Independence, Mantle, and Miss Able is the extraordinary history of the small town of Independence, Kansas nestled in the southeastern corner of the Sunflower state.

The first night baseball game in the history of Organized Baseball was played in Independence on April 28,1930. Mickey Mantle played his first season of professional baseball for the Independence Yankees. A number of ballplayers who spent time playing in Independence went on to outstanding careers in the Major Leagues and two are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The first successful space shot by NASA...

After 38 years of doing commercial business insurance inspections, I'm almost certain I've seen every kind of business imaginable - from restaurants on top of snow capped peaks to houses of ill repute to gold mines in the hills of Wyoming. My inspectors and I have been confronted or outright attacked by dogs, mosquitoes, turkeys, bears, and, of course, people. We covered five states from top to bottom including large cities, small towns and remote areas. We roamed this vast region with directions such as, "Turn right when you come to the bull in the field," or "You need to find a rock that...