Hail and farewell, Kaye VanFleet

I've been kind of blue the last couple of days, after notices began to appear regarding the death of Kaye VanFleet, who died at age 71 on Wednesday at Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines. Kaye lived with respiratory and heart-related health issues, but had posted an upbeat note from the hospital earlier in the week --- she was doing well and planned to return home soon. Not to be, however.

I didn't exactly know Kaye, although we certainly greeted each other when we met. We graduated from high school at about the same time, but she was a Chariton girl and I was a Russell alumnus.  That's less an issue now, when everyone attends the same high school. And she and her family lived at Russell long after I'd moved on.

But we did communicate fairly often in the background of the Facebook groups she founded and administered, "You Grew Up in Chariton, Iowa, If You Remember ..." with some 3,000 members, and a similar Russell group, with about 750 members. Most often, consulting about this or that history-related footnote.

Because of those groups, the Chariton group more active than Russell's, Kaye became about as close as Lucas County comes to a social media star --- and thousands knew her through them.

Kaye and her groups proved that the social media and those who use them constructively can be unifying, too. There was neither politics nor religion and only the occasional disagreement, usually good-humored. We have shared countless vintage photographs, many stories, the occasional editorial, information about upcoming events, death notices and obituaries when someone with ties to these small Iowa places walks on. Celebrated together, mourned sometimes, too.

I'm not quite sure what will become of the groups, but for now we can celebrate Kaye's life and mourn, too. Here's a link to her obituary at Pierschbacher Funeral Home.