Louise Wherry

is honored with a Brick from Beth Heuer and Martha Wherry.

This tribute to Louise Wherry is written by her daughters, who consider this wonderful, talented woman to be the best mother in the world.

Louise was born in Lewisburg, Tennessee, to Harris C. and Florence Neely Liggett. She received her B.S. in Home Economics from the University of Tennessee. After teaching Home Economics at Hiwasee College in Madisonville, Tennessee, she received a graduate assistantship at Kansas State University, where she earned her M.S. in Experimental Foods. While at K-State, Louise met John E. Wherry, whom she married in 1949. Louise and John have lived in Wichita since 1952.

In the nearly fifty years that the Wherry household has revolved around the anchor point held steady by Louise, her two daughters have grown, married, and established careers and households of their own. While the girls were young, Louise served as Girl Scout leader, chauffeur, chef, dressmaker, room mother, and center of their universe. Later, when Louise's parents were in their late 80's, Louise and John brought them to Wichita and provided a loving home for them for six years.

Louise's community and civic involvement began shortly after her arrival in Wichita. Long active in East Heights United Methodist Church, Louise has served as President of the United Methodist Women and received the church's Volunteer Award. She has been a member of the Ringing Belles handbell choir for seven years. She and John donated the church's set of bell tables in honor of their 40th wedding anniversary.

After John's retirement as a Boeing engineer, the couple embarked upon a ten-year effort to raise funds for the Chaplin Nature Center near Arkansas City. Bird seed sales orders, taken by Louise at all hours of the day and night and faithfully delivered by John in rain, sleet, and snow, netted profits of close to $50,000 for the benefit of the Nature Center, which is owned and operated by the Wichita Audubon Society. Louise served as chair of the Wichita Audubon Society's cookbook committee, which in 1996 published the collector cookbook entitled Recipes and Remembrances. Her involvement with the Wichita Audubon Society included serving as Speaker's Bureau Chairman and participating in fundraising efforts through a benefit sale, the Country Store, held at the annual Fall Field Day at the Chaplin Nature Center. For many years, she prepared food for groups of birdwatchers who took part in the annual Christmas Count census. Louise's dedication to the Wichita Audubon Society was recently recognized when she received the 1997 WAS Meritorious Service Award.

For four years Louise served as a volunteer reader for the Radio Reading Service, reading newspapers for the blind over public radio. She was an active participant for a number of years in the African Violet Study Club and served as vice-president.

It is a family joke that Louise simply cannot follow a recipe item-for-item, preferring to substitute ingredients or improvise (always for the better). Her originality and creativity found a new outlet when she took up quilting. A long-time member of the East Heights Quilting Group at her church, Louise and her fellow quilters spend the better part of each year meeting weekly to piece, appliqu‚, stitch, chat, and complete an heirloom quilt to be donated and auctioned at the church's annual French Market.

Louise's first full-size quilt entitled "Up, Up and Away" won second place at the Kansas State Fair in 1992 in the original design category. That quilt, displayed at the Wichita Quilt Guild's annual show, was later exhibited in Riverside, California, by invitation of the Inland Empire Quilters Guild.

Louise taught us, her daughters, to play the piano, plant a garden, can a peach, paint a ceiling, and bake a loaf of bread. She also gave us, and continues to give, lessons in life and living. She taught us to explore and become independent, to go our own ways but to remember and cherish the ties that bind generation to generation, soul to soul. She showed us how to honor our values and standards while respecting those of others. She taught us that the world is not a homogeneous place and that diversity is to be embraced and celebrated. And she taught us that life is not always easy, that your best efforts will not always be rewarded by others, and that you must seek to find the "star in your crown" that comes with doing a good deed. As children, we used to complain that our crowns were becoming so heavy we could hardly lift our heads, but Mother was right. We love you, Mom!

Submitted by Martha L. Wherry and Beth W. Heuer

July 17, 1998