Arline Rising

is honored with a Large Paver from Mr. and Mrs. Jim Albright, Dr. and Mrs. John Albright, Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Bickley, John Bickley, Mr. and Mrs. Jon Callen, R.K. Edmiston, Dr. and Mrs. Herbert M. Lindsley, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Lindsley, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Massey, Dr. and Mrs. Phil McKnight, Mr. and Mrs. Rob McKnight, Susan V. McKnight, Mr. and Mrs. Walt Rising, Barbara B. Segraves, Mr. and Mrs. Steven C. Woods, and Mr. and Mrs. Dick Yetke.

It didn't happen by design. Six families moved to the 200 block on North Terrace in Wichita, KS during the 1940s and early 1950s. What started as "new neighbors" became six women and their families who developed lifelong friendships. The sixteen children grew up in a loving, nurturing, and secure extended family. The relationship grew close enough that we had six mothers and fathers whom we affectionately called "aunt and uncle." They were always there to support each others family... during the many fun times, as well as the times of pain and sorrow. Collectively, our memories of those years are countless and vivid. We honor our six mothers as heroines who were such a significant part of our lives as children and as adults. These six heroines... Mary Albright, Jane Bickley, Kathlien Edmiston, Barbara Lindsley, Margaret McKnight, and Arline Rising... taught us, through their lives and friendship, the true meaning of caring and love.

Arline Rising was born on October 10, 1921. She was the only child of Walter and Edith vonderLeith of Cliffside Park, NJ. Following elementary and high school in Cliffside Park, Arline graduated from The Katherine Gibbs School of Business in New York City and worked for Bankers Commercial of New York. It was during those early years that she met Austin (Russ) Rising, a graduate of New York University. Immediately following their marriage on June 20, 1942, Russ went into the Navy and served during the war years. While he was stationed overseas, Arline remained in NYC and worked as an executive secretary for the Alco-Gravuer Company, the publishers of Look Magazine. After the war Russ accepted a job in Wichita, KS as Sales Manager of the OA Sutton Company. With no hesitation Arline left her home in the east and moved her young family to Wichita to begin her important work as a mother, homemaker, and community-focused executive wife. It was during those early years in Wichita that the Risings met and became lifelong friends with the families in the Terrace Drive neighborhood.

Arline's community involvement included serving on the Boards of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Women's Association, the Camp Fire Girls, and Wichita Art Museum. One of the highlights of Arline's time as President of the Women's Association was being selected to model the Hope Diamond, from the Winston collection, which today sits in the Smithsonian Institute. Arline and Russ had two children: Janice was born in November 1944, and Walt, March of 1947. In 1954, business opportunities required moves to NJ, MI, and PA. By that time, however, the friendships that had grown between the families on Terrace Drive were so well established that Arline and Russ knew when they said goodbye that these were friendships that were going to be lifelong. In 1962 Russ was offered an Executive Marketing position with Beech Aircraft Corporation back in Wichita, so the Rising's were once again returning to what they had always considered home.

Throughout the years and all the moves, Arline has always been there for others. She has taken on tasks within her community that has made it a better place to live while always being there for her husband and her children. Arline spent the next thirty years in Wichita around the people she loved so much and the city to which she contributed a very great deal.

Arline and Russ Rising retired in 1983 to Tampa FL, and currently live in North Carolina. Their presence and love for Wichita can still be felt even today through the Austin and Arline Rising Scholarship Fund which they established in the early 1980's at Wichita State University. That fund is a fully endowed $25,000 fund that provides educational opportunities for deserving students from the Wichita area.

Arline Rising is now mother and the "second mother" to all the children of those families that were with them on Terrace Drive. Aunt Barbara Lindsley and Aunt Kay Edmiston were as much our second mothers. The love and memories we have of all these women make them larger than life to us. They really are heroines, not just to us but for all of us who grew up with these special women in this special neighborhood. American life today has been built by women just like the Heroines of Terrace Drive and the lessons they taught us with their lives about the true value of family, community, country, and life itself.

Submitted by her children, Janice Rising Yetke and Walt Rising. (See also Mary Albright, Jane Bickley, Kathlien Edmiston, Barbara Lindsley, and Margaret McKnight.)

September 12, 1998