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Today's Featured Biography

 
Karen Kinney Norton

We have lived in Wichita, Kansas since graduating from Kansas State University. My husband, Don Norton, now retired, was a partner in an engineering firm, and I spent 26 years as the Head of School of a private school in Wichita. I was lucky to help start the school and we grew from 8 students to 770 . . . it was quite an adventure. Interestingly, nieces and nephews of several HHS grads went to the school, including Bob Perovich's nephew and Cori Simms Ewing's two nephews and one niece. Who would have ever thought?

Now I am loving life, and I have learned how to self-publish. In 2009, I wrote a history of Holy Ghost Canyon where our family has owned a cabin since 1960. My motivation was to preserve the stories, as I was seeing many of those who knew the history passing away before my eyes. Now, those stories are in writing.

In May, 2010, I completed a Wildflower Guide for the flowers of Northern New Mexico. All of the pictures were taken in the Pecos area, and it is a pocket-sized guide arranged by color. I am hoping it proves helpful to hikers in Northern New Mexico . . . You can find it on my website at www.wildflowersofnm.com.

In 2011, I published two books. One, a history of the first 26 years of The Independent School, is called A School Like No Other. It was a three or four year project that finally reached fruition! The other is a children's book called PattySue Finds a Home. It is a mostly true story about a little dog and how she was adopted from the Humane Society. My hope is that it will earn money for our local Humane Society as well as others around the nation. Then in 2014, PattySue's owner and I wrote another PattySue book called PattySue Finds a Friend. All three can be found at www.kknpub.com.

Our daughter graduated from Princeton in 2009, received her PhD from the University of Texas, was married in July 2020, and is now a visiting professor at Colorado College. Our son was married June, 2009, at the cabin in the Pecos, and after receiving his MBA from UCLA is back in Kansas City working for Deloitte Consulting. He is discovering the joys of family life, as he and his wife have two young children - Caleb, age 5 and Tessa, one and a half.

Life has treated us well, and we are enjoying traveling, spending time at our cabin in the Pecos, and playing with our pups. In 2019 we took a ten-week trip to Alaska, and we have taken several other RV trips. I am looking forward to connecting with HHS grads at our 50th!

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