Charles Leroy Churchman

• Sex: M
• Born: September 15, 1929 in Wichita, Kansas
• Died:
• Buried:
• Notes: Charles has spent much of his life in Wichita, Kansas. He joined the Air Force after graduating from high school, met the love of his life Carmen, and married her in 1949. In late 1952 he suffered a bout of polio which left him with one leg shackled to a steel brace and a realization he'd best find a career that involved sitting at a desk to earn a living. He entered Wichita State University in 1953 and graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and passed the CPA exam to become a Certified Public Accountant. During that time a wonderfully dedicated physical therapist strong-armed him into a regimen of therapy and exercises designed to retrain remaining leg muscles to take over the function of those destroyed by polio. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson--When a man knows he may never walk again, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. After a period of trying to keep up with a gung-ho group of polio-crippled children, he developed sufficient strength and stamina to abandon crutches and the hated steel brace forever. The physical impairment became one of the most fortuitous and positive elements in his life.
  
  After trying his hand at public accounting for a time he was offered a position by one of the firm's clients and soon found himself managing a small chain of furniture stores. After several years of erratic growth, the owner tired of the promotional furniture business and sold out. Charles went back into public accounting as a traveling auditor for a large regional farm cooperative, working in South Dakota, then later back to Kansas. In 1970 the U.S. Department of State began recruiting management auditors for the Agency for International Development. Sensing an opportunity for worldwide travel, Charles applied, was accepted and spent the next several years auditing development programs in Central America, Mexico, Haiti and West and North Africa. The family, during this time, lived variously in Panama City, Panama; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Accra, Ghana--not to mention a year in Washington, D.C. which was in many respects as foreign as any overseas country they visited. In 1977 they returned to the U.S. and to Kansas where Charles has pursued a lifelong dream of writing.
  
  His wife, Carmen, had a lifelong dream also--to become a nurse. She immediately enrolled in training to become an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) and upon becoming licensed, set about to earn her degree to become an RN. She graduated among the top ten in her class and passed boards with the second highest score in the state. Needless to say she was as dedicated a nurse as she was scholar. Her retirement after twenty years at Wesley Medical Center was greeted with envy and dismay by all her colleagues, including a long list of doctors, many of which she mentored during their internship at Wesley.
  
  Their interests include writing, gardening, handicrafts, two Persian cats and twenty years of unfinished projects including one novel awaiting revision, a collection of short stories and four manuscripts in progress. Obviously boredom is not a problem.

Father: Leroy Churchman, b. April 23, 1898 in Aldrich, Missouri

Mother: Flora Belle Weir, b. December 16, 1900 in Greenfield, Missouri -- d. July 21, 1995 in Wichita, Kansas -- buried in Attica Cemetery, Goddard, Kansas

Family 1: Carmen LeNita Rush, b. January 8, 1932 in Bristow, Oklahoma

• Married: June 18, 1949 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas

1. Linda Louise Churchman, b. March 27, 1950 in Wichita, Kansas
2. Diane Elaine Churchman, b. July 7, 1951 in Wichita, Kansas -- d. December 17, 1951 in Wichita, Kansas
3. LeNita Marie Churchman, b. November 5, 1952 in Wichita, Kansas
4. David Michael Churchman, b. September 30, 1954 in Wichita, Kansas
5. Christopher Lee Churchman, b. September 4, 1956 in Wichita, Kansas
6. Daniel Wayne Churchman, b. June 27, 1960 in Wichita, Kansas

Sources:

1. Interview with Charles Churchman