Les Anderson is a professor in the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. This is his second year of bringing journalism students to Greensburg to tell the story of its rebirth.If you’ve been through Mullinville, 10 miles west of Greensburg, no doubt you’re familiar with M.T. Liggett. He’s the crusty old artist whose creations adorn the highway going in and out of town, especially on the west side. You may have seen him some time ago on “Hatteberg’s People.”
Judging from his work, he has a lot of opinions and doesn’t hesitate to share them through his cartoon-like sculptures made of whatever he can get his hands on. Three of the students in our Greensburg project class wanted to interview him. It took them the better part of a week to track him down, but they finally got the opportunity.
Ian Crane, one of the students, was the most adamant about interviewing him. He got his wish. The fact that Ian had two attractive women with him probably didn’t hurt his chances. Incidentally, both of the women came back with big metal hearts with their names on them, courtesy of M.T.
Ian did a good job on this piece. Check it out.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ben // Jun 11, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Great story. I enjoyed the video very much.
2 Kelley Lewis // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:16 am
Thanks so much for a wonderful story!! What a character — M.T.’s comments really made me laugh!
My mother grew up in Bucklin, KS and my family drives through Greensburg and Mullinville every year on our way back home to New York. I have always admired the art and whirly-gigs lining the highway and wondered about the artist. Hopefully this year we will have time to stop and buy a piece of Kansas art to take back with us to remember a great place in our country. Fabulous story about a very unique individual! Thanks again.
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