Person:Butch Haines (1)

3 Feb. 1980 newspaper clipping from a Lyons, Kansas newspaper, transcribed by Rebekah Carlisle on 3 July 2011: "Marion Man Dies When He Plays Cowboy," By The Associated Press.

    At 32, Walter V. Haines Jr. was vice president of a family-owned manufacturing plant in Marion, Ohio, where he had worked his way up to supervisor of 100 production employees.  
    But for Haines, the executive life was lacking something, and two weeks ago he came to Lyons, in the middle of Kansas, to find it.
    "HE ALWAYS wanted to be a cowboy," said his aunt, Jean Packer, who with her husband has lived in Lyons about two years.  On Jan. 17, Haines signed on as a cattle hand on the farm of Bruce Walton, southeast of Lyons.
    "He was the happiest man.  This is what he always had wanted to do," Mrs. Packer said.
    But the dream of a new life for himself, his wife and two daughters ended tragically Friday when Haines was crushed between a cattle feed truck and a livestock loading chute.  The truck apparently rolled from an incline as he was filling a tub with feed, authorities said.
    MRS. PACKER said Haines' wife had been expected to fly to Kansas Saturday for a week's visit and to discuss whether to move permanently to Lyons.
    "As far as I know from all the talk, they were going to move out here," said Mrs. Packer, who said Haines hoped to work for a while as a ranchhand, then go into the cattle business on his own.

About 1948

Oct. 1972, Harley & Martha's 50th