BonnerSprings.com

Louisa Fletcher

John Harrington

Bonner Springs High School once again will be inducting two Bonner Springs community members into its Hall of Fame.

On Feb. 3, John Harrington and Louisa Fletcher will join nine other Bonner Springs High School alumni who have been given the same honor.

“It’s a very prestigious award,” said BSHS principal Jerry Abbott. “We want to remember those people who have gone before us.”

The Hall of Fame, which was started in 2006 with five inductees, is showcased in the Bonner Springs YMCA. Abbott said for a person to be chosen for the award, they must meet three criteria: They must be a BSHS alumnus, they must have made a significant contribution to their profession or community and they must have been a student in good standing.

John Harrington was a 1957 graduate of the high school. His family has owned Alden-Harrington Funeral Home for 100 years.

In addition to being involved in the family business since a young age, he has been involved in several community service organizations. He was a member of the JayCees in the 60s, is a past board member of the Chamber of Commerce and is still an active member of the Bonner Springs Lions Club.

One interesting part of Harrington’s life came in the 70s when Kansas established an eye bank, and he became one of the first licensed embalmers to harvest corneal material. He was a certified eye enucleator, which is a volunteer licensed to remove eyes for corneal transplant. He is also a member of the Eye Enucleator Association.

Harrington was the third generation to run the family business that provided the ambulance service for Bonner Springs until June 1974, and he is now joined by the fourth generation, his sons Jeff and Brad Harrington.

The second 2009 inductee is Louisa Fletcher, a 1937 graduate of BSHS. Fletcher was an integral part of the founding of the Bonner Springs NAACP and went on to be involved on the state and national level. She was elected the first woman president of the state NAACP National Board of Directors in 1974 and also served as one of six national vice presidents.

In 1956, Fletcher participated in a lawsuit to integrate the elementary schools in Bonner Springs. The lawsuit was won and the elementary schools became integrated in 1957.

In 1977, Gov. Robert Bennett appointed her to the Kansas Public Employees Relation Board, where she accompanied a 23-person Labor Management People-to-People delegation to China, the Soviet Union and Finland.

She was recently honored when the former Lincoln School and head start building was named the Louisa Fletcher Learning Center.

The 2008 inductees were Pat Sheley and Melissa Chandley.

Sheley was a 1957 BSHS graduate and a teacher for 38 years, which included 31 years in Bonner Springs. She was a charter member of the Bonner Springs Historic and Preservation Society and helped plan the first American Cancer Walk for Life.

Chandley was a 2000 BSHS graduate who died on June 15, 2007, at the age of 25. She graduated from BSHS as valedictorian and attended Kansas University, where she graduated with a degree in elementary education. She became a third-grade teacher at Prairie Ridge Elementary in De Soto.

Comments