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www.theactiveage.com July 2026 Kansas’ Largest Newspaper Printed at Valley Center, KS
Vol 47 No. 8
Happy 250th Anniversary America! Inside: July 4th activities
They gave all for freedom
Family fled tyranny for life in America Editor’s note: This year, as the United States of America celebrates 250 years of liberty, we are honored to share excerpts from a new book: “They Gave All For Freedom.” The book tells of a Czechoslovakian family who immigrated to the United
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Susan Armstrong, left, and Vlasta Honolka tell the story of Honolka’s family in “They Gave All For Freedom.”
States 75 years ago after living under the Nazi regime, Communist Russia’s occupation, in prisons and in displacedpersons camps. By Susan Armstrong and Vlasta Honolka In the spring of 1942, Czechoslovakian resistance fighters killed Reinhard Heydrich, the head of Hitler’s Security Service who was known as “The Butcher of Prague.” Hitler retaliated by ordering the annihilation of all occupants of the Czech village of Lidice. Nazis filmed the carnage and forced people to watch it. Later that summer, on July 7th, 1942, Jarmila Honolka gave birth to her second daughter, Vlasta. As a mother of three children under the age of five, Jarmila worried that Hitler’s soldiers would come knocking on their door next. She gathered her children near and refused
Vlasta Honolka, far right, and her family prepare to board the USS General Harry Taylor at Port Bremerhaven, Germany, for their to trip to a new home in the United States. German troops with barking dogs to let them out of her sight. Lidice was conducted random searches of Nova only 90 miles from Nova Paka, where Paka neighborhoods at all hours of the the Honolkas made their home at the day and night. One night, just after time. If this could happen to an entire town, what might the Germans do to See Freedom, page 6 her own children?
Nurses Association connected to community By Sherry Graham Howerton Midge Dempsey grew up in Wichita’s 67214 area code, in the north-central part of the city. She has fond memories of playing outdoors with her six siblings on warm summer days, visiting family and enjoying the camaraderie of many friends. Now, more than six decades later, she’s giving back to those same neighbors through her work with the Wichita Black Nurses Association. Dempsey is a registered nurse who works for Midwest Transplant Network and is a 15-year-member of WBNA. Through WBNA, she’s volunteering to help carry out a $604,000 grant that the group was awarded to provide free medical testing for residents of the 67214 and 67219 area codes who may have been exposed to groundwater contamination. The contamination is believed to
have happened sometime before 1994 in the Union Pacific railroad yard near 29th and Grove, probably when a solvent containing trichloroethylene (TCE) was used for metal degreasing. It entered the groundwater and spread south into a plum about 2.9 miles long, underlying an area bounded by 29th in the north, Murdock in the south, Grove in the east and I-135 in the west. A study by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment identified nearly 2,800 homes, schools, churches and daycares in the area. Dempsey knows the neighborhood well. It’s where she lived and raised her own family and still owns property. Unbeknownst to them, they lived, worked and played in areas possibly
See Nurses, page 7
Questions about services?
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging/Sedgwick County Department on Aging: 316-660-7298 or 1-800-367-7298
Peggy Jones-Foxx is president of the Wichita Black Nurses Association, which is conducting free health tests for people who may have been exposed to contaminated groundwater.
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800-279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655