HOLLYWOOD (AP) — Buster Keaton, 70, the baggy-pants comedian of the silent screen, died today. A spokesman said he succumbed to lung cancer at his home in suburban Woodland Hill. His wife of about 25 years, Eleanor, was at his side. He was one of the great comics of the silent screen era and one of the last surviving giants of that day. He was born in Piqua.
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Six Allen County farm families were honored today by the three banks of Allen County for work they have done in conservation on their farms. The awards were given to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bruenger of rural Iola, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Smart of LaHarpe, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur West of rural Moran, Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Seifert of rural Moran, Mr. and Mrs. Maynard Cress and Mr. and Mrs. Willard Cress of rural Humboldt at a conservation banquet sponsored by the Kansas Bankers Association.
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“Yes” by more than three to one was the way Allen County voters cast their ballots in the special election on a $1.5 million bond issue for the proposed new Allen County Community Junior College. The vote count was 3,119 for the bonds, 1,015 against. The vote failed in Humboldt, 237 no, 220 yes, but the rural areas of the county averaged about two to one in favor.
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Darrill Pierce, executive vice president of Mid-America, Inc., addressed a group of Iola business professionals yesterday. He told the group that since its beginning in 1957 the organization has had substantial success with industrial promotion in southeast Kansas, but with the new national prosperity and the prospect of a doubled national population in the coming 35 years, big opportunities are just beginning.