PROLOGUE
T his is a story I somehow didn’t know. I grew up in the 1970s in Ogallala, 50 miles away. I knew North Platte as well as some- one whose family drove there for shopping and movies could know it. But not until I first wrote for The Telegraph in 1987 did I begin to learn this particular story. I can’t believe what I didn’t know. Rae Wilson Sleight, the Canteen’s founder, died six months before I first came. The last great Canteen reunion took place nearly six months after I left in 1988 to get married. The remaining officers had died by my first return in 1995. I had no idea that Ogallala and its people were among the Canteen’s sturdiest backers — or that the last surviving major Canteen figure, a young boy you’ll soon meet, is the father of a fellow Ogallala High School graduate a year older than me. I shouldn’t be surprised. Western Nebraskans don’t talk much. They just do what must be done. As you read, remember that people back then sometimes used words we would not. I’ve edited gently to save space and smooth out grammar,
punctuation and most (but not all) spellings. Square brackets enclose words added for clarity. Until about the 1970s, first names of married women weren’t routinely listed if their husbands were living. I’ve added them where they could be accurately determined, using city directories and online resources, for women from North Platte. This book wouldn’t have been feasible had the North Platte Genealogical Society not launched a searchable database of North Platte’s historic newspapers ( northplatte.advantage-preservation.com ) in 2018. Without it, these stories would still be buried in microfilm. Cecelia Lawrence and her staff at the North Platte Public Library maintain an outstanding repository of local and Nebraska history. This book’s rich collection of Canteen photos is due to the enthusiasm of Jim Griffin, director and curator of the Lincoln County Historical Museum, which lovingly preserves the Canteen story. All photos in this volume, unless otherwise noted, appear cour- tesy of the museum. We’re grateful to Pegeen Perry, Bob Reitz and
everyone at Pediment Publishing for their pro- fessionalism and patience. Thanks to Telegraph Publisher Dee Klein for her faith in me; my retired former colleague Sharron Hollen for her eloquent epilogue; and Bob Greene, author of “Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen” (2002), for offering to write this book’s foreword. My story with my wife, Joan (The Telegraph’s managing editor since 2016), began long-distance my first year at this paper. We’ve worked here together twice now. After 30 years of love, life and journalism, it’s still a miracle. Finally, I tip my hat to all who first told these tales — and always to the late Keith Blackledge, my first Telegraph boss, who never considered North Platte “flyover country.” When Joan and I left in 1997 for 19 years in Omaha, I wrote: “This is a place worth being from, a place worth coming back to.” More than ever, I know why. Todd von Kampen May 2019
INTRODUCTION 3
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