Kenneth Dale Christensen was born to Earl and Eletha (Petersen) Christensen on August 18, 1938, at their family farm near Irwin, Iowa. At the age of nine he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He attended kindergarten through 11th grade in Kirkman, Iowa, and completed his senior year, graduating from Irwin Kirkman High School. Following graduation, Kenneth farmed near Irwin until 1984.

Judy Summers, daughter of Lister and Ercyle Brace, was born July 26, 1939 in Woodbine, Iowa. She graduated from Harlan High School with the class of 1957.  Judy was united in marriage to Charles Summers, Sr. on October 2, 1960, and together they had two sons, Charlie Jr. and Matt. She worked many years at Jacobs Corporation before retiring in 2016.

Funeral services for Russ Breitkreutz age 90 of Wisner, NE will be held on Friday, May 1, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wisner, NE with Rev. Gregory Prauner officiating. Interment will be in the Wisner Cemetery with a luncheon to follow at the Wisner City Auditorium. Visitation will be on Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at St.

JEFFERSON — The season came to an end Tuesday night for the Harlan Community Cyclones boys soccer team as they fell 2-0 to Greene County in a hard-fought defensive battle in the opening round of the Class 2A Region 8 postseason bracket.

COUNCIL BLUFFS-The Harlan Community Middle School girls teams competed at the Hawkeye 10 Conference Meet with the 7th grade Cyclones bringing home the conference championship while the 8th grade squad battled through a deep field and produced several strong performances.

GLENWOOD- The Cyclone girls track and field team delivered one of its strongest performances of the season Thursday night at the Class 3A State Qualifying Meet in Glenwood, qualifying five events for the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships while finishing seventh in the team standings with 51 points.

HARLAN — Shelby County Speedway packed the pits once again Saturday night as 116 cars filled the fairgrounds for another action-packed evening of racing across six divisions at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.

There’s a particular kind of silence that settles over a town when its newspaper closes. It’s not loud, not immediate. It creeps in slowly. It may not be noticed immediately when the final edition is delivered,  the last byline runs, and the office lights go dark. 
And then one day, people realize something is missing. Not just the paper, but the thread that quietly stitched the community together.

Hold on to your bonnets and circle the wagons, because  it’s official. The Ingalls family is going back to the prairie.
And by that, I mean Little House on the Prairie is getting the remake treatment from Netflix. 
I imagine somewhere in the heavens, Michael Landon is looking down, squinting across the prairie grass, and wondering how many episodes it will take before someone invents Wi-Fi in Walnut Grove.