Continued from the December 16, 2017 issue A previous article discussed the jet-set lives of Ruth Minor Koppang and Henry Koppang, whose passports must have brought new meaning to the term stamp collection. Ruth was a portrait painter, and Henry was vice president of the Federal Reserve’s Kansas City branch for many years. They were […]

Ruth and Henry Koppang were among the most glamorous of the jet-setters whose activities were of interest to the readers of The Independent more than 50 years ago. At that time, international air travel was, in a word, romantic – and the Koppangs made the most of their adventures.  Henry was born in 1899 in […]

The first time she graced our pages, we didn’t even know her name: “Mr. and Mrs. Burnham Hockaday of St. Louis announce the birth of a daughter, June 25.” That was Laura Rollins Hockaday, and the date on the cover of The Independent was July 9, 1938. Not quite 80 years later, we count ourselves […]

When The Independent celebrated its 100th birthday in March 1999, Martha Belle Aikins Smith was there – and, at 97, she was as much a part of the social history of Kansas City as the magazine itself. Martha Belle was born on September 30, 1901. Her parents were Clara Jackman Aikins and John Aikins, who […]