tschram

tschram

  • Joined: August 30, 2022
  • Articles: 12101

Sandra Allene Hamm

Sandra Allene Hamm (Noell), 82, passed away in Plymouth, MI on February 25th, 2022 after a long battle with diabetes and heart problems. Sandra (Sandy) was born on July 10th, 1939, in Ponca City, OK. She was the fourth daughter of William and Blanche Noell. She attended Jefferson Grade School. After the family moved to Kansas City, MO, she graduated from Paseo High School in 1957. She later graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught in Kansas City, MO and Downey, CA, Wichita, KS, and Blue Springs, MO. She married Ernest Hamm on December 26th, 1964 at the Broadway Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO. His career as a Service Engineer for Honeywell took them to Massachusetts, California, Arizona (where their three children were born), Kansas, and then to Blue Springs, Missouri where they raised their children. She was a loving wife and mother. Later, her favorite teaching assignment was with the Little Angels Learning Center within the First Baptist Church of Blue Springs where she and Ernie were active in their Sunday School class. She was later employed at the Defense Finance and Accounting Services and retired in 2010. After her husband’s death in 2017 she moved to Sunrise Senior Living in Plymouth, MI to be near her son, Ben. Sandy was an excellent cook, loved to sing, a collector of DeGrazia and Marjolein Bastin art, musicals, old movies, trivia, board games, and cards. She also loved spending time with her grandchildren. Sandy is survived by her children Becky, Amy, and Ben and her grandchildren Allene, Christopher, Laura, Ethan, and Harlan as well as her sister Lauri and brother-in-law and wife Jack and Nancy. Sandy’s graveside service will be held at Resthaven Cemetery in Ponca City, Oklahoma on March 4th at 2:00 pm.

Missouri lawmakers working hard to sideline the voters

Even as Missouri voters keep sending Republican supermajorities to the Legislature each election cycle, many of those same voters also keep second-guessing what those legislators do there. In recent years, voters have used ballot initiatives to override the ruling Republicans on issues like labor rights, medical marijuana, political reform and Medicaid expansion. It’s a phenomenon that seems to speak volumes about voters’ political tribalism versus actual policy preferences. But in any case, ballot initiatives make those preferences clear.

Who’s the hero, and what is the journey?

What’s your story? The one you’ve been learning all your life, that tells where you’ve been, where you’re going, what you’ve learned along the way, who you’ve loved, who you are and hope to be someday?

The rhetoric of endless outrage

To my way of thinking, there are three seasons – baseball, the overlay of hockey and college basketball, and the brief, grim time in late fall when the first has ended and the second hasn’t really gotten going yet.