Topeka

Memorial Building, also known as G.A.R. Memorial Hall, is a historic Grand Army of the Republic hall located at 120 West 10th Avenue, in Topeka,... Kansas, United States. On July 17, 1975, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The construction of Memorial Hall was financed by war claims paid to the State of Kansas by the federal government; one for $97,466.02 for equipping and putting soldiers in the field during the American Civil War, and the other for $425,065.43 for repelling invasions of Confederate soldiers and dealing with American Indian Wars. In 1909, a legislative money appropriation act was passed. A commission selected the site, acquired the land title, and supervised construction of Memorial Hall. On September 27, 1911, President William Howard Taft laid the ceremonial cornerstone. The building was completed in 1914 and dedicated before 25,000 people on May 27 of that same year. Since 2000, Memorial Hall has served as headquarters for the Kansas Attorney General and Kansas Secretary of State.
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Important extension to the Foundation featured in Architectural Record June 1983

Yager Stadium is a sport stadium in Topeka, Kansas. The facility is primarily used by Washburn University for college football and men's and women's... soccer teams. The stadium currently hosts the Kansas State High School Activities Association Class 6A state championship game. Previously called the Moore Bowl, the stadium was re-dedicated in 2002 and named for former Washburn player Gary Yager at the request of an anonymous donor.
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Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The... Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films. Bening is married to actor Warren Beatty, with whom she has four children. Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Shirley , was a church singer and soloist, and her father, Arnett Grant Bening, was a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative Republicans. Her sister and two brothers are Jane, Bradley and Byron. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California, and they moved there. She began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975, from Patrick Henry High School where she studied drama. She then spent a year working as a cook on a charter boat taking fishing parties out on the Pacific Ocean, and scuba diving for recreation.
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Roscoe Born is an American actor, born in Topeka, Kansas, who is best known for playing a variety of roles over the years in successful television... shows, perhaps most notably as arch-villain Mitch Laurence on One Life to Live. Born has appeared most often in daytime television, first appearing on Ryan's Hope as Joe Novak from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1988. He next portrayed villain Mitch Laurence on One Life to Live from 1985 to 1987 then again from 2002 to 2003, reprising the role once again starting in November 2009. Born appeared on Santa Barbara in his best known roles Robert Barr and his twin Quinn Armitage , a role that earned him an Emmy Award-nomination. He was also a regular on the primetime soap Paper Dolls as Mark Bailey in 1984. From April 2005 to January 2006 and again in March 2009, Born was on The Young and the Restless in the critically acclaimed role of the evil Tom Fisher. Many of his daytime roles showcased him in evil roles, with the exception of Nick Rivers on the 1995-1997 ABC series The City. Nick was a grizzled musician, allowing Born the opportunity to perform his own material.
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Travis Schuldt is an American actor. He originated the role of Ethan Winthrop on the NBC soap opera Passions from 1999 to 2002, and played a... recurring role of Keith Dudemeister in the sitcom Scrubs from 2006-2008. His theatre credits include Glengarry Glen Ross, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, and The Madwoman of Chaillot. Schuldt co-produced and starred in Sam Shepard's Icarus' Mother, James Kerwin's adaptations of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and Cardenio, and Amber Benson's Albert Hall. Schuldt's first major television role was on the NBC soap opera Passions, in which he originated the role of Ethan Crane, before leaving the series at the end of his three-year contract in 2002. He played the recurring role of Keith Dudemeister on Scrubs from 2006 to 2009. He also has made appearances on other television shows, such as 10-8: Officers on Duty, My Boys, True Jackson, VP, Sex and the City, and Veronica Mars. He appeared in The Hitcher as Harlan Bremmer, Jr. The same year, he appeared in the indie horror movie Hack!. In 2008, he appeared in the original pilot for Cavemen, as well as in an episode of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
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Kliph Scurlock is an American musician. He is the drummer for the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips. He was born Clifton Thomas Scurlock in... Topeka, Kansas, the son of Roger W. Scurlock and Linda Louise Rokey . His love of music was inspired by his mother. Linda Scurlock was in the first all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Estrella. She also gave him his first Beatles album, which was on 8-track tape. When he was eight years old, his mother died in the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in Kansas City, where she was performing with Mariachi Estrella. After her death, Scurlock went to live with his father. He began playing in the school band and marching band in 6th grade. When he was in 11th grade, he began spelling his name K-l-i-p-h to distinguish himself from another student named Cliff. The spelling variant stuck and family and friends began spelling it that way. At age 16, Scurlock bought a Ringo Starr series 1964 Ludwig Silver Sparkle Drum Set. Within two weeks, he was in his first band—a cover band whose first show was at a Topeka strip club named the Golden Horseshoe.
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Brandon Quintin Adams is an American actor known for his playing Jesse Hall in the first two Mighty Ducks movies and Kenny DeNunez in The Sandlot.... Brandon has also appeared in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker where he played Zeke in the "Smooth Criminal" segment and Young Michael in the "Badder" segment, a parody of Jackson's classic video for "Bad", and was the lead in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs. Adams also provided the voice of Raijin in the hit video game Kingdom Hearts II. Adams is also a rapper, performing under the name B. Lee.
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Kerry Allen Livgren is an American musician and songwriter, best known as one of the founding members and primary songwriters for the 1970s... progressive rock band, Kansas. Livgren was raised in Topeka, Kansas by his father, Allen Leroy, an industrial engineer, and his mother, Betty . He was drawn to music at a young age, his first musical interests developed with classical and jazz influences. His musical odyssey started with an electric guitar he built using a cheap Stella guitar, a Sears amplifier and a low-quality Astatic microphone. Along with learning guitar, Livgren also focused on learning to write songs due to his desire for more creative expression and originality. He attended Washburn University for some time. Livgren was a member of numerous bands in the late 1960s and early 1970s and quickly developed a reputation for complex compositions and poetic lyrics that explored spiritual themes. His investigations into various religions are reflected in the lyrics of his songs on Kansas' first six albums. He explored themes such as reincarnation, astral travel, apparitions, nihilism and human frailty, among others.
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Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The... Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films. Bening is married to actor Warren Beatty, with whom she has four children. Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Shirley , was a church singer and soloist, and her father, Arnett Grant Bening, was a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative Republicans. Her sister and two brothers are Jane, Bradley and Byron. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California, and they moved there. She began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975, from Patrick Henry High School where she studied drama. She then spent a year working as a cook on a charter boat taking fishing parties out on the Pacific Ocean, and scuba diving for recreation.
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Wes Jackson is the founder and current president of The Land Institute. He is also a member of the World Future Council. Jackson was born and raised... on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in biology from Kansas Wesleyan University, an MA in botany from the University of Kansas, and a PhD in genetics from North Carolina State University, Wes Jackson established and served as chair of one of the United States' first environmental studies programs at California State University, Sacramento. Jackson then chose to leave academia, returning to his native Kansas, where he founded a non-profit organization, The Land Institute, in 1976. He still heads The Land Institute, which currently describes its main goal as the development of "Natural Systems Agriculture"; it also publishes The Land Report, a newsletter about American sustainable agriculture and agrarianism. The Land Institute explored alternatives in appropriate technology, environmental ethics, and education, but a research program in sustainable agriculture eventually became central to its work. In 1978 Jackson proposed the development of a perennial polyculture.
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Katrina Leskanich is an American singer and musician who is best known for being the lead singer and namesake of the pop band Katrina and the Waves.... Katrina was born in Topeka, Kansas. Her father was a Colonel in the United States Air Force, and Katrina and her five siblings moved frequently as children. After she was born, they moved from Kansas to New Mexico, and then California, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Germany and the Netherlands before arriving in Norfolk, England, in 1976. Katrina has lived in the UK since 1976, moving to London in 1998 where she currently lives. In 1978, Leskanich and her then-boyfriend, Vince de la Cruz, formed the cover band "Mama's Cooking", based in Feltwell, England. In 1981, after some lineup changes, the band titled themselves "The Waves" and began playing original music. In 1982, after yet more lineup changes, the band changed their name once again to Katrina and the Waves, with Leskanich as the lead vocalist; by now they were based in the city of Cambridge. The band had several international hits, including, most notably, "Walking on Sunshine" in 1985.
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Roscoe Born is an American actor, born in Topeka, Kansas, who is best known for playing a variety of roles over the years in successful television... shows, perhaps most notably as arch-villain Mitch Laurence on One Life to Live. Born has appeared most often in daytime television, first appearing on Ryan's Hope as Joe Novak from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1988. He next portrayed villain Mitch Laurence on One Life to Live from 1985 to 1987 then again from 2002 to 2003, reprising the role once again starting in November 2009. Born appeared on Santa Barbara in his best known roles Robert Barr and his twin Quinn Armitage , a role that earned him an Emmy Award-nomination. He was also a regular on the primetime soap Paper Dolls as Mark Bailey in 1984. From April 2005 to January 2006 and again in March 2009, Born was on The Young and the Restless in the critically acclaimed role of the evil Tom Fisher. Many of his daytime roles showcased him in evil roles, with the exception of Nick Rivers on the 1995-1997 ABC series The City. Nick was a grizzled musician, allowing Born the opportunity to perform his own material.
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Sherie Rene Scott is an American actress, singer and writer. She is a co-founder of Grammy winning Sh-K-Boom Records and Ghostlight Records and has... performed in numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway musicals and plays, and appears on numerous solo and original cast recordings. Scott was born in Kentucky. When she turned 18, Scott moved from Kansas to New York City to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse. After graduation, she was cast in the 25th-anniversary production of Hair at the United Nations. In 2010 Scott starred in the critically acclaimed production Everyday Rapture, which Scott wrote with co-author Dick Scanlan. Everyday Rapture began its run on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre in previews April 19, 2010, and officially opened on April 29, 2010. The show played to sold out audiences throughout the run, finally ending its limited engagement on July 11, 2010. Scott received Tony Award nominations for Best Book, and Best Leading Actress in a Musical, and Drama Desk Award nominations in the categories of Best Leading Actress, Best Book, and Best Musical for Rapture.
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Sheila Ryan, was an American actress who starred in over 60 movies. Born as Katherine Elizabeth McLaughlin in Topeka, Kansas, she went to Hollywood... in 1939 at the age of 18. She was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1940 and was credited in her early films as Bettie McLaughlin. Adopting the name Sheila Ryan, she starred in Dressed to Kill the following year. She appeared in other memorable films, including two Laurel and Hardy movies, Great Guns and A-Haunting We Will Go , and the Busby Berkeley musical The Gang's All Here . Ryan appeared in several Charlie Chan and Michael Shayne mysteries, starring alongside Cesar Romero. By the late 1940s, however, her career waned and she began appearing mostly in B movies, especially low budget westerns. In 1945 she married actor Allan Lane, but the marriage ended in divorce after a few months. She later worked with Gene Autry, starring in several of his films, including The Cowboys and the Indians , and Mule Train . She also had roles in several television shows such as "The Lone Ranger ". Ryan was married first to Edward Norris, but they later divorced.
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