Mary Cathy Haney - Cathy Haney was the long-time curator of the Clay County Historical Society museum. Haney had seen the Morganville play with her parents the evening of the pageant. Over the years, she worked to collect information and artifacts related to both the pageant and the Morganville-Fèves partnership. In the early 1990s, working with the Kansas Humanities Council, she created a slide show about the pageant and the sister-city connection. All of these materials were invaluable to retelling the story accurately.
An Opportunity to be Better - Dedication
Dedication
Over the past few years, many people have been important in the effort to recreate the story of the Morganville-Fèves connection. The result would have been much poorer without their help. But the contribution by the following four stood out as being not just important, but crucial.
Gérard Torlotting - As a child, Gérard Torlotting was a recipient of Morganville's gifts and was present for both the first visit to Fèves by a Morganville native and the thank-you radio program Fèves created for Morganville in response to the aid. In 2013, he was responsible for generating interest in the reconnection among the citizens of Fèves and visited Morganville late that year. Torlotting organized the 2014 reception for Freeland and Vaughan in Fèves and the 2016 reception for the Morganville mayor in Fèves, and led 20 citizens of Fèves on a tour of Morganville in 2015.
Gould Colman - Velma Carson was the driving force behind both the pageant and the adoption of Fèves by Morganville. Carson's son-in-law Gould Colman's donation of materials from Carson's papers made it possible to generate an accurate accounting of what transpired. Colman hosted Freeland and Vaughan at his home in Ithaca, New York while they were researching Carson. He provided important first-hand details about her personality. His years as the curator for Cornell University probably contributed to his awareness of the value of the materials in his possession.
Francis Pracht - Putting together the pieces of this story took several years. Without someone who was always available to address the language barrier and provide insights into local history, gathering the information would have been far more difficult and the results would be less rich in detail. Beyond these tangible contributions, while visitors were in France, Pracht was always ready to be a fellow explorer. He and wife Christiane hosted suppers, pizza parties and late-evening gatherings of locals and visitors where the wine and champagne flowed freely.