Looking at a Navajo rug on a wall in John and Dee Anne Grummon’s living room, John is reminded that no one is perfect.

“The Navajo Way is that you can’t pretend to be perfect,” he said. That’s why intentional irregularities are incorporated into their designs.

Learning from other cultures is not new to the Great Bend couple. They’ve spent their lives making friends from around the world as well as where they live.

After serving as a Baptist minister for 27 years, a desire to provide clinical pastoral care brought John, with his wife Dee Anne by his side, to Great Bend almost 25 years ago.

John served as the chaplain at Central Kansas Medical Center in Great Bend and St. Joseph Hospital’s Long Term Care Unit in Larned, and at Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice.

John grew up in southern Oklahoma, where his parents were missionaries to Native Americans. Dee Anne grew up on a farm in Idaho. They met as students at Ottawa University.

“We figure God brought us together,” John said. “We’re so different. She’s a doer, I’m a reflector. I enjoy just being quiet. She ... isn’t.”

“We’re best friends,” Dee Anne said.

They met in the college cafeteria. “I served the food and he washed the dishes,” she said.

From the start, John knew God intended for him to be in the chaplaincy. He went on to attend Central Baptist Theological Seminary in northeast Kansas. They were married while he was in seminary, with Dee Anne teaching school.

He served as a pastor in Marysville for five years, and then served the next 22 years as a parish pastor at Beloit and at nearby Simpson, a tiny community about 10 miles away.

Later, John would return for Clinical Pastoral Education to be a chaplain or pastoral caregiver in a hospice or hospital setting.

Raising a family

Their two sons, Daniel and David, grew up in Beloit.

“So our kids have a home town, so to speak, which doesn’t happen too often with the pastoral families,” Dee Anne said.

The oldest son, Daniel, teaches English as a Second Language in Toronto, Canada. He taught at Halstead for five years and then taught at Seoul, South Korea for five years, making a trek into China while he was there, before moving to Canada.

Their youngest son, David, is an attorney in the Kansas City area with two boys of his own.

When he was a junior in high school, David was an exchange student in Mexico. Being bilingual has helped in his career as he often serves Spanish-speaking clients.

The Grummons were active in the AFS student exchange program, so they also hosted a student from Egypt.

Coming to Great Bend

After the boys were out of the home, the Grummons’ life took a different direction.

“John’s gifts always were in pastoral care,” Dee Anne said. That’s what brought them to Great Bend.

Cathy Soeken, a social worker at Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice, can attest to John’s compassion in his role of providing pastoral care. They used to co-facilitate the GBHHS grief support group.

“It was always an honor to work with John,” Soeken said. “I learned a lot about grief support from him. He’s always a very patient man and a good listener. He was always very good at providing spiritual support to patients and people in the community; they didn’t have to be patients here,” she said.

While John worked in the hospitals and with hospice, Dee Anne got a job as a teaching assistant at Great Bend USD 428, working mostly with English as a Second Language students.

Meeting others

Their home reflects their interest in cultures from around the world, and thanks to friends and family members it is filled with art and artifacts from other lands.

There are ebony carvings from Nigeria, gifts from a friend they met at Ottawa University who served as a groomsman at their wedding. There are wall hangings from their AFS “son” from Egypt, as well as gifts from their own sons’ travels as well as their own trips. Because John’s parents were missionaries to Native Americans, there are also the Indian artifacts.

For their 50th wedding anniversary, six years ago, they traveled across Canada by train. They’ve also flown to Alaska where they saw Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley.

The Grummons remain active in their own community. Dee Anne has been on the Food Bank board for a number of years and is in Women for Kansas. They are members of the Golden Belt Community Concert Association and donate blood to the American Red Cross. 

“But mostly we’re involved at Central Baptist Church here,” Dee Anne said. They have participated in various ways ever since they moved here, such as joining the choir, teaching classes and providing pastoral care for the congregation.

In 2004, Dee Anne’s mother moved from Idaho to a home next door to the Grummons so Dee Anne could help take care of her. She died in 2011. John retired in 2014. While no longer working full-time, they remain active in the community. John officiates at funerals and does services in nursing homes. Dee Anne stays informed on political issues and writes an occasional letter to the editor of the Great Bend Tribune.

While their interests reach far and wide, their home is here in the Golden Belt.

“We’ve lived in Kansas by choice,” Dee Anne said. “We like Great Bend.” 

Community Connections is a weekly feature of the Great Bend Tribune, showcasing people who live in the Golden Belt. We welcome readers to submit names of individuals who are active in the community that they would like to see featured in a future story. Send suggestions to news@gbtribune.com and explain their “community connections.”