Daley authors another book on Katy Railroad history

By Colleen Surridge

Parsons Sun

John Daley has completed another book on the Katy Railroad and has another in the works.

Some might have assumed his writing about the Katy ended because he moved away three years ago, but such is not the case, he said.

He and his wife, Kitty, moved to Kansas City to be near family and for specialized care for Kitty, who has Alzheimer's.

Daley, 88, said he was unable to care for her himself. His son and daughter-in-law encouraged them to move to Kansas City, where she could get specialized care, and he would have them for assisted living support.

The move from lifelong friends was difficult, but seeing Kitty slip away from him was almost more than he could bear.

"I got very blue. Depressed," he said.

He stopped writing.

His daughter-in-law, Karen, helped him refocus on his passions of writing, the Katy Railroad and Parsons.

Daley began his career with the Katy in 1936 as a 16-year-old messenger boy carrying typed and handwritten messages from the noisy telegraph office out of the second story of the old Katy Depot. In 1939, he became a mud hop, keeping track of railroad cars in the yards, walking and writing their names and numbers on clipboards, sometimes in rain and snow. He later became a chief yard clerk, an assistant to the yardmaster, the person responsible for train traffic in and out of the Parsons' train yards.

In the late 1990s, with the help of his wife, Daley began to compile rosters of former Katy shop and roundhouse employees and pictures from the bustling days of the Katy Railroad. He compiled the information into a book he sold, the proceeds from which were donated to the Iron Horse Museum. Former employees, their children and grandchildren all responded so well that he wrote another, and another, and another.

He began working on a fifth book - a roster of all the employees who worked for the Katy, not just in the shops.

"It has about 8,000 or 9,000 names so far of all the folks that worked there," he said.

With Kitty ill, his work on the book ended.

Although Kitty no longer helped him with the new book, Karen stepped forward and encouraged Daley.

"She's computer-wise, so they got me set up with a computer here," he said.

"I am still working on it," he said of the fifth roster. "And I've written some other things besides the books, like a pamphlet about my days in the service. The kids love it."

With him writing again, Katy Days committee member Mary Hughes had another idea for him, which he was able to complete.

"The year 2008 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Katy shops opening in Parsons. Mary wanted to go with that theme for a book," he said.

Daley went to work, compiling the names of employees who worked in the mechanical department, which included the shops and the roundhouse.

In the finished book, "Katy Days '08 Special: 100th Anniversy Parsons Katy Shops," Daley writes: "The names were extracted from Katy Memorial Roster Number 5, which I never got to complete because of my wife Kitty's illness. The names from book number five were researched by C.J. Charley Forbes and myself."

He said he strayed a lot from the theme, including some pictures and information surrounding the history of the Katy.

"Of course, my generation is about gone, but the new generation still likes to see all this," he said.

So far, Daley said copies of the book have been sold at a recent Katy historical society meeting in Oklahoma City, and he made a dozen available to someone working in Union Station in Kansas City.

"It's really special. It lists the names of 2,000 or 3,000 people that worked in the shops and roundhouse, and it lists some of their crafts. Of course most of their crafts are long extinct. There is also a picture of the guys working in the shops the last day before they were shut down," he said.

Rather than the proceeds from this book's sales going to the Iron Horse Museum, the proceeds will go to Katy Days.

Daley has returned to Parsons each year for Katy Days, except for last year when he had to go to Texas to attend a grandson's graduation. He hopes to attend again this coming year and share with others the rich history of the Katy Railroad.

"I really miss Parsons," he said. "It's such a wonderful place."

For those interested in obtaining a copy of the book, Daley said he believes they are for sale at Bleacher Gear. The cost is $20.

Daley said he also hopes to finish one or two other books he is working on.

"I had a quadruple bypass in 1994, and a stroke a year or so ago. It has slowed me down, but I'm still hanging in there," Daley said.

"I'm fascinated with Union Station here in Kansas City," he said. "Ever since I was 8 or 10, I would go up to see the stage shows at 12th and Main."

Then when in the service, along with so many other servicemen in the 1940s and 1950s, he traveled through Union Station on troop trains headed in all directions.

"It was the crossroads to everywhere," he said. "I'm going to write about that. It's really historical, and a lot of us remember it. It was the last place we got to see before we headed out to war."