KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Assistant tapped as interim police chief

Rachel Whipple, a deputy Kansas City police chief, will take over as the department’s interim chief after Rick Easley steps down next month.

Easley, chief for five years, announced this week he would retire effective Sept. 9 to become president of the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission.

Whipple, 59, is now in charge of the Investigations Bureau, which includes the department’s homicide and robbery units.

She has a law degree and has been with the department for 24 years.

FORT RILEY

Site selected for new veterans cemetery

A new veterans cemetery at Fort Riley is likely to open in about three years, filling a gap left as the current one reaches capacity.

The site for the cemetery, expected to have about 10,000 burial plots in its first phase, is on a hill near the Manhattan Municipal Airport. The site was chosen by the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs.

“I think it’s going to be a beautiful place on the top of the hill,” said Kafer Peele, cemetery program director with Veterans Affairs. “And I think it’s going to give veterans in the state of Kansas something to be very proud of.”

The current post cemetery has only about 20 plots remaining and could be filled by the end of the year.

PARSONS

Kansas broadcaster dies of heart attack

Gary R. Cantrell, former general manager of Parsons radio station KLKC, died Wednesday at a Wichita hospital after a heart attack. He was 58.

Cantrell was with the station for 25 years until leaving in May and joining KWXD in Pittsburg. He came to Parsons in 1979 and had been a salesman and announcer before becoming station manager and then general manager.