Mayfield News

It was a dream for Mark and Holly Mayfield to manage a ranch in southern Kansas.

Jo Ann Mayfield could not afford to keep her gas on, living on only $970 per month from social security.

“I think I'll try to get somebody ready to take my place”

There wasn't a whole lot to do in Mayfield while Dick Goodrum was growing up, so he would just hang around town a lot -- especially around the fire trucks.

He was too young to drive then in the tiny Sumner County town about 40 miles from Wichita -- or even be a firefighter.

Instead, he would clean the trucks. Finally at 14, he became a volunteer firefighter.

'I guess I didn't know any better,' Goodrum said with a chuckle.

Fifty years later, he's a volunteer fire chief -- and last month was honored as the Fire Chief of the Year by the Kansas State Association of Fire Chiefs. Read more