Farewells

El Dorado, KS: Butler County Historical Society (1st Edition, 1986). Hardcover with mustard-colored boards/black titles; no dust jacket, as issued. Clean and unmarked, binding square and tight. ABOUT THE BOOK: During the 59 years he labored as editor of the El Dorado Times, R. A. Clymer wrote well over a thousand tributes to citizens of the Kingdom of Butler and to a large group of colleagues, friends, and acquaintances from across the State of Kansas. The occasions for these remembrances were the passing of friends from the scenes where they had lived, worked, and contributed to society. If there was a single characteristic of the disparate group encompassed in this editorial span, it was their usefulness, their service, their positive contributions to their communities. The degree of their contributions was not important to Clymer. He did not differentiate between the great and the common, the famous and the obscure, the rich and the poor. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rolla Anderson Clymer, son of Presbyterian minister George H. and Ella Light Clymer, is most closely associated with Kansas journalism and the geographic region of Kansas known as the Flint Hills. Rolla Clymer was born at Alton, Osborne County, Kansas, on July 23, 1888. His earliest days were spent in various Kansas and midwestern towns where his father held pastorates. Much of his adolescence was passed in Quenemo, Franklin County, Kansas, where he graduated from high school in 1905. Clymer then attended the College of Emporia in Emporia, Kansas, and graduated with his A. B. degree in 1909. Later he completed some post-graduate work at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, and was an alumnus of the William Allen White School of Journalism. Clymer's earliest newspaper training began as a college student in 1907, under the expert tutelage of William Allen White. First as a part-time reporter, and later as city editor, Clymer worked on White's Emporia Gazette from 1907 until 1914. As one of White's "boys", the two men remained lifelong friends. He was editor of the El Dorado Times for 59 years.