All Roads Lead Home by Kim McCully-Mobley

Send us Fan Mail Has it really been 60 years? Time flies when you are having fun; that's for sure. Aurora Houn' Dawgs were ranked first in state in 1965. Those players will be having a reunion of sorts next month. They were surprised recently to discover they are joining the ranks of the Houn' Dawg Hall of Fame as the 2025 Class. 60 years in the making, players will walk on to Kelle...

Send us Fan Mail I grew up knowing the Pate name. Juvenile Shoe Factory is what brought my mom to Aurora from northwest Arkansas after World War II. The Pate girls were pretty, fun and out-going. Linda was in my class at school. Later in life, Gale Pate would help start the Senior Advisory Group for the local Chamber of Commerce. I thought the SAG acronym was hilarious. The glaring stares from him...

Send us Fan Mail All Roads Lead Home Mural Number 5 is finished. America's Muralist Raine Clotfelter has worked his magic once again. I have enjoyed having his presence in the old armory, aka Aurora Houn' Dawg Alumni & Outreach Center during the month of July. His talent and creativity is rock solid. His determination, faith and ability to always find the good in any situation is lit...

Send us Fan Mail I have been on a new journey this summer. I have spent a few hours each week diving into all things related to the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Well-known Aurora Graduate Brian Fogle and former CFO president once told me that building a legacy isn't always about money. He said it's about donating your time, your talents, your resources and your passions-- while br...

Send us Fan Mail This life. It is full of joys, highs, lows, surprises and quite often--some hard knocks. One of my greatest joys is the friendships I have made along the way of my lengthy journey. God always seems to put people in my path just when I need them most. Wayne Morgan was one of my joys and surprises. We had been through some tough times together. One of my hard knocks came this year--...

Send us Fan Mail I took some time out last week for a working retreat of sorts with my ride or die travel buddy, Ravae Lewis. We have been through a lot together and we have put the miles in, too. (That's not to say we are high mileage. That's not the case, at all.) We have added up mileage in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Marylan...

Send us Fan Mail This week's podcast talks about a few Presidential things. We especially focus on a young George Washington--who painstakingly copied down his rules of civility to live by when he was a young man. He would later become a Revolutionary War Hero and ultimately--our nation's First President. Let's take a look at those rules and a few pieces of Presidential trivia this...

Send us Fan Mail I attended a MAACE (Missouri Association for Adult Continuing and Community Education) Conference earlier this month at Lake of the Ozarks. Crowder College sent a team of us who with in the Adult Education Literacy program. The sessions were perfect. The speakers were rock solid. The handouts were full of great information and up to date resources. We were treated like celebrities...

Send us Fan Mail Yes. Since 2021--I have been working hard on the nicer, kinder, gentler version of Jennifer Kim Estes McCully-Mobley. (My son once told me my name was not going to fit on a tombstone!) With Father's Day occurring just last weekend, I had my Dad---Thomas Stanford (Buck) Estes on my mind. Most people called him Stan. If they had known him a long time, they called him Buck. He w...

Send us Fan Mail It was a chaotic Sunday morning at Aurora Community Hospital on June 11th, 1961. My mom had a belly-ache and came home with me. My brother, Randy, said things would never be the same. My journey has been a fun one, full of skinned knees, chasing boys on the playground and looking for the prize in a Cracker Jack box. Join me in a trip down memory lane as I celebrate yet another tri...

Send us Fan Mail Six local educators have received $150 mini-grants for the coming school year. Their applications were screened and scored by the members of the Aurora High School Leadership classes (also known as A-Tech I and A-Tech II). The grants are awarded from Youth Empowerment Project, an arm of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. YEP believes in promoting history, literacy, climate, c...

Send us Fan Mail Aurora High School Graduate Hannah (Isaacson) Rader earned the All Roads Lead Home Award at this year's Chamber Banquet in behalf of her family and crew at The Garden Exchange.  They are always busy making the Summit City look and feel like a Hallmark movie! They have brought color, fun, celebrations and spirit to an all new level in downtown Aurora in the wake of a pandemic...

Send us Fan Mail A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Those are words we should all learn to live by. Several community members took the time to honor Chuck Burbridge last week as our most recent Loyd R. Ellis honoree. The award is given each year by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce to someone who has given much to the community. The second highest award is presented in...

Send us Fan Mail Aurora Administrator Ed Cook has been gone for over 35 years. His legacy lives on today with scholarships, projects and activities designed to encourage leadership, ethics and sense of place in the rural Ozarks--a place he loved. Ed Cook was a teacher, mentor, coach and friend. He was resilient. He loved Aurora. He loved being a Houn' Dawg. It was an honor to present a schola...

Send us Fan Mail With last week's storms and tornado outbreaks, my husband made a bad joke about pulling over to the side of the road and seeing the old lady go by on a bicycle. It took me a minute--while he stifled a nervous chuckle. I told him I got the reference, but it might be too soon to be cracking any jokes. Humor is a coping skill at our house, though; we laugh about most everything-...

Send us Fan Mail As April rolls out with a few disruptions, I have been contemplating events from April's past. Join me in some reflections on old friends like Frank Peterson, motherhood and moving forward.

Send us Fan Mail My mom and dad would have celebrated their 79th anniversary on April 15th, tax day, if they were still here. I'm sure they are celebrating in Heaven. The day had me contemplating their legacies, their love story and the lives of those they impacted in both Arkansas and Missouri (and beyond) during the course of their lives. Please join me in a trip down memory lane to pay tri...

Send us Fan Mail As we continue to celebrate our Easter season, we are reminded of the concepts of sacrifice, redemption and unconditional love. We chose to honor two local heroes with the planting of some trees at the Aurora Houn' Dawg Alumni & Outreach Center earlier this month. Along with some special guests, we planted a dogwood tree and a redbud tree on the facility's southeast...

Send us Fan Mail The 2025 Rotary Speech Contest is over, but we are still talking about those speeches at Aurora High School. Senior Kylee Cole placed first this year, while Jaelyn Ernest was second. Malaya Todd was third and Seth Shoemaker placed fourth. These kids knocked it out of the park by being brave enough to tell Aurora's leaders about the things that matter most to them as they get...

Send us Fan Mail Ben Tracy, a national spokesman about online safety, will be here in Aurora on Wednesday, April 9th. Here's hoping we give him a good, old-fashioned Houn' Dawg welcome as he comes to town to teach us about online predators and things we can do to protect our children. I hope to see you at Aurora High School Wednesday evening, April 9th. Doors open at 5:15 p.m. The progra...

Send us Fan Mail Officially, it all started in March of 1965. The Supremes were telling us to "Stop--In The Name of Love." My sister and her husband are celebrating 60 years of marriage this week. Join me in wishing them more years of romance and adventure. They are loved beyond measure.

Send us Fan Mail Cemeteries. I like them. In fact, some of my favorite people are there. I like finding new ones, wandering around looking at tombstones and going down the rabbit of hole of finding out the stories that are hidden there---just waiting to be shared with others. It's been a fun opportunity to get to work on a script for walking tour of a cemetery in Northwest Arkansas. I'll...

Send us Fan Mail I focus a little bit on the pending time change this weekend as we return to Daylight Savings Time...a time when I struggle to get my internal clock back in gear. Time is the stuff of great music, solid poetry and fun adages. But--we only have so much of it before it runs out. Here's to more daylight, later sunsets and getting the most out of life. Enjoy your time!

Send us Fan Mail Aurora was one of several communities honored in February at the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City. Missouri Humanities was recognizing the Small Town Showcase Communities, like Aurora. Due to a number of things involving time/travel/multitasking and obligations, none of us who had worked with them were going to be able to go. Marla Dunning Woolstenhulme came to the rescue. Not on...

Send us Fan Mail This weeks snowstorm derailed a few of us from our regular routines. I don't really want to talk about it. But I was stuck three times on Wednesday and two of those were in my own driveway! Thank goodness, I have folks willing to rescue me when I'm in trouble. Whatever the case, I hope you are warm, safe, healthy and well-rested.