By Ray Call
Executive Editor

------From what I have heard, William Allen White was generally loved by most of his fellow Emporians. His son was not.

------The second generation - William Lindsay ("W.L.") White and his wife Kathrine - agitated townspeople in several ways.

------He had detractors, but W.L. also had a lot of friends, allies and admirers in town:

-Just before he died, W.L. was honored by the city commission, which renamed the old Civic Auditorium in his honor.

-After his death, a memorial was set up in his name to plant more trees in Emporia. To date, more than 300 trees have been planted with money that friends gave to that fund.

-W.L. and Kathrine White also are remembered for their efforts (and their donation) to renovate the swimming pool at Peter Pan Park - the park given to Emporia by the first generation of Whites.

-At one point, W.L. was elected to the Legislature, an indication that the majority supported him.

-He also is remembered with a bronze bust and a sample of his writing in White Memorial Park at Sixth Avenue and Merchant Street.

------Even so, the second generation was not universally loved in Emporia.

------Why? For starters, they were different. At Harvard, W.L. had picked up an English accent. He wore a monocle. For a time he was listed among the best-dressed men in America - in the nation! He stood out like a purple pumpkin among farmers in bib overalls and bankers in off-the-rack suits.

------His wife (no one dared call her by her first name, Kathrine!) was a New York sophisticate. She had hobnobbed with a cosmopolitan crowd that included Bernard Baruch and Claire Booth Luce. The writer John O'Hara wrote that she was the most beautiful woman in New York. She had worked as a fact-checker for Time and was on the original staff of Life magazine. Mrs. White - had an aloof air and an imperious manner, forever challenging what she read and what she was told. She came from the mold of urbane women of that time, freed from the Hausfrau role by the Roaring '20s and World War II. She was not the type to stitch up a quilt or gossip around the bridge table.

------Only the people-closest to her knew that Mrs. White had a soft core of kindness and compassion hidden under that layer of chilly armor. Yet we got a glimpse of it now and then when members of the staff were sick or in trouble.

------Furthermore, the second generation Whites spent only about half their time in Emporia.

------For a long time, the W.L. Whites had a five-story brownstone row house on East 66th Street in New York.

------But it was more than their life style that agitated fellow Emporians. W.L. White was forever stirring up battles in Emporia. Why? He was not one to compromise.

------Right was right.

------Editors were inclined to stand on principle in those days.

Three examples make the point: 1. When the old courthouse needed repairs, civic leaders decided to build a new one. W.L. loved sound, old buildings and led a counterattack. He lost, and the county ended up with its present building.

2. In an effort to attract industry, the city started to offer tax breaks for companies that would relocate here. W.L. was infuriated that industries wanted to sponge off taxpayers. He waged a bitter fight against the tax breaks, but lost. This did not endear him to the Chamber of Commerce.

3. His resistance to urban renewal in Emporia probably made him more enemies than any other issue. He felt urban renewal was for poor people in urban neighborhoods and was not intended to provide new buildings for merchants in downtown Emporia. (He also was not pleased that the urban renewal people had branded The Gazette building as "blighted" and marked it for demolition.) The fight over urban renewal split Emporia and made enemies of former friends.

------Of course William Allen White also had a few enemies. A woman tried to horsewhip him once. The incident is described in his autobiography.

Second Choice

------The truth is, W.L. White sacrificed a bigger career when he came back from New York to run The Gazette. As a young man he wrote a successful book about the Kansas Bond Scandal - "What People Said." During World War II, he was a prominent war correspondent (he won the Overseas Press Club's top award one year). He wrote three books that were made in into major Hollywood movies, starring actors like John Wayne. He was a radio correspondent for CBS news, working with people like Edward R. Morrow and Eric Sevareid. He wrote many articles for Reader's Digest which carried him in its masthead as "roving editor."

------But William Allen White pressured his son to return to Emporia, and eventually he did. Ater W.A. died in 1944, W.L. took over, even to the point of finishing his father's autobiography.

------W.L. was a fiercely independent editor. Once, when asked to run a bit of fluff in the news columns about the biggest advertiser in town, he penciled in this earthy reply: "Sh-t no!" But he also was up to his ears in Kansas politics. When Bob Dole launched his first race for the U.S. Senate, W.L. put on a big dinner at the Broadview Hotel and brought in most of the Republican leaders from eastern Kansas to build support. The dinner was pivotal to Dole's success.

------W.L. served in the Legislature. He worked hard for the presidential nomination of Richard Nixon - an old friend.

------W.L. also worked hard to make The Gazette's pages more attractive. He did a lot of research before redesigning the paper. As a result, The Gazette won first place in a national design contest.

------Ater W.L.'s death in 1973, his wife took over. Her role in the community was much different than her husband's. W.L. was always in the public eye; Mrs. White kept a low profile. She preferred to work backstage.

------When city commissioner Reuben Hammer died in office, Mrs. White pressured the other commissioners to replace him with his widow - Jane Hammer. When the Congregational Church decided to put on an addition to the west Mrs. White got a look at the plans and felt that they did not fit the style of the original architect - J. Stanley Hagan a family friend - and worked to block construction (in vain). She cared about the beauty of Emporia and pushed projects that improved the town's appearance. Mrs. White was a prime mover in the tree-planting project and at one point paid to have 30 crabapple trees planted around Peter Pan Park Lake and then watered them herself. She was the force behind the restoration of The Gazette building, insisting on quality materials that ranged from Chase County limestone to imbuie hardwood from South America.

------In the newsroom, she was a stickler for detail. As a former fact-checker for Time, Mrs. White knew what to watch for and precious little slipped by her. She knew the value of local news even trivial items - and prodded editors to push reporters out into the streets where they to meet the people. She thought the county fair was a big event and insisted on full coverage. Despite whining by the news staff, she called for more Turkeybiter items each Thanksgiving.

------She reminded us not to forget the little towns nearby. Both the Whites loved to go to the church festivals in Olpe and the Penny Suppers in Neosho Rapids.

------Unlike W.L., she cared about the' business side of The Gazette and cracked down on spending that she thought was frivolous. Mrs. White was a wizard with figures, often catching accountants in errors, using only pencil and paper. She scorned adding machines, much to the dismay ofemployees in the business office.

------She died in 1988 and The Gazette passed to the third generation.