In this episode, host Phil Tower speaks with Dianna Higgs Stampfler, author of Kalamazoo County Characters.
Dianna's book Kalamazoo County Characters, is from the History Press.
Since its founding in the early 1800s, Kalamazoo has welcomed a variety of notable characters who have shaped the community’s legacy in their own special way. Some, like Orville Gibson and Derek Jeter, are nationally recognized, while others, such as Sue Hubbell are lesser known. Abraham Lincoln and Flora Temple briefly passed through town, and Mary Jackson and Gwen Frostic were among those who came here to attend college.
From founding fathers to early innovators, groundbreakers to entrepreneurs, artists to authors and athletes to entertainers, author Dianna Higgs Stampfler celebrates fifty fascinating figures in Kalamazoo-area history. And the final figure profiled in Dianna's book happens to be a highly successful DJ in the area named Jim Higgs. Higgs is Dianna’s father, and while not famous himself, Jim Higgs has a wonderful connection to fame in the world of rock 'n' roll and you'll learn about that story in her book, Kalamazoo County Characters.
Get the Book: Kalamazoo County Characters.
Dianna's book Kalamazoo County Characters, is from the History Press.
Since its founding in the early 1800s, Kalamazoo has welcomed a variety of notable characters who have shaped the community’s legacy in their own special way. Some, like Orville Gibson and Derek Jeter, are nationally recognized, while others, such as Sue Hubbell are lesser known. Abraham Lincoln and Flora Temple briefly passed through town, and Mary Jackson and Gwen Frostic were among those who came here to attend college.
From founding fathers to early innovators, groundbreakers to entrepreneurs, artists to authors and athletes to entertainers, author Dianna Higgs Stampfler celebrates fifty fascinating figures in Kalamazoo-area history. And the final figure profiled in Dianna's book happens to be a highly successful DJ in the area named Jim Higgs. Higgs is Dianna’s father, and while not famous himself, Jim Higgs has a wonderful connection to fame in the world of rock 'n' roll and you'll learn about that story in her book, Kalamazoo County Characters.
Get the Book: Kalamazoo County Characters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to winform and enlightened on a
wide range of public policy issues as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Thank you so much
for tuning in across whatever iHeartRadio station you may be
listening to. In this segment, we are going to dive
deep into Kalamazoo County and a brand new book from
our good friend Diana Higgs Stampler Kalamazoo County Characters. I
got to tell you this book is a wonderful delight.
(00:40):
And I don't even have any really strong connection in
Kalamazoo County other than it's just south of where we
live and where we are talking from here in Grand
Rapids in West Michigan. Diana Higgs Stamfler has worked in
Michigan's tourism industry for nearly thirty years. We know her
(01:00):
as the person behind Promote Michigan. She's been involved with
a lot of things you've heard here on iHeartRadio. That is,
of course, a premier public relations consulting company and She
has also written for Michigan Blue Magazine, Lakeland Voting, and
several other publications. Her newest book is Kalamazoo County Characters.
(01:20):
She's also written a great book about It's Haunted.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Lighthouses, right, that is accurate, and.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That came out a couple of years ago. Throw that
title out, will you, Diana.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It's Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses. That was my first book out
in twenty nineteen from the History Press, and I follow
that up a couple of years later with a darker version,
which is death and Lighthouses on the Great Lake. So
these are you know, keepers that were murdered or died,
you know, those true crime, cool case kind of things.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And so Kalamzu County Characters allowed me to brighten things
up a bit. There is one dark story out of
the fifty, but for the most part it is a
more positive collection.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, I thought it was going to be a darker book,
but it's really a wonderful kind of quick companion of
a lot of famous people who either were born in
Kalamazoo or passed through Kalamazoo. One of my favorites is
Paul Harvey. Paul Harvey arent, who of course is known
to literally thousands of people, have not millions of people
(02:23):
who grew up with him on the radio. He had
a connection to Kalamazoo people like Titus Bronson, the sisters
of Saint Joseph Homer Striker at a Fairchild, which I
think is the dark story.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
We'll get into that in just a moment.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
John Fetzer, Now, if you don't know the name John Fetzer,
you're probably under the age of fifty. John Fetzer was
one of the Yeah, this is certainly a well known name.
Four years he was broadcast Titan. In fact, was president
of the NAB for a number of years. But a
(02:58):
very interesting guy. And what you don't know, Diana Higgs Stanfler,
is that I interviewed an individual several years ago on
this program who had written, I would say, the definitive
biography of John Fetzer. Very interesting guy who dabbled between
religion and kind of the paranormal, and really interesting character.
(03:20):
And he was also worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
He bought the Detroit Tigers and owned the Tigers during
some of their great years, and of course was a
broadcast legend in the state of Michigan putting on the
station that is today B ninety three ninety three point
seven FM, which was at the time and still is,
I believe, the most powerful FM station in the country.
(03:43):
It is it's a really interesting area of Kalamazoo County.
When did you know you wanted to write Kalamazoo County characters?
What said, Hey, there's a huge, great opportunity here.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Well, remind me to come back to the Fetzer story
because I want to talk to you about something on that.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
But so.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I actually, you know, I was born in Kalamazoo. My
first breath was in Kalamazoo. My daughter was born in Kalamazoo.
I admit there are some mistakes in the book. My
daughter called me out on it this week.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
One.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I wasn't born at Bronson and borgeous I was born
at Bronson. I'm like, are you sure because I swear
you were born at Borges. Turns out she wasn't. What
do I remember from thirty two years ago? But anyway,
you know, I growing up in Plainwell, Kalamazoo was always
the place that we went to. I mean, we didn't
have malls and box stores, so growing up, you know,
(04:35):
if you had to get shoes for school, you went
to Kalamazoo. If you wanted to go to the mall
in high school, you went to Kalamazoo. I went to
school at Western in Kalamazoo, so a lot of my
early life was based in that area. And I was
actually walking through I want to say, like a Walgreens
or something, and my publisher, the History Press and Arkatie Publishing.
(04:58):
They have so many titles and they have displays in
Meyer in Walmart and Walgreens and stuff like that. So
I was walking through and I see this title and
it was called Local Luminaries, and I think it was
for Bay City or some city on the east side
of the state. And I thought, well, I don't know
about this title.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
They have like themes.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I'm like, I didn't know they had this one. Like
if they could do a book about notable people from
Bay City, I could do a book about notable people
from Kalamazoo. And so I reached out to my publisher
and I said, you know, what do you think about this?
I mean, there's some really great people. I mean, my
dad's story was kind of a catalyst for that, and
we can talk about that later as well. So I
(05:42):
started thinking, well, you know, if I had to write
a book about people in Kalamazoo, who would it be.
And so my dad and I actually sat down who
He's always been my big inspiration in history and storytelling,
and we came up with a list of one hundred
and fifty people. And I'm like, okay, well, if we're
going to feature all those people, everybody's going to get
like a paar girl.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
It's not really going to do a much justice.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
So from there we narrow that down to fifty people
from different walks of life, different time periods, different storylines
to kind of showcase. You know, back in the eighteen hundreds,
the cities would publish kind of these these catalogs or
these these bound books about the famous people in the community,
(06:25):
not just in Kalamazoo, but they did this all over
and so it kind of is reminiscent of some of that.
So some of the people, like you mentioned Titus Bronson,
who was one of the first landowners in Kalamazoo, in
the town itself was named Bronson for a brief period
of time. You know, those founding fathers were part of
those early anthologies. But I wanted to include more modern people,
(06:48):
you know, people like Derek Jeters in the book, Larry
bell Is in the book. So I wanted people that
were instrumental in not only the founding of Kalamazoo County,
so it goes county, but people that came through and
made an impact, even if just for a day, like
when Abe Lincoln spoke in Bronson Park the only time
(07:08):
he ever spoke in Michigan, he was not president yet,
but to kind of follow in his footsteps and track
it down, and they dedicated a statue in Kalama Zoo
recently in his honor regarding that speech that he gave. So,
like you said, it could be somebody that was just
there for a brief period of time or people that
(07:30):
were there their entire lives, and so it really was
insightful to kind of put that together. And interestingly enough,
it wasn't a plan when I put it together, but
there became this Kevin Bacon kind of aspect to the book,
where this person is connected to that person's connected to
that person. That's so you see these these these lines
(07:52):
of connectivity between these people throughout Kalama Zoo history, and
that goes back to John Fetzer. You know, you mentioned.
You know, he got his start listening to radio early
on got Kalamazoo on the map, as you mentioned baseball.
I was fascinated. So I know the book you're talking about,
(08:14):
the biography. I wanted to put in my book the
stuff about the UFOs and the aliens and he used
to consult a Wiji board for big decisions. It was
in the original book, but I was kind enough to
let the Fetzer Institute review the chapter first and give
me photos, and they nixed that part.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, there's a great story in that biography, by the way,
which I have to tell. He and his wife later
built a house somewhere out west I think in Arizona,
somewhere in a very remote rural area, and they could
not find water in the land. This would have been
probably in the seventies or eighties. And the story is
(08:56):
the biographer of the book. And we'll put this in
the podcast notes so you can find the book. The
story is he was told flat out, you can't put
a well, mister Fetzer, on this property, there was no
water here. He hired a guy with a divining rod, Diana,
and the guy with the divining rod said, there's water here.
(09:17):
For those at home listening to this on radio. The
divining rod was a stick with you know, a kind
of a pointed why at the end, and it was
said to be able to help those who knew how
to use it to find things like water or minerals
in the ground. So he spotted the place for water
on mister Fester, mister Fetzer's property, and he called the
(09:41):
well guy back and said dig here, you know, drill here,
and they found water in that spot where the guy
with a divining rod had said, mister Fetzer, here's water.
So it's an interesting story out of many in that book,
but there's just a great snapshot in Kalamazoo County Characters.
Diana higg Stamfler is the author of Kalamazoo Kind of Characters.
(10:03):
I want to shout out her website which has all
of her books promote Michigan dot Com, the other books
Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses, Death and Lighthouses on the Great Lakes
and just some really good stuff in there.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The new book is out.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's available wherever books are sold, and you can buy
it directly from promote Michigan dot com on your website.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Right absolutely, and you get an autograph with that one too,
So that's what idea's kind of a bonus. So yeah,
so real quick, I want to go back to John Fetzer.
So here's this Kevin Bacon part of it. So we
have John Fetser as the starting point of this particular line.
Rem Wall who was the Green Valley Jamboree Boys, and
him his old school country music start. Got his start
(10:45):
on Kazo Radio, later was on Kazo on TV. Of course,
he played a Gibson guitar which was also made in Kalamazoo,
and him and his family members worked.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
At the factory.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
You mentioned Paul Harvey who got his start, not his start,
but he had a part of his early years at
w k ZO. Great picture in the book of him,
I believe at a tiger game.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
He was also a pilot. If you didn't know Paul
Harvey was.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Hey, I did not know that, so we also the
pilot I intended to put in the book was Sue Parrish.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
She was a pilot.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Her and her husband Pete founded the Arizoo in Kalamazoo.
But she was also an actress and she performed at
the Kalamazoo Civic. In fact, there's an auditorium there named
for her. But she also started acting early on with
the Richland Players, which became the Barn Theater in Augusta.
And Jack Ragatzi, who is also in the book, so
she's connected with him on that. Jack was also a
(11:39):
pilot in the war. So there was like three pilots
that I had won. I didn't intend to have three.
So from that we have a gentleman by the name
of Donald Bonevich who was an actor. He was an
art teacher for the Portage School System and he also
taught at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. But he
was also a puppeteer and he had a segment on
Channel three club House which aired on WKZO.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
And there we are back to John.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Fencer, remember it very very well. Suzanne Parrish was an
up John. She was Suzanne up John Delano Parish. I
did not know she was an actress. She is profiled
in Kalamazoo County Characters. I want to go through because
I don't want to run out of time. We've we've
got enough time, but I want to go through some
interesting people in here. There's some big names that that
(12:25):
are synonymous with Kalamazoo. In Kalamazoo County. Bronson of course,
Bronson Hospital you mentioned. Uh, I'm trying to remember which, when,
which hospital your daughter was born.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
In and you're never going to live that down.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, And Titus Bronson is in the book.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You also have Homer Striker of course, Strucker Medical Equipment, Uh,
a behemoth of a company today. But you've broken up
the book into I think it's very well organized into
different types of people where you've got you know, notable
entertainers and celebrities, early pioneers, innovations, groundbreakers, entrepreneurs. Larry Bell
(13:03):
is an interesting guy. If we go to the innovators
and entrepreneurs section of the book, Larry Bell of course
and Bell's brewing.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Is he a native to Kalamazoo, Diana.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
He is not.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's funny you mentioned it because as I flipped to
that page in my book, he came and bought it
from me in person when I was in Kalamazoo in January,
and he autographed my book. So my book is autographed
by Larry Bell, which.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Is very cool, very cool.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
So No, he's a Chicago guy, very proud Chicago guy,
and he came to kalama Zoo.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Well, he hit.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Obviously, people from Chicago come into Michigan quite a bit,
so he had been doing some biking trips around the area.
But he ended up enrolling in Kalamazoo College and was
working at Sarkozy Bakery, which was a well known bakery
in downtown kalama Zoo, and through that got introduced to
home brewing, which is how a lot of brewers get going.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
And so from that he decides that he is going
to get a bunch of investors to throw in some money.
He finally founded the Kalamazoo Brewing Company and had home
brewing equipment and supplies there, and that grew into Bell's Brewery,
which now is the largest brewery in the state. And
(14:23):
it was you know, this this was back in the eighties,
so this was before this current wave of of craft
breweries microbreweries kind of showed up in the state of Michigan.
And so he was, you know, he was one of
the early people, the early adopters to get this, you.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Know, up and running and uh.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
He he operated the country until he sold it a
few years ago.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
But what I found fascinating, and.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I've known Larry, Larry and I have worked together in
the Brewer brewing industry for years. But what I find
fast fascinating and what I tried to do in the
book is look beyond just the story.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Everybody knows that he has bells right or had bells,
but most people don't know that he is a philanthropist.
I mean he is making donations to the Irving S.
Gilmour International Keyboard Piano Festival, Kalamazoo College, the Boys and
Girls Club of Kalamazoo, Michigan State University's hospitality program. He
(15:25):
has a place in Chicago, as a place in Kalamazoo,
and a place up in Curtis.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
He would prefer to be in the up he's in.
He loves being up there.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
He's making an attempt to walk the entire North Country
Trail section in Michigan, and he's been doing it in
little snippets because it would be an insane thing to
try to do it all at once. But I've just
been fascinated with his outside of the brewing history.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
He founded a foundation.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And he purchased the old Food Dance building in Kalamazoo.
He's trying to establish library, so he's got a huge
collection of books about Michigan. He collects maps, he collects
beer memorabilia. In fact, after my dad passed away, we're
working out a situation for him to acquire my dad's collection,
(16:15):
massive collection of seventy eight records.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
And so he is.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
He is so much more than the beer and the
stories that I tried to put in this book.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
I tried to go beyond that.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
So you had mentioned some of the other big names,
you know, you would think that William Upjohn would be
in the book, right, And he was on the original list.
He founded up John which became Pharmacia which is now
Pfiser with his brothers. But as I got into the history,
I thought, well, everybody knows about William Upjohn.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
But what I found was his dad.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Came over from Europe and his dad and his uncle
landed in New York.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
They both went to medical school.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
His dad, Uriah came in and bought a house in
Richland and was one of the longest serving country doctors
in Kalamazoo County. And he would travel on horseback to
take care of his patients back you know, in the
late eighteen hundreds. And he was also a naturalist, so
he would stop and gather herbs and plants, and he
(17:16):
would make you know these natural remedies for many of
the things that he was treating his patients for. And
of Uriah and his wife's I think they had twelve kids,
like six or seven of them went to the University
of Michigan, including William. Two of William's sisters went there
and became pharmacists, one became a doctor. So the daughters
(17:38):
of Uriah Upjohn became two of the first women to
go through.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
The pharmaceutical program at U of M.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
So I found Uriah's story so much more compelling as
the starting point for what became the Upjohn Company.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yes, Diana Higgs Stampler with us. She's the author of
the brand new book Kalamazoo County Characters.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You can get it wherever books are sold, but you
can also get.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It directly and have it autographed at promote Michigan dot com.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
That's Promote Michigan dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And if you love great stories, Death and Lighthouses on
the Great Lakes, a History of Murder and Misfortune, that's
one of Diana's other books. I don't want to run
out of time because we're going to close with some
of Kalamazoo County's most famous characters, and will tell the
story of Jim Higgs, which is a wonderful backstory.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Not a famous person, but a person.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Who happens to be your father with a real connection
to fame, which is a really cool story.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
As you and I are both radio people to the core.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But I've done a radio tease, Diana, and for our listeners, that's.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
What we did there.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
We'll come back to the story of Jim Higgs and
you will not want to miss that story. I want
to talk about one of the just a couple of
real quick ones. The sisters of Saint Joseph are profiled
in Kalamazoo County Characters. They started Borge's High Hospital and
later started Nazareth College and never doubt the power of
(19:05):
a group of women, especially a group of nuns. That's
a great story. I love that you.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Included them in the book. But I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Surprise you with one and I'm really thrilled. First of all,
I had no idea she was from the Kalamazoo area.
Her name is Sarah Gwendolyn Frostick. That was her given name.
She lived until she was ninety five. Actually a day
short of her ninety fifth birthday. And you probably would
be familiar with Gwen Frostick because she made a fortune
(19:38):
on these screen printed nature prints. They were very distinct,
very original, and very much in demand for a period
of time. They're still popular. There's still a store in
beautiful Benzonia, Michigan. And I did not know the story
of Gwen Frostick. She never married. She was truly a
pioneer in terms of a woman entrepreneur, owned her own business.
(20:03):
And here's the here's the cool fun fact about Gwen Frostick.
Diana Higgs Stamfler, my sister, worked for Gwen Frostick for
years in Benzonia, worked side by side with her in
the workshop.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
So cool.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I visited the workshop too. I don't know if
you've had a chance of visiting it.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, I have, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And I've been a fan of her work for probably
thirty years. I collect her work. I have actually one
of our one of our guest bathrooms in our house
has a bunch of her framed prints hanging in it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
She was from the.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Saginaw Valley Thalm area, but she Croswell really but she
went to Western after she.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Graduated high school.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
She suffered something similar to polio as a child, and
so you think about the artistic things that she was doing.
She she had really kind of crippled hands, and she
with a limp, but she trained herself to draw. Her
parents were both educators, and so they pushed her. They
just said, you know what, your siblings are out playing
(21:09):
in the yard. You get out there and play in
the yard. And they pushed her to do things, and
they made her go to regular schools and she worked
in the bomber plants during the war.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
But she learned how to draw, and then.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
She would take those paintings that she drew out in
the nature of Benzonia, and then she would she would
carve them in reverse and linoleum with like exact oonins
with these with these rippled kind of hands, and she
made the most amazing thing. She owned all these Heidelberg
presses and the setup was amazing, and she had one
of the largest mail order businesses for calendars and stationery
(21:47):
and notepads, and later on into things like decks of
cards and coffee mugs and everything. So she went to
Western when she passed away, she she willed her entire
ten million estate to Western and they named art school
for her. Okay, and she's fascinating. There's actually a really
beautiful children's book about her. It is my five year
(22:09):
old granddaughter's favorite book. When she comes up here. We
read it every night.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
And she's coming this summer and she for a week
and she says to me, Grandma, can we go to
Gwen Frostick's store. So my daughter, my mother and my granddaughter,
we're all granddaughters. We're all going to take a trip
to Benzonia this summer to go to the studio because
my granddaughter is just like she has some of the prints,
(22:36):
the note cards that she has in her little desk
here at my house, so that she has her own
little Gwen Frostick.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It's a great story. And I did not know the
Western connection. That's why she's in Kalamazoo County Characters. I've
got about two minutes left. We're with Diana Higgs Stampler,
author of kalam Zoo County Characters, And the book closes.
The book, in fact, is dedicated to your dad, who
passed away in May of last year. And I know
he was kind of he was your hero He was
(23:05):
a well respected radio professional. He was a DJ, he
managed stations, and he has a connection. It's in Kalamazoo
County characters at the end of the book, but only
a couple of minutes left. He has a connection with
fame with the Eagles and helping to break one of
their biggest hits, right.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
Yeah, yes, so yeah, So.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Fall of seventy four, the Eagles were out, but they
had I think their third album was on the Border.
I'm actually looking at a copy of it right now
in my office. The you know, the executives back then,
you know, they would try to push certain songs, and
my dad's like, this is not hitting. He starts to
listen to the album. He finds a song on there.
It's a beautiful ballad, and he starts to play it
(23:50):
in Kalamazoo, even though it's not scheduled to be released
as a single, and it hits really, really well, and
then it takes off in Kalamazoo or in Detroit and Chicago.
My dad they convince his asylum Electra to release this
as a single. And fifty years ago this month, so
I think it was March fifth, it hit number one,
and so it was the Best of My Love became
(24:11):
the very first number one single for the Eagles thanks
to my dad's initiatives. And I think it was eight fifteen.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I can't even remember now. When they came to call
Grand Rapids. We got access.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
We called the executive who's still working for the company
in Nashville, and I said, Bert Stein said, hey, my
dad's never seen the Eagles and they're in town and
it's his seventieth birthday would have been twenty fourteen. And
I said, can you help, and he goes, yeah, we'll
get it taken care of. So we got tickets and
backstage passes to meet the band, my dad, my stepmom,
(24:44):
my kids, and I And so he got a chance
to tell the story to Glenn Fry and Don Henley,
who were part of the original band, on how that
whole thing repressed right well, after Glenn Fry passed away,
Rolling Stone came out with a special So Don Henley
still tells the story now because he met my dad.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
He'll tell it on stage. He told it in Rolling Stone.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
So cool.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
It was just so amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And I'm excited because Don Felder, who was originally with
the band, is playing in Tasky this summer at the casino,
and I'm going to get tickets to go see him
so that I can give him a copy of my
book love.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It and he will love that as well. Again, real
quickly before we run out of time. Diana Higgs Stamfler
is our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The book is Kalamazoo County Characters and you can get
it autographed if you order it through her website Promote
Michigan dot com. Promote Michigan dot com also highly recommend.
We did a segment it's in the podcast section for
this program West Michigan Weekend, Death and.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Lighthouses on the Great Lakes.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You can get that book from promote Michigan dot com,
but highly recommend Kalamazoo County Characters. I know my wife
saw the book and she said, say hi to Diana,
and can I have the book?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Please give me the book.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Great story because we have a lot of family in
the Kalamazoo County area. Diana Higgs Staanfler, it's been a
real pleasure. I knew we could probably fill two hours
with this conversation between you and me, and I'm so
glad you joined us.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Thanks so much, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
She's been our guest on this segment of West Michigan
Weekend from iHeartRadio. Boy, it's been a lot of fun
Kalamazoo County characters. We'll do this again next week right
here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to winform and enlightened on a
wide range of public policy issues as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Thank you so much
for tuning in across whatever iHeartRadio station you may be
listening to. In this segment, we are going to dive
deep into Kalamazoo County and a brand new book from
our good friend Diana Higgs Stampler Kalamazoo County Characters. I
got to tell you this book is a wonderful delight.
(00:40):
And I don't even have any really strong connection in
Kalamazoo County other than it's just south of where we
live and where we are talking from here in Grand
Rapids in West Michigan. Diana Higgs Stamfler has worked in
Michigan's tourism industry for nearly thirty years. We know her
(01:00):
as the person behind Promote Michigan. She's been involved with
a lot of things you've heard here on iHeartRadio. That is,
of course, a premier public relations consulting company and She
has also written for Michigan Blue Magazine, Lakeland Voting, and
several other publications. Her newest book is Kalamazoo County Characters.
(01:20):
She's also written a great book about It's Haunted.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Lighthouses, right, that is accurate, and.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That came out a couple of years ago. Throw that
title out, will you, Diana.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
It's Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses. That was my first book out
in twenty nineteen from the History Press, and I follow
that up a couple of years later with a darker version,
which is death and Lighthouses on the Great Lake. So
these are you know, keepers that were murdered or died,
you know, those true crime, cool case kind of things.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And so Kalamzu County Characters allowed me to brighten things
up a bit. There is one dark story out of
the fifty, but for the most part it is a
more positive collection.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, I thought it was going to be a darker book,
but it's really a wonderful kind of quick companion of
a lot of famous people who either were born in
Kalamazoo or passed through Kalamazoo. One of my favorites is
Paul Harvey. Paul Harvey arent, who of course is known
to literally thousands of people, have not millions of people
(02:23):
who grew up with him on the radio. He had
a connection to Kalamazoo people like Titus Bronson, the sisters
of Saint Joseph Homer Striker at a Fairchild, which I
think is the dark story.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
We'll get into that in just a moment.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
John Fetzer, Now, if you don't know the name John Fetzer,
you're probably under the age of fifty. John Fetzer was
one of the Yeah, this is certainly a well known name.
Four years he was broadcast Titan. In fact, was president
of the NAB for a number of years. But a
(02:58):
very interesting guy. And what you don't know, Diana Higgs Stanfler,
is that I interviewed an individual several years ago on
this program who had written, I would say, the definitive
biography of John Fetzer. Very interesting guy who dabbled between
religion and kind of the paranormal, and really interesting character.
(03:20):
And he was also worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
He bought the Detroit Tigers and owned the Tigers during
some of their great years, and of course was a
broadcast legend in the state of Michigan putting on the
station that is today B ninety three ninety three point
seven FM, which was at the time and still is,
I believe, the most powerful FM station in the country.
(03:43):
It is it's a really interesting area of Kalamazoo County.
When did you know you wanted to write Kalamazoo County characters?
What said, Hey, there's a huge, great opportunity here.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Well, remind me to come back to the Fetzer story
because I want to talk to you about something on that.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
But so.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I actually, you know, I was born in Kalamazoo. My
first breath was in Kalamazoo. My daughter was born in Kalamazoo.
I admit there are some mistakes in the book. My
daughter called me out on it this week.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
One.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I wasn't born at Bronson and borgeous I was born
at Bronson. I'm like, are you sure because I swear
you were born at Borges. Turns out she wasn't. What
do I remember from thirty two years ago? But anyway,
you know, I growing up in Plainwell, Kalamazoo was always
the place that we went to. I mean, we didn't
have malls and box stores, so growing up, you know,
(04:35):
if you had to get shoes for school, you went
to Kalamazoo. If you wanted to go to the mall
in high school, you went to Kalamazoo. I went to
school at Western in Kalamazoo, so a lot of my
early life was based in that area. And I was
actually walking through I want to say, like a Walgreens
or something, and my publisher, the History Press and Arkatie Publishing.
(04:58):
They have so many titles and they have displays in
Meyer in Walmart and Walgreens and stuff like that. So
I was walking through and I see this title and
it was called Local Luminaries, and I think it was
for Bay City or some city on the east side
of the state. And I thought, well, I don't know
about this title.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
They have like themes.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I'm like, I didn't know they had this one. Like
if they could do a book about notable people from
Bay City, I could do a book about notable people
from Kalamazoo. And so I reached out to my publisher
and I said, you know, what do you think about this?
I mean, there's some really great people. I mean, my
dad's story was kind of a catalyst for that, and
we can talk about that later as well. So I
(05:42):
started thinking, well, you know, if I had to write
a book about people in Kalamazoo, who would it be.
And so my dad and I actually sat down who
He's always been my big inspiration in history and storytelling,
and we came up with a list of one hundred
and fifty people. And I'm like, okay, well, if we're
going to feature all those people, everybody's going to get
like a paar girl.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
It's not really going to do a much justice.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
So from there we narrow that down to fifty people
from different walks of life, different time periods, different storylines
to kind of showcase. You know, back in the eighteen hundreds,
the cities would publish kind of these these catalogs or
these these bound books about the famous people in the community,
(06:25):
not just in Kalamazoo, but they did this all over
and so it kind of is reminiscent of some of that.
So some of the people, like you mentioned Titus Bronson,
who was one of the first landowners in Kalamazoo, in
the town itself was named Bronson for a brief period
of time. You know, those founding fathers were part of
those early anthologies. But I wanted to include more modern people,
(06:48):
you know, people like Derek Jeters in the book, Larry
bell Is in the book. So I wanted people that
were instrumental in not only the founding of Kalamazoo County,
so it goes county, but people that came through and
made an impact, even if just for a day, like
when Abe Lincoln spoke in Bronson Park the only time
(07:08):
he ever spoke in Michigan, he was not president yet,
but to kind of follow in his footsteps and track
it down, and they dedicated a statue in Kalama Zoo
recently in his honor regarding that speech that he gave. So,
like you said, it could be somebody that was just
there for a brief period of time or people that
(07:30):
were there their entire lives, and so it really was
insightful to kind of put that together. And interestingly enough,
it wasn't a plan when I put it together, but
there became this Kevin Bacon kind of aspect to the book,
where this person is connected to that person's connected to
that person. That's so you see these these these lines
(07:52):
of connectivity between these people throughout Kalama Zoo history, and
that goes back to John Fetzer. You know, you mentioned.
You know, he got his start listening to radio early
on got Kalamazoo on the map, as you mentioned baseball.
I was fascinated. So I know the book you're talking about,
(08:14):
the biography. I wanted to put in my book the
stuff about the UFOs and the aliens and he used
to consult a Wiji board for big decisions. It was
in the original book, but I was kind enough to
let the Fetzer Institute review the chapter first and give
me photos, and they nixed that part.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, there's a great story in that biography, by the way,
which I have to tell. He and his wife later
built a house somewhere out west I think in Arizona,
somewhere in a very remote rural area, and they could
not find water in the land. This would have been
probably in the seventies or eighties. And the story is
(08:56):
the biographer of the book. And we'll put this in
the podcast notes so you can find the book. The
story is he was told flat out, you can't put
a well, mister Fetzer, on this property, there was no
water here. He hired a guy with a divining rod, Diana,
and the guy with the divining rod said, there's water here.
(09:17):
For those at home listening to this on radio. The
divining rod was a stick with you know, a kind
of a pointed why at the end, and it was
said to be able to help those who knew how
to use it to find things like water or minerals
in the ground. So he spotted the place for water
on mister Fester, mister Fetzer's property, and he called the
(09:41):
well guy back and said dig here, you know, drill here,
and they found water in that spot where the guy
with a divining rod had said, mister Fetzer, here's water.
So it's an interesting story out of many in that book,
but there's just a great snapshot in Kalamazoo County Characters.
Diana higg Stamfler is the author of Kalamazoo Kind of Characters.
(10:03):
I want to shout out her website which has all
of her books promote Michigan dot Com, the other books
Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses, Death and Lighthouses on the Great Lakes
and just some really good stuff in there.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The new book is out.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's available wherever books are sold, and you can buy
it directly from promote Michigan dot com on your website.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Right absolutely, and you get an autograph with that one too,
So that's what idea's kind of a bonus. So yeah,
so real quick, I want to go back to John Fetzer.
So here's this Kevin Bacon part of it. So we
have John Fetser as the starting point of this particular line.
Rem Wall who was the Green Valley Jamboree Boys, and
him his old school country music start. Got his start
(10:45):
on Kazo Radio, later was on Kazo on TV. Of course,
he played a Gibson guitar which was also made in Kalamazoo,
and him and his family members worked.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
At the factory.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
You mentioned Paul Harvey who got his start, not his start,
but he had a part of his early years at
w k ZO. Great picture in the book of him,
I believe at a tiger game.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
He was also a pilot. If you didn't know Paul
Harvey was.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Hey, I did not know that, so we also the
pilot I intended to put in the book was Sue Parrish.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
She was a pilot.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Her and her husband Pete founded the Arizoo in Kalamazoo.
But she was also an actress and she performed at
the Kalamazoo Civic. In fact, there's an auditorium there named
for her. But she also started acting early on with
the Richland Players, which became the Barn Theater in Augusta.
And Jack Ragatzi, who is also in the book, so
she's connected with him on that. Jack was also a
(11:39):
pilot in the war. So there was like three pilots
that I had won. I didn't intend to have three.
So from that we have a gentleman by the name
of Donald Bonevich who was an actor. He was an
art teacher for the Portage School System and he also
taught at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. But he
was also a puppeteer and he had a segment on
Channel three club House which aired on WKZO.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
And there we are back to John.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Fencer, remember it very very well. Suzanne Parrish was an
up John. She was Suzanne up John Delano Parish. I
did not know she was an actress. She is profiled
in Kalamazoo County Characters. I want to go through because
I don't want to run out of time. We've we've
got enough time, but I want to go through some
interesting people in here. There's some big names that that
(12:25):
are synonymous with Kalamazoo. In Kalamazoo County. Bronson of course,
Bronson Hospital you mentioned. Uh, I'm trying to remember which, when,
which hospital your daughter was born.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
In and you're never going to live that down.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah, And Titus Bronson is in the book.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You also have Homer Striker of course, Strucker Medical Equipment, Uh,
a behemoth of a company today. But you've broken up
the book into I think it's very well organized into
different types of people where you've got you know, notable
entertainers and celebrities, early pioneers, innovations, groundbreakers, entrepreneurs. Larry Bell
(13:03):
is an interesting guy. If we go to the innovators
and entrepreneurs section of the book, Larry Bell of course
and Bell's brewing.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Is he a native to Kalamazoo, Diana.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
He is not.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's funny you mentioned it because as I flipped to
that page in my book, he came and bought it
from me in person when I was in Kalamazoo in January,
and he autographed my book. So my book is autographed
by Larry Bell, which.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Is very cool, very cool.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
So No, he's a Chicago guy, very proud Chicago guy,
and he came to kalama Zoo.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Well, he hit.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Obviously, people from Chicago come into Michigan quite a bit,
so he had been doing some biking trips around the area.
But he ended up enrolling in Kalamazoo College and was
working at Sarkozy Bakery, which was a well known bakery
in downtown kalama Zoo, and through that got introduced to
home brewing, which is how a lot of brewers get going.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
And so from that he decides that he is going
to get a bunch of investors to throw in some money.
He finally founded the Kalamazoo Brewing Company and had home
brewing equipment and supplies there, and that grew into Bell's Brewery,
which now is the largest brewery in the state. And
(14:23):
it was you know, this this was back in the eighties,
so this was before this current wave of of craft
breweries microbreweries kind of showed up in the state of Michigan.
And so he was, you know, he was one of
the early people, the early adopters to get this, you.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Know, up and running and uh.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
He he operated the country until he sold it a
few years ago.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
But what I found fascinating, and.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I've known Larry, Larry and I have worked together in
the Brewer brewing industry for years. But what I find
fast fascinating and what I tried to do in the
book is look beyond just the story.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Everybody knows.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Everybody knows that he has bells right or had bells,
but most people don't know that he is a philanthropist.
I mean he is making donations to the Irving S.
Gilmour International Keyboard Piano Festival, Kalamazoo College, the Boys and
Girls Club of Kalamazoo, Michigan State University's hospitality program. He
(15:25):
has a place in Chicago, as a place in Kalamazoo,
and a place up in Curtis.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
He would prefer to be in the up he's in.
He loves being up there.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
He's making an attempt to walk the entire North Country
Trail section in Michigan, and he's been doing it in
little snippets because it would be an insane thing to
try to do it all at once. But I've just
been fascinated with his outside of the brewing history.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
He founded a foundation.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And he purchased the old Food Dance building in Kalamazoo.
He's trying to establish library, so he's got a huge
collection of books about Michigan. He collects maps, he collects
beer memorabilia. In fact, after my dad passed away, we're
working out a situation for him to acquire my dad's collection,
(16:15):
massive collection of seventy eight records.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
And so he is.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
He is so much more than the beer and the
stories that I tried to put in this book.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
I tried to go beyond that.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
So you had mentioned some of the other big names,
you know, you would think that William Upjohn would be
in the book, right, And he was on the original list.
He founded up John which became Pharmacia which is now
Pfiser with his brothers. But as I got into the history,
I thought, well, everybody knows about William Upjohn.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
But what I found was his dad.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Came over from Europe and his dad and his uncle
landed in New York.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
They both went to medical school.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
His dad, Uriah came in and bought a house in
Richland and was one of the longest serving country doctors
in Kalamazoo County. And he would travel on horseback to
take care of his patients back you know, in the
late eighteen hundreds. And he was also a naturalist, so
he would stop and gather herbs and plants, and he
(17:16):
would make you know these natural remedies for many of
the things that he was treating his patients for. And
of Uriah and his wife's I think they had twelve kids,
like six or seven of them went to the University
of Michigan, including William. Two of William's sisters went there
and became pharmacists, one became a doctor. So the daughters
(17:38):
of Uriah Upjohn became two of the first women to
go through.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
The pharmaceutical program at U of M.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
So I found Uriah's story so much more compelling as
the starting point for what became the Upjohn Company.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yes, Diana Higgs Stampler with us. She's the author of
the brand new book Kalamazoo County Characters.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You can get it wherever books are sold, but you
can also get.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It directly and have it autographed at promote Michigan dot com.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
That's Promote Michigan dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And if you love great stories, Death and Lighthouses on
the Great Lakes, a History of Murder and Misfortune, that's
one of Diana's other books. I don't want to run
out of time because we're going to close with some
of Kalamazoo County's most famous characters, and will tell the
story of Jim Higgs, which is a wonderful backstory.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Not a famous person, but a person.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Who happens to be your father with a real connection
to fame, which is a really cool story.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
As you and I are both radio people to the core.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But I've done a radio tease, Diana, and for our listeners, that's.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
What we did there.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
We'll come back to the story of Jim Higgs and
you will not want to miss that story. I want
to talk about one of the just a couple of
real quick ones. The sisters of Saint Joseph are profiled
in Kalamazoo County Characters. They started Borge's High Hospital and
later started Nazareth College and never doubt the power of
(19:05):
a group of women, especially a group of nuns. That's
a great story. I love that you.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Included them in the book. But I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Surprise you with one and I'm really thrilled. First of all,
I had no idea she was from the Kalamazoo area.
Her name is Sarah Gwendolyn Frostick. That was her given name.
She lived until she was ninety five. Actually a day
short of her ninety fifth birthday. And you probably would
be familiar with Gwen Frostick because she made a fortune
(19:38):
on these screen printed nature prints. They were very distinct,
very original, and very much in demand for a period
of time. They're still popular. There's still a store in
beautiful Benzonia, Michigan. And I did not know the story
of Gwen Frostick. She never married. She was truly a
pioneer in terms of a woman entrepreneur, owned her own business.
(20:03):
And here's the here's the cool fun fact about Gwen Frostick.
Diana Higgs Stamfler, my sister, worked for Gwen Frostick for
years in Benzonia, worked side by side with her in
the workshop.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
So cool.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I visited the workshop too. I don't know if
you've had a chance of visiting it.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, I have, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
And I've been a fan of her work for probably
thirty years. I collect her work. I have actually one
of our one of our guest bathrooms in our house
has a bunch of her framed prints hanging in it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
She was from the.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Saginaw Valley Thalm area, but she Croswell really but she
went to Western after she.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Graduated high school.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
She suffered something similar to polio as a child, and
so you think about the artistic things that she was doing.
She she had really kind of crippled hands, and she
with a limp, but she trained herself to draw. Her
parents were both educators, and so they pushed her. They
just said, you know what, your siblings are out playing
(21:09):
in the yard. You get out there and play in
the yard. And they pushed her to do things, and
they made her go to regular schools and she worked
in the bomber plants during the war.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
But she learned how to draw, and then.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
She would take those paintings that she drew out in
the nature of Benzonia, and then she would she would
carve them in reverse and linoleum with like exact oonins
with these with these rippled kind of hands, and she
made the most amazing thing. She owned all these Heidelberg
presses and the setup was amazing, and she had one
of the largest mail order businesses for calendars and stationery
(21:47):
and notepads, and later on into things like decks of
cards and coffee mugs and everything. So she went to
Western when she passed away, she she willed her entire
ten million estate to Western and they named art school
for her. Okay, and she's fascinating. There's actually a really
beautiful children's book about her. It is my five year
(22:09):
old granddaughter's favorite book. When she comes up here. We
read it every night.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
She loves it.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
And she's coming this summer and she for a week
and she says to me, Grandma, can we go to
Gwen Frostick's store. So my daughter, my mother and my granddaughter,
we're all granddaughters. We're all going to take a trip
to Benzonia this summer to go to the studio because
my granddaughter is just like she has some of the prints,
(22:36):
the note cards that she has in her little desk
here at my house, so that she has her own
little Gwen Frostick.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It's a great story. And I did not know the
Western connection. That's why she's in Kalamazoo County Characters. I've
got about two minutes left. We're with Diana Higgs Stampler,
author of kalam Zoo County Characters, And the book closes.
The book, in fact, is dedicated to your dad, who
passed away in May of last year. And I know
he was kind of he was your hero He was
(23:05):
a well respected radio professional. He was a DJ, he
managed stations, and he has a connection. It's in Kalamazoo
County characters at the end of the book, but only
a couple of minutes left. He has a connection with
fame with the Eagles and helping to break one of
their biggest hits, right.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
Yeah, yes, so yeah, So.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Fall of seventy four, the Eagles were out, but they
had I think their third album was on the Border.
I'm actually looking at a copy of it right now
in my office. The you know, the executives back then,
you know, they would try to push certain songs, and
my dad's like, this is not hitting. He starts to
listen to the album. He finds a song on there.
It's a beautiful ballad, and he starts to play it
(23:50):
in Kalamazoo, even though it's not scheduled to be released
as a single, and it hits really, really well, and
then it takes off in Kalamazoo or in Detroit and Chicago.
My dad they convince his asylum Electra to release this
as a single. And fifty years ago this month, so
I think it was March fifth, it hit number one,
and so it was the Best of My Love became
(24:11):
the very first number one single for the Eagles thanks
to my dad's initiatives. And I think it was eight fifteen.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I can't even remember now. When they came to call
Grand Rapids. We got access.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
We called the executive who's still working for the company
in Nashville, and I said, Bert Stein said, hey, my
dad's never seen the Eagles and they're in town and
it's his seventieth birthday would have been twenty fourteen. And
I said, can you help, and he goes, yeah, we'll
get it taken care of. So we got tickets and
backstage passes to meet the band, my dad, my stepmom,
(24:44):
my kids, and I And so he got a chance
to tell the story to Glenn Fry and Don Henley,
who were part of the original band, on how that
whole thing repressed right well, after Glenn Fry passed away,
Rolling Stone came out with a special So Don Henley
still tells the story now because he met my dad.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
He'll tell it on stage. He told it in Rolling Stone.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
So cool.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
It was just so amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And I'm excited because Don Felder, who was originally with
the band, is playing in Tasky this summer at the casino,
and I'm going to get tickets to go see him
so that I can give him a copy of my
book love.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It and he will love that as well. Again, real
quickly before we run out of time. Diana Higgs Stamfler
is our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The book is Kalamazoo County Characters and you can get
it autographed if you order it through her website Promote
Michigan dot com. Promote Michigan dot com also highly recommend.
We did a segment it's in the podcast section for
this program West Michigan Weekend, Death and.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Lighthouses on the Great Lakes.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You can get that book from promote Michigan dot com,
but highly recommend Kalamazoo County Characters. I know my wife
saw the book and she said, say hi to Diana,
and can I have the book?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Please give me the book.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Great story because we have a lot of family in
the Kalamazoo County area. Diana Higgs Staanfler, it's been a
real pleasure. I knew we could probably fill two hours
with this conversation between you and me, and I'm so
glad you joined us.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Thanks so much, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
She's been our guest on this segment of West Michigan
Weekend from iHeartRadio. Boy, it's been a lot of fun
Kalamazoo County characters. We'll do this again next week right
here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
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