This post comes from an article originally written in honor of Johnson County Library’s 25th anniversary in 1976. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Twenty-five years ago the 1951-52 Prairie School PTA Library Committee met to determine its project for the school year. According to Kay Robeson, chairman of the committee, a letter was read from the State Librarian urging all PTA groups to cooperate with their local public libraries. But these women lived in Johnson County, a fast-growing community with a population of 60,000 people and no public library facilities with the exception of the Olathe Public Library. Without a public library, how could they cooperate? The challenge was there!
The idea of starting a public library caught fire. Jean Moore, Prairie School Librarian, advised the group and assured administrators the project was sound. Zelia French of the Kansas Traveling Libraries Commission was contacted for her help. She attended meetings and sponsored two workshops at the University of Kansas and Emporia for the committee. Support, much of it unsolicited, came from the Directors of the Kansas City, MO; St. Louis; Denver; and Linda Hall libraries, from the Kansas City Star and J.C. Nichols Company, and from many individuals. The committee discovered a Kansas law that stated a majority vote could establish a county library maintained by tax support of a 1 1/2 mill levy. They talked with community leaders and planned strategy. Although most teachers were enthusiastic, including Dorothy Dent, the wife of the Prairie School District Superintendent, the committee had to overcome the opposition of the president of the area teachers organization, who said the library would take tax money away from the schools. It is to the credit of these energetic, visionary women that they set high goals: they would start a library to serve all the county, not just their immediate neighborhood.
In the spring they enlarged their group to almost 30 members and organized as the Johnson County Citizens Library Committee. The County Commissioners worked with them and had the County Attorney, John Anderson, Jr., draw up petitions for the women to circulate to get the library proposition on the November ballot. They would need 1,753 signatures; some 400 women circulated petitions during the summer and proudly presented 5,102 names to the County Commissioners.
This committee, headed by Robeson, then organized to promote the passage of the library proposition. With initial working capital of $80.00 given by the PTA groups at Prairie and Porter schools and $1.00 donations given by enthusiastic residents, the group organized a speakers bureau, distributed 10,000 handbills, posters, and 1,000 car stickers, arranged for radio and newspaper publicity, toured the area with a bookmobile borrowed from Topeka, made personal calls, and held rallies. On November 4, 1952, 200 women handed out yellow handbills at the polls. When the final result of the vote was known, Johnson County residents had voted 4 to 1 in favor of the question, “Shall Johnson County establish a county library?”
Johnson County would have a library! All the county would be included in this library district except the city of Olathe with its own established city library. The women’s committee reorganized as a supportive group, Johnson County Library Committee (JCLC), headed by Robeson. In March 1953, the County Commissioners appointed the first Library Board: Tom Parrish, Reverend Ira J. Bailes, Dorothy Hoff, Kay Robeson, and Dorothy Snyder. Eva Bayne replaced Robeson as president of the JCLC. The Library Board went right to work. Parrish and Bailes visited the St. Louis County Library to observe a system similar to the one the Board wanted. The immediate need for the library, according to Parrish, was “a building of approximately 5,000 square feet floor space, conveniently located, and suitable for storing books and housing one or more bookmobiles.”
A county population of 90,000 eagerly awaited the establishment of a library system, but hopes were shattered. The County Commissioners said it would bankrupt the county if they budgeted money for the library. The law permitting a 1 1/2 mill levy for the county library designated that the levy had to come out of the 4 mill county aggregate, the total mills that could be assessed by the county. All the tax money the county received was needed to fund existing county services. “Taking any sizeable amount from the aggregate would put us out of business,” said Martin J. Ziegler, commissioner from Mission Township. The women were furious; they took their young children with them and camped in the waiting room of the County Courthouse, waiting for the Commissioners to see them and help the library, but their protests were unheeded. With no money, there could be no county library.
The Johnson County Library Committee again accepted a challenge. The women would start a volunteer library service for the county.
The Committee opened its first library at the old Dunbar School in Shawnee on June 2, 1955, with over 1,000 donated books. The Shawnee School Board donated the use of the building, and the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce paid utilities and maintained the building and grounds. Curtains were made by the Ideal Home Makers home demonstration unit of the Farm Bureau organization. The Committee collected books and prepared them for circulation, while their husbands built and painted shelves. The home of Edith Daley served as collection depot for book donations and also was open for library service on Thursdays. By July 9th the group had collected 4,500 books. Volunteers manned the libraries, prepared books for circulation, and rotated collections. Donated money was used to purchase book pockets, cards, and paste and to buy a limited number of reference books. Numerous book drives were held to collect volumes for the libraries.
In July 1953, the Prairie Village branch opened in Jay’s Men’s and Boy’s Wear. In August branch libraries were established at Ocheltree (post office-Laux General Store) and self-service libraries at Stanley (Blehm’s Grocery) and Gardner (Poisel Variety Store).
In September Tom Parrish, Library Board Chairman, found a special Kansas law applying to counties “adjoining” a military reservation. Since the Olathe Naval Air Base was a military reservation, Harold Fatzer, Kansas Attorney General, gave the opinion that the Johnson County Commissioners had a right to levy a 6 mill aggregate. However, the Commissioners had already published their budget and allocated tax funds for the coming year so they said it was too late to do anything to help the library.
In the fall of 1953, the Committee opened self-service branches in Edgerton (McCluskey’s Grocery) and Spring Hill (Bruce Furniture Store) and the Mission Library in the Mission Mart in space donated by Klok Craftsman Guild, beneath the Kroger Store. In November the Prairie Village City Council voted $250.00 to the Prairie Village Library, the first of several regular donations. By this time the Committee had 6,000 books, and more were urgently needed.
There were many book drives in the spring of 1954; help came from the Shawnee Mission PTA, the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce, and the Boy Scouts. The Community Garden Club donated gardening books. Girl Scouts and Horizon Club girls assisted as library helpers. A self-service library was added in De Soto (Ross Electric and Plumbing Company). On May 2 the Committee sponsored a tour of five of its libraries – De Soto, Shawnee, Mission, Merriam, and Prairie Village.
By the fall of 1954, welcome news came from the County Commissioners; $38,000 for libraries had been included in the County budget for 1955. The eleventh library was opened in the old Lenexa grade school, 134 W 94th Street. For its “outstanding citizen action resulting in community improvement,” Johnson County was honored as one of 22 finalists in the 1954 National All-American Cities Competition sponsored by Look Magazine and the National Municipal League. The Johnson County Library movement was the basis for the selection of the county both for the library vote drive and the establishment of 11 volunteer libraries. The case was presented by Betty Wilson, and the county received Honorable Mention. Citizens had contributed 16,000 books, 250 workers contributed volunteer time, and merchants provided free space for libraries.
The population of Johnson County had grow to 105,345 by 1955. In January, Rep. Clark Kuppinger and Senator John Anderson, Jr., introduced special state legislation to take the first mill of the library levy out of the county 4 mill aggregate. The legislation passed.
The Library Board was informed that $32,000 would be received on October 1, 1955. The Board hired its first professional Librarian, Shirley Brother, and made its first budget for October through December 31. Included was $3,600 for salaries, $14,000 for library books and materials, $2,900 for operating expenses, and $11,500 for capital outlay, to include rent, utilities, and the cost of one bookmobile (ordered December 1955).
With a monumental task awaiting her, Brother officially became the first Director of the Johnson County Library on October 1, 1955. She set up a temporary office in a room of the Merriam Christian Church. As soon as a contract could be signed, she moved to the old post office building on Merriam Drive. She borrowed a chair from the church, placed a card table in the room, had a telephone installed, and began her work. The volunteer committee turned over its 16,000 books to the new Library system and agreed to staff its volunteer libraries until January. On February 5, 1956, the Headquarters Merriam Branch Library was officially opened.
In February 1956 the Board approved plans for a new Headquarters building at 50 Highway and Antioch in Merriam to be built-for-lease by Russell Winter and G.F. Moyer. The building was completed in November 1956, and contained 7,200 square feet with an annual rental of $13,200. The staff took over library services in January and February in Mission (Muntzel-Keach Building), Shawnee (11214 Johnson Drive), Lenexa (old Lenexa school), and Prairie Village (the Concourse). The bookmobile made its first run on June 11, starting a schedule of 36 stops in rural areas only. In November the Johnson County Library Committee, headed by Sally May, reorganized as the Friends of the Library of Johnson County. Following a membership drive, the new group had 153 charter members, composed of individuals and organizations.
Interior of Johnson County Library’s first bookmobile. Driver Walter Campbell, Jr. sits behind the wheel. JoCo History
In 1957 a second bookmobile was purchased and routed to Fairway, Westwood, Leawood, Meadowlake, Nall Hills, and Overland Park. The first bookmobile still went to the “larger communities, such as De Soto and Gardner.” The second van enabled the Library to service a total of 67 stops every two weeks. At the suggestion of Brother, the Friends started collecting historical material dealing with the history of Kansas, especially Johnson County. The women also served as story-tellers and Library aides and provided flowers for the Library. Brother resigned in September 1959 and was succeeded by Mary Moore as Library Director in October 1959.
-Jeanne Tapp, Johnson County Library, May 1976
JoCoHistory Blog 
This was very interesting! Would love to read the history of later decades.
Thank you! We will definitely be posting more of these in the future! -Amanda W.