Coach Booth

Dick Booth came from a family of nine boys and three sisters and passed on his 87th birthday. His eight brothers were deceased so were most of the people he had taught with for 40 years.

Who wasn't missing were the people he touched during that time. They came from far and wide to pay their respects. Stories abounded about the man who coached and taught for 40 years and had recorded the third most number of football wins in Kansas history, but that wasn't why they came.

It was respect for a man who for 30 years was a teacher at Blue Mound High School and when that school closed, he went to Jayhawk Linn in Mound City and taught for another 10 years. He was a veteran of the Marines and World War II where he served in the Pacific theater.

What he left behind was a lasting legacy. The fact that he touched so many lives in such a positive manner was the reason so many of his students followed his path.

The Hospice nurse who knew him only a few short months commented, "I never met a man who treated me with so much respect." She didn't know it, but that's the way he treated all of us who were fortunate enough to spend time in a classroom or on the athletic field with Coach Booth.