Bio-Huston, EttaHemphill

Etta May (Huston) Hemphill
(1873-1939)

Etta May (Huston) Hemphill was born two days before Christmas 1873 in Spring Hill, Johnson County, KS, the daughter of Boyd W. and Clara (Barnhouse) Huston. Her husband, seen here, was prominent in local farming circles of Johnson County.

At the age of five, in about 1878, Etta and her parents and siblings moved from Spring Hill to a farm near Olathe, in the Fairview School neighborhood of Oxford Township, Johnson County.

Early in adulthood, Etta taught school in Oxford Township near her parents' farm.

On Feb. 14, 1894, the 21-year-old Etta married 28-year-old John Alexander Hemphill (1866-1935), by the hand of A.V. Stout, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Olathe. The ceremony took place seven miles east of Olathe, likely in the Huston home, according to Johnson County probate court records. John was the son of Civil War veteran Matthew Reid and Eliza Ann (Edgar) Hemphill of Johnson County.

The Hemphills went on to have five children -- Boyd Elmer Hemphill, Maude Lowe, Margaret Dodds, Robert W. "Bert" Hemphill and Mary C. Tippin.

Bird's-eye view of Olathe, early 1900s

In 1897, three years after their wedding, Etta and John moved to a farm, near Morse, located five and one half miles southeast of Olathe, Johnson County. They made their home on this farm for three decades. They were members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Olathe, where John served in the role of elder for 22 years.

Tragically, in November 1898, their infant son Boyd -- named after his grandfather Boyd W. Huston -- began to suffer from whooping cough and pneumonia. The three-month-old boy could not recover, and died on Nov. 26, 1898. The Olathe Mirror carried a short notice of his death.

A woman of deep Christian faith, Etta was deeply active in her church for more than four decades. Said the Johnson County Democrat:

Especially was she interested in the work of Christ's Kingdom. She was a member of the Reformed Presbyterian church for many years. She served on the Executive Board of the Women's Missionary Society, and for some time acted as its corresponding secretary. She was always glad to have them meet at her home, and that was quite often done. She always welcomed the prayer meetings of the church and community to her home. she was interested in the Spiritual welfare of all around her.

In about 1922, Etta became afflicted with crippling arthritis. In reporting on her illness, the Democrat said that she "suffered intense pain during the early stages of the disease but this finally ended, leaving her to spend the remainder of her life in the wheel-chair. For an active woman that could not be a happy prospect. Yet through the long years she was resigned to her affliction and never complained. On the other hand she was always cheerful and interested in the activities of life about her."

The Johnson County Democrat reported that John was "very active in the Farm Bureau and well known over the state for his work in the organization. He was past president of the Johnson Co. association, and a member of the board of the Farmers Union for 15 years." In another article about John, the Olathe Mirror said:

It is not necessary in this community to speak of Mr. Hemphill's life and character or of the high esteem with which his name is held. He lived simply and honorably, was direct and upright in all his dealings and lived a friend to everyone. His care of and devotion to his wife during the past ten years of her affliction is known to us all.

In about 1927, the Hemphills retired from farming, and moved to a home in the town of Olathe, located at 441 East Loula Street.

John's health began to deteriorate as he passed his 65th birthday. In late January 1935, knowing he was dying, he wrote a will, witnessed by W. Edgar Moore and M.R. Jameson, both of Olathe. He named his wife and brother in law Frank Huston as executors of the estate.

He passed away at the age of 68 on Feb. 25, 1935. The funeral was held at the Reformed Presbyterian Church, led by Rev. M.R. Jameson, and assisted by Rev. Paul Coleman and Rev. W.W. Blough. With funeral arrangements handled by the Julien Mortuary, burial followed in the Hemphill family plot in the Olathe Cemetery. Obituaries were published in both the Democrat and the Mirror. Eulogized the Mirror: "Although dead, his memory and example live on." In addition to his wife and children, John was survived by sister Mary Redpath of Olathe and brothers Robert E. Hemphill of Santa Barbara, CA; Samuel R. Hemphill of Olathe; and M.E. "Elmer" Hemphill and William J. Hemphill of Wichita, KS.

Etta outlived her husband by four years. In the middle of 1938, she was paralyzed by a stroke, which "left her even more helpless, being thereafter unable to read or converse," said the Democrat. "Yet she remained as cheerful as ever. During the past summer she enjoyed sitting in her wheel-chair on the front porch of her home and her friends always were greeted with a smile. Her life is a wonderful lesson of RESIGNATION to the will of God."

She died on Oct. 15, 1939, at the age of 66, freed from the constraints of her physical disabilities. Her funeral was led by Rev. D. Ray Wilcox of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, followed by burial beside her husband. She was eulogized with this poem in a local newspaper:

"Her children rise up and call her blessed...
Give her of the fruit of her hands;
and let her own works praise her in the gates."

Because Etta did not leave a will, she was considered "intestate." That meant that her real and personal property assets automatically descended to her living siblings and the children of her deceased siblings. This primarily included the question of ownership rights in the old family farm. The matter further was complicated by the fact that Etta herself was an heir of the estate of her late mother, who also had died intestate, and whose estate had never been properly administered and accounted for. To determine the correct descent of assets so they could be properly divided, Etta's brother Frank filed a petition in Probate Court, with a county judge making a final determination.

Daughter Eliza "Maude" Hemphill (1895-1978) was born on Aug. 19, 1895 in Johnson County. She married W. "Harper" Lowe ( ? - ? ).

When Maude's father wrote his will in 1935, he stipulated that if Maude and W.H. would make a home for Etta, he would bequeath to them their home in Lot 3, Block 2, south of Loula Street, in the Hayes Addition of Olathe.

Circa 1939, Maude resided in Van Nuys, CA. She apparently maintained a home in Los Angeles area for the rest of her life. In 1947-1956, her address was 14203 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys.

Maude received a cash payout of $162.64 in 1948 as the residual value of her Huston family inheritance.

On Sept. 11, 1978, Maude passed away in Los Angeles, at the age of 83. Funeral services were held at the Church of the Recessional in Los Angeles, with burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Her obituary was printed in her former hometown newspaper, the Olathe Daily News.

Son Robert W. "Bert" Hemphill (1897-1976) has been called the "Dean of Travel" and as a "pioneer" in the luxury airline travel and tourism industry. Only one other individual, Arthur Frommer, has received this unofficial honor. Bert was the owner of Hemphill Travel Service and Hemphill World Cruises of Los Angeles which later evolved into a new company, Hemphill Harris, after his death.

Bert married Dorothy C. ( ? - ? ). They made their home in North Hollywood, CA in 1939 and in Burbank, CA in the 1970s. They had two children -- John Hemphill and James Hemphill.

Air Lift, a trade journal, once said that Bert's "mark of distinction consists of a goatee, a beret and blue twinkling eyes and an ever-present smile." Another, Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times, called him "one of the most peripatetic and widely known travel agents in the industry."

He is seen at right beside a Scandinavian Airline System boarding stairway in July 1966. (Image courtesy of the Travelers Century Club.)

Having grown up in Olathe, Bert left to join the Navy in the 1920s and "later was a teacher in the mission field in Larnaca, Cyprus," reported the Olathe Daily News.

Moving to California in 1928, he managed excursions for a travel agency before founding his own agency. He was former international president of the American Society of Travel Agents, and was named in 1974 to the Travel Hall of Fame by that group. He also had been honored by the governments of India, the U.S.S.R., Spain and France, among other countries, as well as the Pacific Area Travel Association.

Circa 1947-1956, Bert made his home at 4837 Agnes Avenue in North Hollywood. He was named in the estate papers of his deceased grandmother, bachelor uncle Harry Huston and unmarried aunt Bertha Huston. As such, he received a cash payout of $162.64 in 1948 as the residual value of his Huston family inheritance.

Bert's office in Los Angeles was located at various sites, including 727 West 7th Street, and at 1201 West 4th Street. One of his primary traveling companions was Don Scariano of Beverly Hills.

In January 1948, in a "Travel Notes" column in the Guest Life tabloid magazine serving Southern California's "most exclusive hotels, apartment-hotels and resorts," Bert advertised the upcoming inaugural "Around the World Air Cruise." He wrote that participants would have:

...the unique opportunity of seeing the world and its people under new and changing conditions. Today is 1948 and this is the age of flight. The modern way to see the world comfortably and luxuriously is by air. The people of the world no longer look down but up. Symbolizing man's eternal effort to life himself above his surroundings and his aspiration towards higher things, a flight around the world offers an exaltation of spirit and visual

Bert's "Travel Notes" column and advertisement in the Jan. 21, 1948 edition of the Guest Life publication of Southern California

One such "Around the World" trip was to head westbound on March 30, 1948, to Hawaii, and thence to Japan, China, Manila, Siam, India, Syria, Turkey and Europe, finishing in New York. Another, a spring party, was to leave for Europe on April 2, 1948 for a two-month motor tour of Spain, South France, Italy and thence return via Paris and London. A summer tour, leaving June 7, 1948 for two months, was to visit England, Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium, France and Switzerland. In the Guest Life column and accompanying advertisement, Bert was labeled as "The man who's been there."

A travel book by Robert C. Allen, Creating Hawaii Tourism, says that Bert specialized "in the so-called carriage trade, or the upscale tourist. His groups were small but highly personalized, the tours mostly conducted by himself. Most of his people stayed at the Royal Hawaiian." Published in 2004 as a paperback, by Bess Press, Inc., this book describes the people and events that helped transform Hawaii from a small resort into a world-class tourist mecca.

Bustling Los Angeles, 1940s

Bert also is mentioned in James M. Robinson's 1969 book, Americanski Journalist, published by Westernlore Press, a memoir about Robinson's experiences traveling to the "more forbidden areas" of the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Robison wrote that Bert "was so competent and persistent in making the arrangements for my first trip..." In the 1970 book Of Rivers and the Sea, author Herbert Eliot French writes of the Antipodes sections of Australia and New Zealand:

Maybe someday the World Wildlife Fund or some other such international life-saving foundation will se tout a new colony of fur seals there. I have never met any global traveler who has visited the Antipodes, or "point zero," for that matter. Perhaps Bert Hemphill or Lars-Eric Lindblad are contemplating tours to both places.

Books mentioning Bert Hemphill, L-R: Of Rivers and the Sea, by Herbert E. French (1970); Americanski Journalist, by James M. Robinson (1969); and Creating Hawai'i Tourism, by Robert C. Allen (2004).

Seen at right, a Hemphill world Cruises brochure touting a 68-day "Africa Safari" scheduled to department Jan. 18, 1963 and Sept. 27, 1963.

To maintain this high profile among higher net worth individuals, Bert sought publicity as widely as possible. He is known to have written a guest column in 1959 for the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Newest Shagri-La Awaits Tourists." (This later was reprinted in the Ex-CBI Roundup.) In another article, in about 1962 (and reprinted by the Times on May 18, 1986 in "The World As a First-Class Spectable"), he was quoted addressing the fears of potential tourists in traveling to politically unstable places:

Should you put off traveling abroad? Admittedly the headlines have had an unsettling effect upon the world. As a result, many have postpone their travels until things are "back to normal." Unfortunately, such Utopian prospects may never be.

Taking his profile to a more national scale, Bert was pictured and quoted in the November 1957 edition of Esquire Magazine, in "Richard Joseph's Travel Notes." In the piece, Bert expressed his concerns with the airlines' proposed "plans for electronic reservation and ticket devices" and his uncertainty with how these new technologies would affect travel agents. An original copy of the publication is preserved in our family archives.

In about 1954, Bert established the Travelers' Century Club, with exclusive membership only for those who had visited 100 countries or more. The group had a provisional membership for individuals who had toured 75 countries. The globe-trotting members, some 43 in number by 1960, were known as "Centurions." The TCC's newsletter also was named The Centurian. Unlike today, when air travel is easy and affordable, achieving the century designation would have been a major, expensive undertaking. Bert served as the initial president of the club, and tour director Russell Davidson as the secretary. In 1960, a press conference was held by the club after selecting the slogan "World Travel: The Passport to Peace Through Understanding."

As joint heirs to their mother's old family farms back in Olathe, Bert and his sisters sold their legal interest in several of the tracts over the years -- to their uncle Jesse S. Huston in June 1948, for a token dollar, and again to their cousins Boyd E. and Glen T. Huston in September 1956.

Bert, second from right, with fellow members of the exclusive "Travelers Century Club" about to board a Scandinavian Airline flight on July 8, 1966. Image courtesy of the Travelers Century Club.

Bert died at the age of 79 on Aug. 3, 1976, in Burbank. In his obituary, the Olathe Daily News said he was "founder of one of the most successful independent travel agencies in the nation and one of the world's most traveled men... During his career, he logged more than 1,800 air flights, sailed on nearly 200 cruises, visited 232 countries and islands groups, and had flown, cruised, walked, bicycled and camel-backed at least five million miles."

The legacy of Bert Hemphill and his travel empire lived on. The Los Angeles Business Journal in 1990 called the firm "one of the most trusted names in the travel business..." When ASTA's Southern California chapter celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010, the organization published a book which mention Bert on its pages.

Son John Hemphill succeeded Bert in 1975 at the travel agency, and joined forces with Ron Harris in a newly renamed venture, Hemphill Harris Travel Corporation, based in Encino, CA. The firm continued operations for 13 years until being sold in December 1988 to Westar Acquisitions Corporation. At one point, the firm employed 70 people, marketing its packages through a nationwide network of travel agents.

Some packages for two cost as much as $15,000. A full-page magazine advertisement in 1984, seen below right, advertised "Europe A La Carte," featuring a photograph of a European palace set on a light green page background. At the time, the company's offices were located at 18000 Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

A Nov. 5, 1989 New York Times article, "Practical Traveler; Left High and Dry on a Package Tour," said that the firm's volume for land packages that year was about 16,000 clients, who were spending $70 million, an average of $4,500 per person. The Times article said that "Since early in the year, travel publications have been reporting on turmoil resulting from the sale of Hemphill Harris: suits and countersuits, dismissals and resignations. Travel Weekly, Travel Management Newsletter, Tour and Travel News and TravelAge West all followed developments. After the sale to Westar, Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Harris stayed on, but eventually they left..." In 1990, John worked in another travel industry business.

Daughter Mary C. Hemphill (1904-1994) married widower Dr. Joseph Glenn "J.G." Tippin (1893?-1946) on Oct. 27, 1925. She was age 21 at the time, and he 32. He had been married before, to Alice Kohr (who died young of Hodgkin's Disease), and brought two children to the marriage, George Kenneth Tippin and Charlotte Tippin-Ball.

Mary and Joseph resided in Olathe, and had one son of their own -- Robert Tippin. She considered all three of her children as her own, and later, after her death, they inscribed this on her grave marker: "You always loved us."

Mary's husband was one of twin brothers born to W.J. and Ida (Black) Tippin, with his brother Guy dying at the age of seven. Joseph attended Sterling College, and then taught school for several years. He then enrolled in Kansas City Dental College, and graduated in 1917. During World War I, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a captain in the Dental Corps.

Independence, KS, looking north

Joseph established a dentistry practice in Olathe, and Mary assisted him as a bookkeeper and assistant. The Johnson County Democrat reported that he "soon became popular as a dentist and built up a big lasting practice. He united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church at an early age, and served the local church as a deacon many years. He has been very active in the community during his twenty-eight years here, lending his talents to the American Legion, the Olathe Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and the American Dental Association, besides serving many other civic and church affairs, whenever called upon."

Said the Olathe Daily News, she "was a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Covenanters Daughters, Olathe/Shawnee. She also was a member of the Olathe Medical Center Auxiliary Board, the Delphi club and the Home Extension Unit."

Joseph suffered from heart disease, but continued practicing his profession nonetheless. In February 1946, he and Mary traveled to Chicago to attend a dental convention, "in high spirits, expecting to have a delightful time," said the Democrat. Tragically, while there, on Feb. 24, 1946, he suffered a massive heart attack and died. The news was a deep shock to the family and to the Olathe community, with the Democrat reporting, "Olathe not only lost a fine citizen, but a most excellent dentist..." His remains were brought back to Olathe for burial in the Olathe Memorial Cemetery. Pallbearers included Aaron Towner, Harvey McGee, Edgar Moore, Frank Redpath, James Redpath and Paul Schlagel. Honorary pallbearers were J. Arthur Robinson, John Burns, Dr. W.W. Jones, Dr. George Aiken, Herb Applebaugh, Sam Daniel, Tom hall and E.L. Raines.

Mary received a cash payout of $162.64 in 1948 as the residual value of her Huston family inheritance. When her bachelor uncle Frank Huston died in 1956, she received an additional $10,664 in cash, and also purchased 224.9 shares of his Investors Mutual stock.

Later in life Mary moved to Canton, McPherson County, north of Wichita. She died in the Shiloh Manor in Canton, at the age of 89, on Aug. 4, 1994. Her remains were brought back to Olathe for burial beside her husband.

Son Robert Eldon Tippin ( ? - ? ) married Lorenne (?). They made their home circa 1994 in Newton, KS. In 2008, they lived in Wichita.

Stepson George Kenneth Tippin (1924-2008) lost his mother when he was in infancy, and was raised by his step-mother Mary (Hemphill) Tippin as though he were her own child. He resided in Kansas City, where he worked as a social worker in Russell County, KS. He also served for two summers with the Mennonite Central Committee as a hospital intern for the mentally ill. Later, starting in 1958, he was employed for more than three decades as a laboratory technologist for Bendix-Allied Signal. He "served others and the Lord throughout his life by his active involvement with several churches," said the Kansas City Star. These included the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Olathe, Reformation Lutheran Church and Hillcrest Covenant Church, and the prison ministry of the Christian Business Men's Committee. He married Lucy Bieber on June 10, 1956, and had two children -- Stanley Tippin and Timothy Tippin. Ken died after a long battle with cancer on March 25, 2008.

Stepson Joseph "Glenn" Tippin Jr. served in World War II, as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, in the Pacific Theatre of War.

Stepdaughter Charlotte Louise Tippin married Ralph Ball. She resided in the mid-1990s in Sterling, KS.

Daughter Margaret Marie Hemphill (1911-1985) was born on Oct. 2, 1911 in Johnson County. She married Robert Archibald "Archie" Dodds (1913-1991), a native Californian.

Their home circa 1939 was in Los Angeles. In 1947, they made their residence at 1225 East Santa Clara, Ventura. By 1956, they had moved to 122 South Jordan in Ventura.

Margaret received a cash payout of $162.64 in 1948 as the residual value of her Huston family inheritance.