University of Missouri at Kansas City - Kangaroo Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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A giant revolving mirror sprinkled flashes of light down on the crowded dancers at the Bounder Burly-Q Ball, the first big dance of the year. Preceded by an extensive advertising cam- paign, the dance attracted a crowd estimated at close to 2,000. The Five Scamps held the band stand for the first part of the eve- ning followed by Jim Lenge and his Look Award aggregation. Skits were presented intermit- tently by the Bounder Fraternity with satires on campus life, army life and just plain life. The fashion order of the eve- ning included everything from casual school clothes to high tea at the Waldorf outfits. Decora- tions were simple consisting of a mesh of soda straws for a door- way and clowns heads as back- ground for the bandstand. l l l l AT THE BOUNDER BURLY-Q-BAL 0 'Y Z 2 5 Page 'l4 The Kangaroo

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l l l LIBER L ARTS FRESHMEN Row I Q Linda Mayer Carl Mayhugh Marlene Nordbrock George Parkhurst Thomas L. Parry Joe Powell Row 2 Karleen Ready Kenneth Rock Beverly Saill Bernard Schrang Miriam Shypper J. A. Simms Row 3 Eldon Smith Marion Smith Joan Stegman Leo l. Swinney Betty Thurman Margaret Torence ' Row 4 Richard Trolley Gene Walker john Walton Maly Alice Ward Richard Watson james Watts Row 5 Richard Whaley Grace McLeod Dorothy McMahon Brock McPherson John Tirley V Mary McWhorter Row 6 Howard Morton Paul Larson Bill Diamond LIBERAL ARTS FRESHMEH3

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'O Q MINSTREL NILES AND THE BALLAD That music came from the people and must go back to the people is the philosophy of John Jacob Niles, ballad-singer, who has been a visit- ing professor at KCU this semester. Mr. Niles collects only American folk songs and sings them to the accompaniment of a dulcimer. Besides being a musician of note, he is a dancer, country gentleman, painter, and father. Born on a farm in Kentucky in l89Z, Mr. Niles did not get to the city until he was twenty, and he still prefers the simple country life. He owns 32 acres of rolling blue grass near Boone's Creek, and his fa r m house has been in a stage of near- completion for several years. The front door was carved by Niles with a Sir Walter Scott quotation on it. Just recently he added such mod- ern conveniences as an electric dish- washe r a n d a deep freeze. Mrs. Niles is a farming expert, and with her distinguished husband, keeps horses on the farm. Included are the hunters and Kentucky walking horses. ln typical southern fashion, Mr. Niles defines an educated gentleman as one who is able to do the following things: read and write, add and subtract, make a public speech, raise a crop, sing and dance, shoot and hit, and kiss' a lady's hand. Niles also paints, his favorite subjects being landscapes, still life, and locomotives against the dramatic backdrops of a railroad yard. l-le is at present painting a huge steel plant to a 24 x 36 inch scale. 1 The folk songs in the extensive Niles repertoire hove been gathered from a wide area and over a long period of time. Many of them have been handed down from generations of Nileses be- The Kangaroo fore the present bolladeer, who has learned them ond odded to the collection himself. l-le hos trciveled all over the mountainous and rural areas of the United States listening to songs of love and romonce told in the simple language of simple people. Typical of the tastes of the all -American, country-loving Nileses is their pcission for hunt- ing ond the chose. The whole family enjoys rid- ing to the hounds, and Mrs. Niles is somewhat of an expert huntress. While at the University of Kansas City, Niles posed for on oil portrait by Dr. l-lenry Scott of the University Art De- partment. He at- tended a number of art closses, sit- ting for the stu- dents and enter- taining them with Barbary Allen ond The Block Gypsy. As artistic as her husband, Mrs. Niles writes Ken- tucky Profiles for the Courier Jour- nol every other week. These sketches are of writers, poets, musicians, and politicians, as well os tenant farmers and her own neighbors. There are two young sons in the family: Thomas Michael Toliver, age 9, and John Ed- ward, age 3V2. Thomas Michael already sings the folk song and carol and may be the eighth generation folk singer in his family. Young John Edward calls himself Yonny, in true Swedish fashion. Of course, the Nileses hoven't a drop of Swedish bloodl World War l ribbons in his lapel show that Niles is o mon of mony experiences and en- counters. l-lis willingness to devote a lifetime to the Anglo-American folk ballcid and carol is in part based on a family tradition. lt is olso part of his hope thot the ageless material will eventually regain high position ond be the bosis for ci por- tion of our ultimate national culture. Page 15