The Way We Were – Part 2

My second book of newspaper columns from the Howell County News, The Way We Were: Personal Reflections on Life in the Ozarks–Part 2, was reviewed in the April 2026 Missouri Historical Review.

 The Missouri Historical Review is a quarterly publication by the State Historical Society of Missouri, typically featuring peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, and archival explorations related to Missouri and regional history.

Here’s the review:

The Way We Were, Part 2: Personal Reflections on Life in the Ozarks. By Lonnie Whitaker (St. Louis: Scrivener Oak Press, 2025). 273 pp. illustrations. $19.99, paper.

The second volume of Lonnie Whitaker’s memoir recounts his life in and, sometimes, beyond the borders of the Missouri Ozarks. Whereas the first volume (noted in the Missouri Historical Review’s April 2025 issue) focused primarily on his youth in Shannon and Howell Counties, this new book alternates stories from Lonnie’s youth and adulthood with profiles of local figures like Judge Duane Benton, ufologist Buck Nelson, and Trooper Bill Tandy.

Many of the stories are humorous; on one occasion a partner at the St. Louis law firm where Whitaker worked mistook his strawberry tea leaves for marijuana and almost fired him. In another story, he recounts how his stepfather George Rothwell was a formidable poker player who taught him at an early age “not to play against a stacked deck” (p. 88).

But other stories are more introspective, such as his tribute to his grandfather, who, after losing his hand in a machinery accident, worked without complaint during the depths of the Great Depression to provide for his family.