean he was everywhere, the man had to be the biggest volunteer and easiest to recognize because he was the voice of Lawrence.

Hank grew up in a radio family, his dad created KLWN in 1951. Radio stations and newspapers were lifelines, not just for Top 40 music and the crossword puzzle, but for news and community information. Radio and newspapers were the mortar holding the community together and allowing it to grow.

Hank worked his way up at the radio station to co-own it with his sister. His more than 50 years in radio was only the first layer in his service to the community. Hank served on every volunteer board in existence, from the United Way to the Lawrence Schools Foundation to the Chamber of Commerce to boards of local nonprofits. Hank lent his radio voice to calling games of Lawrence High School football for over five decades. He also was the P.A. announcer for basketball games at the University of Kansas. You get the idea that he was very involved.

After he sold the radio station, he took a job with the Lawrence chamber of commerce, then later, leading the chamber of commerce for a city a few miles south of Lawrence. Although he was of retirement age, Hank kept going. People like Hank were born in motion and stayed that way.

I worked for the Lawrence Schools Foundation for a couple of years and Hank was a board member then. I got to know him a little, but the guy was always busy. He rarely said no when someone asked him to help raise money or appear at some event.

I only knew Hank well enough to know there were many sides to Hank. He certainly was a genuine, caring man. He loved Lawrence and he loved local sports. He loved his family and he loved radio. Working around him for a couple of years, I sensed something else. Hank was a bit like George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life, everyone knew him and his importance to Lawrence was clear. Hank had to sell the radio station, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse and the station had debts. He told me in passing that he regretted selling; of course that was no secret. Although he kept working there for a few years, and continued his popular radio program, it wasn’t the same.

When I moved to Lawrence in the early 1960s, the population was about 35,000. That seems like a lot of people, but it was still a small town, at least if felt that way. Hank’s father, Arden Booth, ran the radio station and young Hank was the program director or some title. Arden was quite the character and cast a large shadow. KLWN and the local newspaper, the Lawrence Journal World, also owned by a local family, served similar, but different roles in the Lawrence community. The newspaper was news and information; the radio was more about information and entertainment. They each might cover some of the same territory, but how they did it was different and their intent served different facets of the same audience. I believe Hank understood this quite well.

Hank was bestowed every award possible, from Kansas Broadcaster of the Year, Lawrence High School Hall of Fame, Lawrencian of the Year, and many, many more. Hank was of a time where he gave without hesitation, did so without thinking what it would do for him, and used the radio station to serve the community, not the other way around. I heard others say that Hank was not a good businessman and that’s why he was forced to sell the station. True or not, Lawrence benefited from the involvement of the radio station in the community and probably catering to programming that did not always turn the needed profit.

I haven’t lived in Lawrence for 20 years, but I live nearby and still have family there. Five years ago my stepfather passed away; his family was part of the bedrock of Lawrence, like the Booth family. Giving and volunteering are not generational qualities, but there is something generational in how families were tied to their communities. Lawrence is a growing city today and lacks much of the small town warmth and closeness of the early 1960s, although it is a very desired place to live.

Lawrence is around 100,000 people now, and hopefully within that group are future Hank Booths. Given that the radio station is owned by an out of town entity, the newspaper is a shell of it’s former self and is owned by a corporation, the local cable news operation was shutdown a few years ago, and people connect to the worldwide web instead of a local social network, the community linkage that Hank nurtured and supported for years does not exist in that form. Hank’s radio station was a bit like George Bailey’s saving and loan – it was there to serve.

Communities like Lawrence have a solid bedrock for commerce and growth, and hopefully a continued foundation for supporting the needs and social responsibility of it’s citizens. Hank’s work is done. Next person up.