Christina Peterson

John Schilling was my great uncle. In 1922, Uncle John co-founded WHB, a Kansas City radio station. There he met his future wife, Yvonne Rodier, through her sister, my maternal grandmother, Marguerite. My grandmother had landed a job playing piano in the WHB studio orchestra. She met my grandfather, Ralph P. Stevens, a bass player, in the orchestra and they double dated with Schilling and Aunt Yvonne. Both couples subsequently married. After WHB was sold, Uncle John became the manager and vice-president of KMBC, a local television station (). As I remember Uncle John, he was a big, sandy-haired, mustached man with a red face and bright, blue eyes. He, my Aunt Yvonne and my grandparents did a lot of traveling together. They motor-toured the U.S. back when that was still an adventure and later took a number of trips to Mexico and Europe. I spent a lot of time at Uncle John and Aunt Yvonne's home when I was young. It was a lovely place, set back from the street. They had never had children, and I rarely saw Uncle John. My understanding when I was young was that he was always terribly busy working. Many years later, I learned that, in addition to his duties at the station, he was usually kept pretty busy with other women. Still, the more I learn about him, the more I wish I'd been older when I knew him. I'd love to hear him talk about his life. He was an adventurous and ambitious man who tried his hand at lots of things - often successfully. Here's my one clear memory of him. One summer night, he showed me the constellation Orion and taught me how I could always find it by looking first for Orion's Belt, then his sword. That, in turn, got me interested in learning the stories behind, and the names and locations of the other constellations. I'm an old woman now but I always think of Uncle John when I look at the night sky. He gave me the stars.