Racers get ready at the starting gate with race director Scott Hamann during the Kenai Rotary Club's Soap Box Derby, held on Spruce Street in Kenai on May 10.

Racers get ready at the starting gate with race director Scott Hamann during the Kenai Rotary Club's Soap Box Derby, held on Spruce Street in Kenai on May 10.

Soap Box Derby rolls into Kenai

The Kenai Rotary Club hosted its annual Soap Box Derby competition May 10 on Spruce Street in Kenai. Superstock participants ages 9-18 built their own cars from kits with adult supervision. Local winners have the opportunity to represent Kenai and Alaska at the All American Soap Box Derby Championship in Akron, Ohio.

The top finishers were: 1st place — Matthea Boatright, sponsored by Walters and Associates; 2nd place — Jakobee Anderson, sponsored by FNBA; 3rd place — Kalvin Drake, sponsored by Stanley Ford; Sportsmanship Trophy — Grant Gliden; Best Pit Crew — The Smardo Family.

Soap Box Derby rolls into Kenai
Kenai Soap Box Derby winners show off their hardware.

Kenai Soap Box Derby winners show off their hardware.

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Pictured in an online public portrait is Anthony J. Dimond, the Anchorage judge who presided over the sentencing hearing of William Franke, who pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Ethen Cunningham in January 1948.
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A hearing was held to determine the length of William Franke’s prison sentence

Flyer for the Kenai Performers’ production of “The Bullying Collection” and “Girl in the Mirror.” (Provided by Kenai Performers)
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This excerpt from a survey dating back more than a century shows a large meander at about Mile 6 of the Kenai River. Along the outside of this river bend in 1948 were the homestead properties of Ethen Cunningham, William Franke and Charles “Windy” Wagner.
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Franke surrendered peacefully and confessed to the killing, but the motive for the crime remained in doubt.

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Minister’s Message: Living wisely

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Emilie Springer/ Homer News
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Children dance as Ellie and the Echoes perform the last night of the Levitt AMP Soldotna Music Series at Soldotna Creek Park on Wednesday. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
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Rozzi Redmond’s painting “Icy Straits” depicts her experience of sailing to Seward through a particularly rough region of the Inside Passage. Redmond’s show will be on display at Homer Council on the Arts until Sept. 2, 2024. (Emilie Springer/Homer News)
‘A walk through looking glass’

Abstract Alaska landscape art by Rozzi Redmond on display in Homer through Monday

Charles “Windy” Wagner, pictured here in about the year in which Ethen Cunningham was murdered, was a neighbor to both the victim and the accused, William Franke. (Photo courtesy of the Knackstedt Collection)
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The suspect was homesteader William Henry Franke

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