Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Harry Whitney, Manhattan
At a glance: Harry Whitney of rural Manhattan has had a long and varied career of experiences, from flying with the Air Force to Casablanca, and riding a Brahma bull in parades.
More information: Ron Wilson, rwilson@ksu.edu, 785-532-7690
Photos: Ron Wilson | Harry Whitney
Website: Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
June 4, 2025
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
“If I told you all the jobs I’ve had in my life, you’d think I was 155 years old,” said Harry Whitney of rural Manhattan.
Actually, he has made a good start on that. As of May 2025, he turned 93 years old.
Harry Whitney was born in 1932 in a cabin west of Manhattan in what is now known as Colbert Hills. The Whitney family had deep roots here. When he went to grade school at College Hill Elementary School, it attracted the attention of reporters.
At right: Harry Whitney | Download this photo
“It was the 70th year that there had been a Whitney enrolled at that school,” he said.
His family farmed with horses and mules before beginning to use tractors. Harry enjoyed coyote hunting. His father ran a service station in Manhattan and milked cows at home.
When Harry graduated from Manhattan High in 1950, his parents gave him a heifer calf as a gift. That was the beginning of his career in the cattle business.
“One day we went to the neighbors to look at a cow for sale. A very attractive young woman was there,” Whitney said.
Her name was Donna. Donna’s mother sent her out with a large, heavy duty flashlight to shut a shed door in the dark.
Whitney really wanted to meet her so he went out in the dark and surprised her. She was so startled that she decked him with the flashlight and knocked him out cold.
“She told me that she said, ‘Lord, he’s cute; I hope I didn’t kill him,’” Whitney said.
He recovered so well that he asked her for a date. She was engaged to another man at the time but broke it off. Ultimately she and Harry were married.
In 1952, Whitney enlisted in the Air Force and became a specialist in aircraft instrument repair and engine maintenance. He worked on the B-36, which was the largest aircraft ever built for the Air Force. It had 10 engines and could go more than 40 hours without refueling. Whitney was chosen to fly on the B-36 to Casablanca with an Air Force general at the time. He was promoted to staff sergeant by the end of his four year enlistment.
The Whitneys came back to Kansas and got 10 acres of land from Donna’s grandmother. When the grandparents had originally purchased the land, her grandfather had stepped out into mud after a rain and told his wife, “I think we bought ourselves a gumbo hill.” The name stuck, so to speak.
Gumbo Hill Road is the name of the roadway where the Whitneys live today. It is northeast of the rural community of Keats in Wildcat Township, population 96 people. Now, that’s rural.
Donna’s mother, Erma, was known as “Girl of the Gumbo.” She wrote a weekly newspaper column by that name from her teenage years into her 90s.
Whitney worked at various times at Fort Riley’s Marshall Field and as a heavy equipment operator for construction companies. He and Donna became interested in antiques. They founded their own business, called Gumbo Hill Antiques, which also provided furniture refinishing and repair.
The Whitneys had a son and daughter, both of whom attended K-State. Son Harry III became an internationally renowned horse clinician. Daughter Donita became a school superintendent and later an award-winning instructor in the K-State College of Business. Donita’s daughter, Lori, works for the Great Plains Fire Science Exchange with K-State Research and Extension in Manhattan.
Whitney maintained his lifelong interest in horses and mules, especially using teams to pull carriages. He would frequently provide horsedrawn carriages for parades and weddings. He even found a tame Brahma steer that he rode in parades.
Donna Whitney passed away in 2021. Harry has been a cancer survivor since 2009. In May 2025, he turned 93 years old.
From planes to parades, from mules to Marshall Field, from antiques to aircraft, from bulldozers to Brahmas: Harry Whitney has done it all.
We salute Harry Whitney and family for making a difference with their pioneering life. As Whitney said: “I feel so fortunate to have experienced so many things.”
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit www.huckboydinstitute.org.
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K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.