Remembering Kay Hively

When I wrote the post a few weeks back on the death of Carl Reiner, I noted that Reiner was stationed at Camp Crowder in Neosho during World War II and used some of his experiences in his scripts for the Dick Van Dyke Show, which did several flashback episodes featuring Van Dyke's character Rob Petrie stationed at Camp Crowder.

In the Facebook discussion that followed, someone asked if Van Dyke had been stationed at Camp Crowder and former Springfield News-Leader editor and long time reporter Mike O'Brien said emphatically that Van Dyke served at Camp Crowder.

That caught my attention.

I wrote about Vice President Harry S. Truman's August 31, 1944 visit to Camp Crowder in my book last year and offered some background and history on the base, including Reiner, but even though I had always heard Van Dyke was stationed there, I found no evidence to back that up.

Van Dyke wrote about his military service in his autobiography and did not have a word about Camp Crowder and other sources on the base's history did not offer any evidence he had been there.

I messaged Mike, explained the difficulty I had confirming that and asked how he knew.

He told me he had written a feature on Camp Crowder and got the information from an expert.

Kay Hively.

I felt like an idiot. Of course he got the information from Kay Hively. 

Kay was well-versed in the history of Neosho and in the 1980s wrote the well-received book Red Hot and Dusty: Tales of Camp Crowder.

And Kay always did her research.

I told Mike I would have to talk with Kay about that, but even then I knew that conversation would never take place.

I received an e-mail from Kay late last month in which she said that, regretfully, she could no longer do the weekly column she has been writing this past year, which had become a Sunday staple on the Turner Report. She said her health "had become quite bad."

Having known Kay for 45 years, I took that message to mean that she would not be with us much longer. She loved writing too much to give it up unless there was no way she could continue.

I returned her e-mail, thanked her for allowing me to share her column with my readers and said her columns would always be welcome on the Turner Report once she was able to return.

I received the notification earlier this week that Kay had passed away at age 76.

I first met Kay when I attended Crowder College in the spring of 1975 and taking the same history and political science classes with her, it did not take long to become aware of her keen interest in history and in her community.

At the time, she was preparing to run for Neosho City Council. With the passing of four plus decades, I can't recall the outcome of that race, but the memories of her enthusiasm for the prospect of increasing her involvement in the Neosho community remain vivid today.

In the ensuing years, she became heavily involved in preserving the history of this area. She was a driving force in the Newtonia Battlefield Association, promoted knowledge of the history of Camp Crowder through her book and was perhaps the biggest booster of the National Fish Hatchery in Neosho.

For years, her columns and articles were staples in the Neosho Daily News and later when the owners of the Daily bought out the Neosho Post, she was handed the reins and provided a paper that emphasized rural and farm-related news, as a complement to the Daily.

I kept in touch with Kay via e-mail over the years and was pleasantly surprised several months ago when she asked if I would be interested in running her columns.

I jumped at the opportunity.

I will miss the joy of seeing the weekly e-mail with just "Column" as the message line and then reading  Kay's take on whatever subject she chose to gift with her unfailingly positive approach and her signature closing line.

Just between you and me, Kay Hively will be missed.