Iola wasn’t meant to be a permanent destination for Buck and Dixie Quincy. The young married couple moved to the southeast Kansas town in 1960 in search of teaching jobs. THE QUINCYS raised four children in Iola. Stephanie is a lawyer in Arizona, Chris is a house painter in Kansas City and Greg lives in Missouri and works for the city. Their daughter Gretchen, a teacher like her parents, died about 10 years ago. Buck and Dixie have helped raise their grandchildren.
Once Buck was hired as a teacher at Iola Middle School the small-town charm grew on the couple. Their plan to stay only three years before finding another home changed.
“We’ve liked Iola and we’ve enjoyed the people here,” Buck said. “It has been a good town. We’ve never found the road out of here.”
Buck and Dixie met in Topeka in Buck’s sister’s backyard.
“I was teaching in Troy and just got out of the service,” Buck recalled. “My sister taught with Dixie and she wanted me to meet her.”
Buck served in the 82nd Airborne.
They met the week before Thanksgiving, she had a ring by December and they were married in February.
Buck taught and coached junior high students. He coached high school freshman basketball and varsity for 13 years. He even taught eighth grade girls basketball, which was his only undefeated team. He also took on the task of coaching golf for the junior high and high school.
He had a lasting affect on the sports community. Today students still participate in the Buck Quincy Invitational each year on the golf course.
Dixie taught kindergarten in Humboldt for three years and was the cheer coach for the junior high at Iola. One school year before she started teaching at Iola she was asked if she could teach home economics. She taught the cooking portion of the class.
She began subbing for different teachers. She taught language arts and study hall; taught crafts for art teacher Joyce Atkinson while she was on maternity leave; and taught seventh grade science while Georgia Masterson was on maternity leave. When a science job at IMS opened up she applied for the job.
“I enjoyed subbing it was a new challenge every day,” Dixie said.
Dixie also got involved in Girl Scouts.
“I was the leader of my girls’ Brownie troop, neighborhood chairman and day camp director,” she said.
Buck said many people know Dixie as the butterfly lady. While teaching science Dixie would have students catch butterflies, tag them and then set them free.
“Some tags were sent back from Mexico and Texas,” Dixie said.
“Iola is a good place to raise our children and grandchildren,” Buck said. “We couldn’t have made a better choice to raise them, but we’re sure sorry about the circumstances.”
All of their children and grandchildren have gone through the Iola school system. Although both teachers are retired, they remain active in education. Buck still serves on the USD 257 school board. Dixie attends every meeting.
They were asked to be the grand marshals of the Farm-City Day Parade in the summer but decided to not tell anyone.
“We were really pleased to be asked,” Buck said.
“It’s a real honor,” Dixie added.
The Farm-City Day parade begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Quincys raise multiple generations in Iola
