From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio, PBS Kansas Presents Positively Kansas, It's Time for Positively Kansas coming up, he branded an industry and commanded the world's attention.

Explore the high flying legacy of marketing visionary Al Higdon, and the bold ideas that helped define the air, capital and stage lights and spiritual strength.

Meet the 92 year old ballet teacher who remains a beacon of grace for her students.

Plus, a journey to the frosty Plains to witness the winter wonders of Kirwin Wildlife Refuge.

Join us for another edition of Positively Kansas.

And.

He's the marketing titan who shared with the world that Wichita didn't just build planes.

It led the way in aviation for decades.

Al Higdon stood at the center of Kansas grit and Hollywood glamor, turning the Learjet into an aviation phenomenon.

In his new book, it reveals the relationships and big ideas that put Kansas innovation in the global spotlight.

Chris Frank has the story.

I am freaking blown away.

You guys.

Thank you for coming so much.

It was standing room only at Wichita's Water Mark Books and Cafe.

Nearly 200 of Al Higgins friends, colleagues and admirers turning out for a book signing and to celebrate a life spent connecting people, ideas and a city to the world.

And just as I really need to pay attention to page 13 says her page about going to the one room school.

The book Al Higdon The Power of Two.

Now, for most of us, a chance encounter with a celebrity becomes a story we tell for a lifetime.

For Al Higdon, meeting celebrities was simply part of the job.

I'm most remembering, John Denver, who had a Learjet.

He came to take delivery of it in Wichita.

Higdon remembers the singer songwriter as one of his favorite guests.

He showed around the West Wichita Learjet plant.

Higdon made a list of some 40 celebrities he hosted.

There was Bob Hope, and there was actor James Coburn.

Young Frank Sinatra.

Besides Old Blue Eyes, there were many others dropping by like Milton Berle, affectionately known as Uncle Melty.

Johnny Carson entertained Wichita media in a press conference with his visit to Lear Jet.

There were famous athletes Arnold Palmer, Mickey Mantle.

The names go on and on.

War heroes, astronauts, politicians.

There were no selfies taken then.

All photos were professionally shot.

Higdon didn't get into public relations to meet celebrities, though.

He just knew PR work paid more than his first inclination to be a sportswriter.

So I ended up writing about sports starting in high school.

I was a decent writer, and, so I was a sportswriter.

Moral high school newspaper.

That was at Wichita's East High.

He even continued sports writing at the University of Kansas until he found out how little sportswriters made then.

But then I did some research and found out that the average daily newspaper sportswriter was making $70 a week.

So he quickly switched his interest to a business degree, then pursued public relations at age 24.

He got a PR job at Beech Aircraft.

The beech job came up, so I grabbed it because that's what I wanted to do in my career.

It just happened to be in aviation and I'm glad it was.

It was a great, 35 plus years for me.

He worked there when Olive and beech ran the company.

She ran the place.

She could be very kind, but those were short spurts.

And if she was angry, she was really angry.

And you knew about it immediately.

She was never really angry at me.

But I was always in the back of my mind a lot.

Am I going to do to hack her off?

So I. But I was around her quite a bit.

Then Bill Lear came to Wichita in 1962 to start Lear Jet.

Two years later, Higgins is invited to rejoin his former beach boss, Jim Greenwood at Lear Jet.

So there were just something magic about working for a jet manufacturing company.

And so I was all in.

People have asked me to describe Bill Lear.

It takes a dozen adjectives to describe the man.

He was irascible.

He was angry.

He was kind.

He was a visionary.

Smart as hell.

And again, you better be prepared when you're talking to him, because he doesn't have a lot of time to mess around with small talk.

And, I got to work with him pretty closely over the four years he was there when I was there.

And, this evening, I characterized his for the best years of my life that I wouldn't want to go through again.

It was all new at Learjet, a new plane maker shaking up the aviation industry.

Then early on, Bill there told Jim Greenwood and me that his vision is to have the word Learjet become synonymous with the term business jet.

And so we had that vision from the from the start.

And, we had basically a blank check to, to to try to make that happen.

Bill Lear already had Hollywood connections being married to Moira Olson Lear, whose father was a famous vaudevillian comedian.

So Danny Kaye was in and out of our life quite a bit.

It was fun to go for me to go to cocktail parties and talk about the airplane, because everybody wanted to know who had flown in originally and who had been in to see us and all that.

So I mentioned it was a lot more fun to, promote business jets than it would be vacuum cleaners.

And while promoting business jets certainly had its perks.

Higdon says the real leap of faith came when he and his friend Wendell Sullivan, left steady jobs to start their own firm, Sullivan and Higdon Advertising.

Von Cink joined a few years later to complete the team.

We had a two year period where we doubled in size by attracting Pizza Hut and Cessna aircraft.

Sullivan, Higdon and sink became the largest ad firm in the state.

Then in 1996, Higdon retires.

Well, sort of.

He retired from the ad agency to do all sorts of other things that included teaching graduate level journalism at Wichita State University.

But alongside of that teaching that I was doing at Wichita State, I remained active, with some of the civic people just kind of kept coming to me.

Would you do this?

Would you do that?

And most of which I said, yes.

And it was very rewarding.

Friends urged Higdon to write this book.

Higdon turned to his friend John Brown to write the biography.

Higdon explains the power of two in the book's title.

The title, Al Higdon Power of Two, stems from the fact that most entrepreneurs go it alone by themselves.

I chose to partner up with various people along the way, from my wife to my work associates, to people I knew in the community, a civic engagement that we took part in in Wichita.

So there always seemed to be two or more of us at the same time, going in the same direction.

So it became the power of two.

For Higdon, success was never just about the people he met or the heights he reached, but about staying true to himself.

Be comfortable with what you're doing.

Have confidence in what you're doing.

If you're not comfortable and confident, you probably better do something else, because honesty and truthfulness is job one.

Higdon s career took him head to head with the biggest names on Madison Avenue.

But from Wichita, he learned something important.

You don't need a New York address to compete at a world class level.

I want to thank you all for your hospitality.

You couldn't have been better that throughout this whole process.

Thanks so much.

This is Chris Rea from Positively Kansas.

Al Higdon proves world class ideas don't have to come from Madison Avenue.

They can come from right here in the heartland.

She spent nearly a century proving that grace isn't just a movement on stage.

It's a way of life driven by unwavering faith.

At 92 years old, Ruth White isn't just teaching ballet.

She's sharing a lifetime of wisdom and poise with the next generation.

Anthony Powell has her story.

Who says Mondays are nothing to look forward to?

On the Monday, we visited Ruth White's East Wichita Ballet studio.

Joy filled the room as 92 year old Ruth moved around like someone decades younger, leading her students in step.

She was friends with the ladies she teaches before they started coming to class.

Now they've become even closer, not only because of ballet, but also from a shared, deeply held religious faith.

God has really blessed me with wonderful friends here and neighbors and, he's just giving me the opportunity to, bless them back.

She's so inspirational.

And you know, I have a, you know, everything I do, I try and glorify God in it, and I can tell that emanated from her.

And so that was the first attraction.

We bless you, father.

We thank you, Lord, for all you've done for us.

A portion of the class is spent praying together.

Symbols of faith can be found throughout Ruth's studio.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Back on the floor.

It's truly incredible to watch Ruth in action.

Her flexibility is jaw dropping.

She's been a dancer since age six, at one time performing with the Rochester, Minnesota Ballet Company.

No matter how many thousands of performances and workouts she's done, each leaves her feeling wonderful.

It is.

It's so stimulating and, there's so much joy connected with that.

She just beats us all in strength and grace, and she can do things that I hope I can do someday.

Kathy tells us she is grateful to have found ballet in her 60s.

She'd always worked out, but never felt nearly as fulfilled as she does with ballet.

The physical and mental benefits have been life changing.

You know, learning new moves and ballet moves.

I was talking to my primary care physician about it and she said, oh my goodness, ballet is such a good art form for mental cognition, for dementia, and even Alzheimer's.

But it's not just adults, Ruth is taught.

She started out with kids when she was just 16, in her hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Some parents were so impressed with Ruth's talent they asked her to teach their children.

It's something she's continued throughout the decades.

I love the children.

All these years, they've kept me very young, associating with them several times a year.

Ruth takes her young students to perform in nursing homes like this 2026 performance of rejoice in the Lord.

For residents of Wichita's Reach and park rehabilitation and health care.

Ruth is always so moved.

Seeing the kids tell the elderly how special they are.

She recorded some thoughts from the region Park performance.

These lovely grandmas and grandpas center their room with somber expressions, and they leave with smiles and twinkles in their eyes.

That is our objective to touch their lives with the love of Jesus.

Meanwhile, back at Ruth's home, she showed us that painting is another of her talents.

This work hangs in her bedroom and brings her peace.

First thing in the day.

But nothing brings her peace like her faith.

I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life 47 years ago, and he has carried me through a lot of difficult times.

And so I'm happier now in this stage of my life at 92 than I've ever been before.

I feel his presence constantly, and Ruth spreads that joy to her adult and child students, bringing a happiness to their lives they hadn't experienced before.

It's such a sense of real community and just sharing life.

And like she always says, we are really, truly better together.

Oh, for Positively Kansas.

I'm Anthony Powell.

Here's one more remarkable fact about Ruth.

At 92 years old.

She still boasts perfect 2020 vision.

Lucky her.

Well, there's nothing quite like the refreshing air of the heartland.

Or reinvigorate the spirit.

Kirwin Wildlife Refuge stands as a remote sanctuary that truly shines during the winter months.

Mike Blair pays a visit in this week's Kansas Wild Edge.

There's a wildlife hideaway in northwestern Kansas that you probably haven't seen.

It's Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge, and it's one of those places you never end up unless you deliberately go there.

This area, nearly 11,000 acres, is one of Kansas premier wildlife viewing sites.

And in recent years, it's sometimes been winter, home to nearly a million waterfowl.

Located in Phillips County, has comfortable amenities and Phillips just 15 miles away, Kirwin provides an outdoors getaway where you'll see virtually no one else just the solitude of the prairie and its wild inhabitants.

Big and small game for bears and predators, non-game wildlife and the spectrum of bird species graced this beautiful area.

Take a look at just a few of the scenes I filmed there.

In just over one day of cruising and watching the reservoir and its surrounding grasslands.

I'm Mike Blair for Positively Kansas.

Nature has its own rhythm.

Just like a good song.

Chris Frank brings us the story of a player piano repairman who keeps the music playing.

Yeah.

You want to hear it?

Mike Hand is an expert at getting music out of pianos.

I'm a piano artist.

Just don't ask him to play the piano.

But I don't know how to play the piano.

Like, so many of us have never progressed beyond playing chopsticks.

I don't understand people that are wired to play pianos.

I just I don't understand that.

The ivories.

What he is wired at is using his hands to bring new life to old pianos.

So skilled musicians can make music with them.

It was built back during the Civil War times, the Civil War years, 1861 to 1865, which makes this piano about 160 years old.

That is real ivory covering the keys.

It's one of the older ones that I've worked on.

And they always have beautiful, rosewood cases, and they're fun to work on.

And and, it's a joy when you can restore them and get them playing again.

There's one right here in the middle that's worn completely down to the wood, and the ivory is all worn away right on the front.

So you can tell it's had lots of years.

The thing that makes this one difficult is that there's no parts available at all.

For now, Hanshin has to get creative and make those missing parts.

If replacement parts can't be found in a small Newton shop, hatchet works on both conventional pianos and player pianos.

My main thing is player pianos.

But you don't have a good player piano if you don't have a good piano.

So I naturally get in the piano work.

Very few do what he does, and it sucks on a little nail.

There probably isn't, but 3 or 4 people in the United States that do what I do that handful remaining compares to what once numbered, certainly in the hundreds and possibly the thousands in the U.S.

so one time, I think there were 12 piano dealers in Wichita.

And I'm sure at least that many tuners a century ago, player pianos were quite the rage in American homes.

The self playing piano even outsold conventional pianos during the 1920s.

These pianos allowed people to enjoy music without even knowing how to play.

They work on a pneumatic system.

Internal bellows driven by foot pedals like Hansen is pedaling build up air pressure to power the mechanisms.

Air blows through the punch holes, engaging the pianos action to make the tones.

It's a simple way of explaining how they work.

Some players use electric motors to power the bellows.

This particular piano, was made for the silent movie theaters.

Before, before they had sound, they would play the music to go along with the movie.

Hatchett says this green colored player is rare with only two remaining.

It's a combination piano and organ.

It was used in silent film theaters.

Its role could play forward and in reverse, so the music didn't stop.

So the roll is about twice as big as a normal piano roll.

These player pianos can be played manually or from the roll.

You see, movie houses back then didn't always have a skilled player to tickle the ivories and add a musical dramatic effect.

While the film plays, 1925 was the peak of them.

Then the radio came along.

Other other music machines, record players, movie theaters.

But the player piano never really went away.

Just far fewer were made.

A lot of these got put in, into use in mortuaries after the talkie movies came out, and they would use just the organ part of it for the most part.

Hopefully with me, it is now much more common to find electronic player piano systems moving the keys and making the music, rather than the very old pneumatic mechanical systems.

Reports say nearly 1 in 4 new grand pianos is sold, with an electronic player piano system installed instead of rolls with punched holes.

Owners like my son Matthew Fruits, shown here, operate the piano with an app on a smartphone.

The electronics that operate the system are mounted on the underside belly of the piano.

Extra speakers can be connected to further amplify the sound.

As you can see, this piano has normal piano action with the hammers striking the keys so a musician can play this grand when it's not being controlled by the electronic application.

The sound.

And yes, Hansen also surfaces these.

Hand.

It also used to build Calliope, another type of pneumatic music maker.

One particular calliope shown here on a parade float called the Dolly trolley, had hatchet going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans annually.

I'm just there to make sure that that calliope that they bought for me, plays during their parade.

Their parades are 4 to 5 hours long down there, and that's serious business.

So they they want the music to play.

During that whole parade, he has 15 fully paid Mardi Gras trips.

He's built Calliope for customers in Florida, New York, Texas, and Oklahoma.

And he has customers from those states and more for his piano rebuilds.

When you clean it up, you can see how beautiful the wood is.

I can do about anything you want to do to a piano.

As far as rebuilding, some pianos are kept around his shop simply to cannibalize parts from parts are getting harder to obtain.

So in a lot of cases, we just have to make our own.

It's ready to go home.

Customers from across the country continue to lean on Hansen's skills of keeping these pianos and playing condition so the music doesn't fade away.

Reporting for Newton and that.

Cool.

This is Chris Frank for Positively Kansas.

Well, that's a wrap for this week.

With federal funding eliminated, the future of Positively Kansas is now in your hands.

You can help by going get CPT for and making a $100 donation directly to this program to help keep us on the air as a thank you will proudly feature your name as a supporter at the beginning and end of future programs.

I host the show for free because our local stories like these deserve to be told.

Thanks for watching!

I'm Ciara Scott, see you next time.