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Queen Alalah Spotlight:
Jodie Buechner Stanley
Twenty years ago, Jodie Buechner was crowned Queen Alalah
LIII (53). Today, she lives in Southern California with husband David and their
four children. Stanley reflected on Arkansas City’s fall festival and her
being crowned Queen Alalah. “Arkalalah is a real time of celebration for
our town,” she said. “It’s celebrating the town, its people,
and its heritage. “The (Arkalalah) committee made that weekend a marvelous
time for the queen to fully experience nearly every activity, many I’d
never yet been to, and made an ordinary girl feel very special.” Stanley
said she always enjoyed seeing family and friends during the Arkalalah weekend.
While at Cowley, Stanley said some of her favorite instructors were Kenneth Judd
for music, Sharon Hill for speech and drama, Don Hastings for biology, Mike Watters
for chemistry, and her father, Phil Buechner, for math. Since graduating in 1985,
Stanley has kept very busy. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics
education from Kansas State University, got married, and earned a bachelor’s
degree in nursing from Southwestern College. For a time, she was a nurse at South
Central Kansas Regional Medical Center in Arkansas City.
Today, she home-schools her four children while David serves as a pastor. Stanley
said the last Friday in October is marked on her calendar each year. “The
coronation is a really special tradition that a lot of the town never experiences,” she
said. “The weekend is focused on our great parade, but there are so many
other wonderful things to experience, too. I always know I have a special date
on this Friday each year.”
