Charles Wesley Gusewelle, a writer for The Kansas City Star whose boundless wit, kindness and worldly wisdom captivated generations of readers, passed away Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at his home. A visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th Street. A celebration of his life will follow. A private burial will be Monday at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery.
Best known by his pen name C.W. Gusewelle (but "Gus" to many of his friends), Charles was born July 22, 1933 [at the "third" Bell Memorial Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas], and adopted [from an orphanage] by Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle of Kansas City. After graduating from Paseo High School, he received a bachelor's degree in English from Westminster College in 1955. That same year he joined The Star as a general assignment reporter.
Charles' appetite for adventure spurred a two-year detour as a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. Later he explored Europe with a Star colleague, Gene Ayres. Upon coming home he retreated to his parents' cabin and tried his hand at writing fiction. He returned to The Star a better wordsmith and was tapped in 1963 to head to the Deep South and report on the civil rights movement. That assignment produced more than three dozen stories.
His reporting and writing skills proven, Charles embarked on what he deemed "the golden age of journalism." He became an editorial writer on foreign affairs in 1966 and from 1976-79 served as foreign editor. He would travel the globe for The Star - to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. Not long after he married Katie Jane Ingels, Katie was stunned on a 1960s trip to Morocco when a snake charmer who had met Charles a few years earlier embraced him and declared, "My American friend!"
Readers learned more of Charles' adventuresome spirit after he became a columnist in 1979. In the mid-1980s he wrote from France for a year, three times a week, and from Dakar, Senegal, throughout a summer. Charles was the American leader of a 1991 joint U.S.-Russian expedition of the entire 2,734-mile length of the Lena River in Siberia. His family shared in the quest. He then wrote, produced and narrated a 90-minute documentary of that journey for KCPT, called "A Great Current Running".
Other TV features he would make included a documentary about Kansas City called "This Place Called Home", which won a regional Emmy award. "Water & Fire: A Story of the Ozarks" premiered in 2000 and was judged best in show in a competition among more than 70 U.S. public television stations.
The honors for his writing were numerous: The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for fiction in 1977. The Missouri Press Association award for daily columnist of the year, three times. Induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America and the MPA Newspaper Hall of Fame.
His longer pieces were published in Harper's, American Heritage and The Paris Review, among other magazines and journals. In 1978 his story,"Horst Wessel," was published in the Pushcart Prize III anthology of American writing and in 1985 his essay, "The Winds of Ruin", appeared in the anthology A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage. Among the most popular of his 12 books was a collection of Gusewelle columns called "The Rufus Chronicle: Another Autumn", featuring his beloved bird dog. Readers of his column also were endeared by stories about his many cats, as well as squirrels, birds, foxes and other creatures that amused him both at home in Kansas City and at his Ozarks cabin.
His passion for Paris was well known. Other loves: Every detail of nature. Typewriters (he owned 27) over computers, which he loathed. The fellowship that came with hunting and angling. Morel mushrooms, Lamar's doughnuts, the green beans at Smith's restaurant in Collins, Mo. And any good soul deserving of a lift in life.
Even in Charles' final year of failing health he planned new endeavors. He was preparing a speech of encouragement that he intended to deliver to underprivileged teens. He planned a luncheon feast, catered by Smith's, for his caregivers. He donated two new bikes for at-risk kids at Gillis. And he worked with his daughters in gathering up writings for a forthcoming collection, "Outbound: A Lifetime's Adventures in Journalism."
An only child, Charles was preceded in death by his parents - as well as Rufus, "the orange cat" Mickey and more animal friends, and the human kind, than anyone could count.
He is survived by Katie, his wife of 50 years whom Charles called "my fiercest and best editor," and daughters Anne Gusewelle and Jennie Gusewelle - all of whom had roles in Charles' columns. They lovingly called him "Lion."
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wayside Waifs (waysidewaifs.org). Or give to the KC Pet Project (kcpetproject.org) at 4400 Raytown Road, KCMO 64129.
Published in the November 19 and 20, 2016 editions of the Kansas City (MO) STAR
_________________________________________________________
NOTE: In addition to the video documentaries highlighted above are two others: "Away From It All" about his cabin in the Missouri Ozarks and including a nice autobiographical sketch at the beginning, and "Stories Under the Stone" about interesting and significant grave markers in the Kansas City region and elsewhere.
Concerning the latter, at "55:30" you will see the grave marker for his folks, Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle. I have yet to determine just where in this cemetery the graves are located. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.
And to hear Charles reading before a live audience, click here (2005) and here (2011). T.N.
His widow Katie Jane currently resides at Bishop Spencer Place in Kansas City, Missouri - https://bishopspencerplace.org
Best known by his pen name C.W. Gusewelle (but "Gus" to many of his friends), Charles was born July 22, 1933 [at the "third" Bell Memorial Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas], and adopted [from an orphanage] by Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle of Kansas City. After graduating from Paseo High School, he received a bachelor's degree in English from Westminster College in 1955. That same year he joined The Star as a general assignment reporter.
Charles' appetite for adventure spurred a two-year detour as a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. Later he explored Europe with a Star colleague, Gene Ayres. Upon coming home he retreated to his parents' cabin and tried his hand at writing fiction. He returned to The Star a better wordsmith and was tapped in 1963 to head to the Deep South and report on the civil rights movement. That assignment produced more than three dozen stories.
His reporting and writing skills proven, Charles embarked on what he deemed "the golden age of journalism." He became an editorial writer on foreign affairs in 1966 and from 1976-79 served as foreign editor. He would travel the globe for The Star - to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. Not long after he married Katie Jane Ingels, Katie was stunned on a 1960s trip to Morocco when a snake charmer who had met Charles a few years earlier embraced him and declared, "My American friend!"
Readers learned more of Charles' adventuresome spirit after he became a columnist in 1979. In the mid-1980s he wrote from France for a year, three times a week, and from Dakar, Senegal, throughout a summer. Charles was the American leader of a 1991 joint U.S.-Russian expedition of the entire 2,734-mile length of the Lena River in Siberia. His family shared in the quest. He then wrote, produced and narrated a 90-minute documentary of that journey for KCPT, called "A Great Current Running".
Other TV features he would make included a documentary about Kansas City called "This Place Called Home", which won a regional Emmy award. "Water & Fire: A Story of the Ozarks" premiered in 2000 and was judged best in show in a competition among more than 70 U.S. public television stations.
The honors for his writing were numerous: The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for fiction in 1977. The Missouri Press Association award for daily columnist of the year, three times. Induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America and the MPA Newspaper Hall of Fame.
His longer pieces were published in Harper's, American Heritage and The Paris Review, among other magazines and journals. In 1978 his story,"Horst Wessel," was published in the Pushcart Prize III anthology of American writing and in 1985 his essay, "The Winds of Ruin", appeared in the anthology A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage. Among the most popular of his 12 books was a collection of Gusewelle columns called "The Rufus Chronicle: Another Autumn", featuring his beloved bird dog. Readers of his column also were endeared by stories about his many cats, as well as squirrels, birds, foxes and other creatures that amused him both at home in Kansas City and at his Ozarks cabin.
His passion for Paris was well known. Other loves: Every detail of nature. Typewriters (he owned 27) over computers, which he loathed. The fellowship that came with hunting and angling. Morel mushrooms, Lamar's doughnuts, the green beans at Smith's restaurant in Collins, Mo. And any good soul deserving of a lift in life.
Even in Charles' final year of failing health he planned new endeavors. He was preparing a speech of encouragement that he intended to deliver to underprivileged teens. He planned a luncheon feast, catered by Smith's, for his caregivers. He donated two new bikes for at-risk kids at Gillis. And he worked with his daughters in gathering up writings for a forthcoming collection, "Outbound: A Lifetime's Adventures in Journalism."
An only child, Charles was preceded in death by his parents - as well as Rufus, "the orange cat" Mickey and more animal friends, and the human kind, than anyone could count.
He is survived by Katie, his wife of 50 years whom Charles called "my fiercest and best editor," and daughters Anne Gusewelle and Jennie Gusewelle - all of whom had roles in Charles' columns. They lovingly called him "Lion."
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wayside Waifs (waysidewaifs.org). Or give to the KC Pet Project (kcpetproject.org) at 4400 Raytown Road, KCMO 64129.
Published in the November 19 and 20, 2016 editions of the Kansas City (MO) STAR
_________________________________________________________
NOTE: In addition to the video documentaries highlighted above are two others: "Away From It All" about his cabin in the Missouri Ozarks and including a nice autobiographical sketch at the beginning, and "Stories Under the Stone" about interesting and significant grave markers in the Kansas City region and elsewhere.
Concerning the latter, at "55:30" you will see the grave marker for his folks, Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle. I have yet to determine just where in this cemetery the graves are located. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.
And to hear Charles reading before a live audience, click here (2005) and here (2011). T.N.
His widow Katie Jane currently resides at Bishop Spencer Place in Kansas City, Missouri - https://bishopspencerplace.org
Charles Wesley Gusewelle, a writer for The Kansas City Star whose boundless wit, kindness and worldly wisdom captivated generations of readers, passed away Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at his home. A visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th Street. A celebration of his life will follow. A private burial will be Monday at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery.
Best known by his pen name C.W. Gusewelle (but "Gus" to many of his friends), Charles was born July 22, 1933 [at the "third" Bell Memorial Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas], and adopted [from an orphanage] by Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle of Kansas City. After graduating from Paseo High School, he received a bachelor's degree in English from Westminster College in 1955. That same year he joined The Star as a general assignment reporter.
Charles' appetite for adventure spurred a two-year detour as a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. Later he explored Europe with a Star colleague, Gene Ayres. Upon coming home he retreated to his parents' cabin and tried his hand at writing fiction. He returned to The Star a better wordsmith and was tapped in 1963 to head to the Deep South and report on the civil rights movement. That assignment produced more than three dozen stories.
His reporting and writing skills proven, Charles embarked on what he deemed "the golden age of journalism." He became an editorial writer on foreign affairs in 1966 and from 1976-79 served as foreign editor. He would travel the globe for The Star - to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. Not long after he married Katie Jane Ingels, Katie was stunned on a 1960s trip to Morocco when a snake charmer who had met Charles a few years earlier embraced him and declared, "My American friend!"
Readers learned more of Charles' adventuresome spirit after he became a columnist in 1979. In the mid-1980s he wrote from France for a year, three times a week, and from Dakar, Senegal, throughout a summer. Charles was the American leader of a 1991 joint U.S.-Russian expedition of the entire 2,734-mile length of the Lena River in Siberia. His family shared in the quest. He then wrote, produced and narrated a 90-minute documentary of that journey for KCPT, called "A Great Current Running".
Other TV features he would make included a documentary about Kansas City called "This Place Called Home", which won a regional Emmy award. "Water & Fire: A Story of the Ozarks" premiered in 2000 and was judged best in show in a competition among more than 70 U.S. public television stations.
The honors for his writing were numerous: The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for fiction in 1977. The Missouri Press Association award for daily columnist of the year, three times. Induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America and the MPA Newspaper Hall of Fame.
His longer pieces were published in Harper's, American Heritage and The Paris Review, among other magazines and journals. In 1978 his story,"Horst Wessel," was published in the Pushcart Prize III anthology of American writing and in 1985 his essay, "The Winds of Ruin", appeared in the anthology A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage. Among the most popular of his 12 books was a collection of Gusewelle columns called "The Rufus Chronicle: Another Autumn", featuring his beloved bird dog. Readers of his column also were endeared by stories about his many cats, as well as squirrels, birds, foxes and other creatures that amused him both at home in Kansas City and at his Ozarks cabin.
His passion for Paris was well known. Other loves: Every detail of nature. Typewriters (he owned 27) over computers, which he loathed. The fellowship that came with hunting and angling. Morel mushrooms, Lamar's doughnuts, the green beans at Smith's restaurant in Collins, Mo. And any good soul deserving of a lift in life.
Even in Charles' final year of failing health he planned new endeavors. He was preparing a speech of encouragement that he intended to deliver to underprivileged teens. He planned a luncheon feast, catered by Smith's, for his caregivers. He donated two new bikes for at-risk kids at Gillis. And he worked with his daughters in gathering up writings for a forthcoming collection, "Outbound: A Lifetime's Adventures in Journalism."
An only child, Charles was preceded in death by his parents - as well as Rufus, "the orange cat" Mickey and more animal friends, and the human kind, than anyone could count.
He is survived by Katie, his wife of 50 years whom Charles called "my fiercest and best editor," and daughters Anne Gusewelle and Jennie Gusewelle - all of whom had roles in Charles' columns. They lovingly called him "Lion."
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wayside Waifs (waysidewaifs.org). Or give to the KC Pet Project (kcpetproject.org) at 4400 Raytown Road, KCMO 64129.
Published in the November 19 and 20, 2016 editions of the Kansas City (MO) STAR
_________________________________________________________
NOTE: In addition to the video documentaries highlighted above are two others: "Away From It All" about his cabin in the Missouri Ozarks and including a nice autobiographical sketch at the beginning, and "Stories Under the Stone" about interesting and significant grave markers in the Kansas City region and elsewhere.
Concerning the latter, at "55:30" you will see the grave marker for his folks, Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle. I have yet to determine just where in this cemetery the graves are located. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.
And to hear Charles reading before a live audience, click here (2005) and here (2011). T.N.
His widow Katie Jane currently resides at Bishop Spencer Place in Kansas City, Missouri - https://bishopspencerplace.org
Best known by his pen name C.W. Gusewelle (but "Gus" to many of his friends), Charles was born July 22, 1933 [at the "third" Bell Memorial Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas], and adopted [from an orphanage] by Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle of Kansas City. After graduating from Paseo High School, he received a bachelor's degree in English from Westminster College in 1955. That same year he joined The Star as a general assignment reporter.
Charles' appetite for adventure spurred a two-year detour as a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. Later he explored Europe with a Star colleague, Gene Ayres. Upon coming home he retreated to his parents' cabin and tried his hand at writing fiction. He returned to The Star a better wordsmith and was tapped in 1963 to head to the Deep South and report on the civil rights movement. That assignment produced more than three dozen stories.
His reporting and writing skills proven, Charles embarked on what he deemed "the golden age of journalism." He became an editorial writer on foreign affairs in 1966 and from 1976-79 served as foreign editor. He would travel the globe for The Star - to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. Not long after he married Katie Jane Ingels, Katie was stunned on a 1960s trip to Morocco when a snake charmer who had met Charles a few years earlier embraced him and declared, "My American friend!"
Readers learned more of Charles' adventuresome spirit after he became a columnist in 1979. In the mid-1980s he wrote from France for a year, three times a week, and from Dakar, Senegal, throughout a summer. Charles was the American leader of a 1991 joint U.S.-Russian expedition of the entire 2,734-mile length of the Lena River in Siberia. His family shared in the quest. He then wrote, produced and narrated a 90-minute documentary of that journey for KCPT, called "A Great Current Running".
Other TV features he would make included a documentary about Kansas City called "This Place Called Home", which won a regional Emmy award. "Water & Fire: A Story of the Ozarks" premiered in 2000 and was judged best in show in a competition among more than 70 U.S. public television stations.
The honors for his writing were numerous: The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for fiction in 1977. The Missouri Press Association award for daily columnist of the year, three times. Induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America and the MPA Newspaper Hall of Fame.
His longer pieces were published in Harper's, American Heritage and The Paris Review, among other magazines and journals. In 1978 his story,"Horst Wessel," was published in the Pushcart Prize III anthology of American writing and in 1985 his essay, "The Winds of Ruin", appeared in the anthology A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage. Among the most popular of his 12 books was a collection of Gusewelle columns called "The Rufus Chronicle: Another Autumn", featuring his beloved bird dog. Readers of his column also were endeared by stories about his many cats, as well as squirrels, birds, foxes and other creatures that amused him both at home in Kansas City and at his Ozarks cabin.
His passion for Paris was well known. Other loves: Every detail of nature. Typewriters (he owned 27) over computers, which he loathed. The fellowship that came with hunting and angling. Morel mushrooms, Lamar's doughnuts, the green beans at Smith's restaurant in Collins, Mo. And any good soul deserving of a lift in life.
Even in Charles' final year of failing health he planned new endeavors. He was preparing a speech of encouragement that he intended to deliver to underprivileged teens. He planned a luncheon feast, catered by Smith's, for his caregivers. He donated two new bikes for at-risk kids at Gillis. And he worked with his daughters in gathering up writings for a forthcoming collection, "Outbound: A Lifetime's Adventures in Journalism."
An only child, Charles was preceded in death by his parents - as well as Rufus, "the orange cat" Mickey and more animal friends, and the human kind, than anyone could count.
He is survived by Katie, his wife of 50 years whom Charles called "my fiercest and best editor," and daughters Anne Gusewelle and Jennie Gusewelle - all of whom had roles in Charles' columns. They lovingly called him "Lion."
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wayside Waifs (waysidewaifs.org). Or give to the KC Pet Project (kcpetproject.org) at 4400 Raytown Road, KCMO 64129.
Published in the November 19 and 20, 2016 editions of the Kansas City (MO) STAR
_________________________________________________________
NOTE: In addition to the video documentaries highlighted above are two others: "Away From It All" about his cabin in the Missouri Ozarks and including a nice autobiographical sketch at the beginning, and "Stories Under the Stone" about interesting and significant grave markers in the Kansas City region and elsewhere.
Concerning the latter, at "55:30" you will see the grave marker for his folks, Hugh and Dorothy Gusewelle. I have yet to determine just where in this cemetery the graves are located. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.
And to hear Charles reading before a live audience, click here (2005) and here (2011). T.N.
His widow Katie Jane currently resides at Bishop Spencer Place in Kansas City, Missouri - https://bishopspencerplace.org
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Gravesite Details
According to this map, Block 50 is in the easternmost part of Forest Hill Cemetery.
