KANSAS COLLECTION ARTICLES
Progress in Kansas


Unusual Kansas Women


Physican     A comely young woman treats the aches and pains and physical ailments of Bushong, Kans., and surrounding countryside. She is Dr. Pauline V. Stocks who a year ago took up the medical practice of her father, Dr. C. L. Stocks, following his death. She had, for several months previous, assisted him in his work. Dr. Pauline, as she is known in the community, was born and raised in Bushong. She graduated from the medical school of the University of Kansas in 1930. Followed a year of interne work in St. Mary's Hospital, Philadelphia, and another year in an Alderson, W. Vt., institution. Then she came home to take up practice with her father. "I hope I may be as useful as he was," is her simple declaration of purpose.

Full Life     AT 91, Mrs. Lucy Wheeler, Larned, teaches a Sunday School class, does all her own housework, her own sewing and makes beautiful hand embroidery. She has had a full life. She moved to Pawnee county in 1884 with her husband, Dr. B. E. Wheeler. When he died in 1900 he had been an invalid for a number of years previous and during this time much of his practice had fallen upon his wife's shoulders, altho she had never studied medicine. He told her what to do and she did it, fortified by an intensive and extensive reading of medical books and journals. When he died Mrs. Wheeler took up his practice and continued it for several years until new medical regulations forced her retirement. She takes pride in the fact that she lost but one patient in all those years and this case, she says, was hopeless when she was called.

Musician     MORE than 100 musical compositions comprise the reportoire of Helen May Martin, Merriam, Kans., deaf-blind girl, whose artistry at the piano and harp has received wide acclaim. She has memorized such selections as MacDowell's "To A Wild Rose", Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonato", Chopin's "Preleude in C Minor" and many other difficult numbers. When at the piano one foot rests on the middle pedal, enabling her to feel and translate the music thru vibrations as she produces it.

Police Captain     PROBABLY the only woman police captain in the United States is Pearl L'Heureux, important cog in the machinery of the Wichita Police Department. She was raised in Nickerson, Kans., for a career as a school teacher altho her secret dream was to be a lawyer or detective. But a school teacher she became after acquiring bachelor and master degrees at the University of Kansas, Chicago University and University of Colorado. Successively she has taught in Newton High School, Reno county high school at Nickerson, was principal at Macksville and head of the dramatic and French departments at Pittsburg. Then, she abruptly quit school work to organize amateur theatricals, a pursuit she followed for eight years. Moving to Wichita in 1931 with her mother, Mrs. Emma L'Heureux, a Kansas pioneer, she was appointed juvenile supervisor of the Wichita police department by Chief O. W. Wilson. Now it is Captain L'Heureux and she has charge of the newly organized police crime prevention bureau in Wichita.
     Says the captain: "It's work I've always unconsciously wanted to do, and right now there is only one drawback. I'm wearing too much rouge and I'll tell you why. I powder my nose and put on a little rouge and then the telephone rings. After I talk I can't remember if I used rouge and put on some more. After about two telephone calls, forgetting each time if I put on rouge, I start out on the street looking like a Comanche Indian going to a war dance."
     But don't ever call her a "police woman" or she'll really stage a Comanche war dance for you. It's one title she abhors and she isn't slow to express her feelings on the subject.



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