I guess you could say the author – Ted W. Stillwell – is just an old burnt-out
hippy, rock and roll disc jockey. After many years of spinning records on the
radio, the music and the teenyboppers finally got to him, so he switched gears
and began reading, writing, and gathering news on the radio instead of music.
Apparently, it was meant to be. In 1974, while working in the news media, his
assignment was the well-known artist – Thomas Hart Benton. Benton was in the
process of painting a mural for the Joplin, Missouri Centennial. His mural told
the story of the mining town at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Being an
artist himself, this assignment impacted Stillwell’s life tremendously. Since
then, he has spent much of his life as a storyteller, both in his writing and
his artwork. The obvious Benton influence in Stillwell’s work has opened many
doors for him as an artist.
Born and raised in Eastern Jackson County, Missouri – with studio’s in the Old
Blake Museum on the Independence Square – Columnist and artist Ted W. Stillwell
has spent many years exploring the fascinating history of the Overland Trail
Days and the Opening of the West (from the little Nineteenth century frontier
outpost of Independence). His love of history and his passion for storytelling,
combined with his artwork, and writing abilities – all come together every
Wednesday in The Independence-Blue Springs Examiner and the Leavenworth Times,
Leavenworth. Kansas. Stillwell writes and illustrates – “Portraits of the Past”
– a newspaper column about the history and folklore of the states of Missouri of
Kansas. <examiner.net>