Wichita ? Frank Good, who spent 50 years writing a gardening column for Wichita newspapers, has died after a long illness. He was 86.

Good wrote a column for The Wichita Beacon and then The Wichita Eagle from March 3, 1946, until March 9, 1996. He died Friday.

His wife of 62 years, Mary Good, said the family had been preparing to move him to a hospice.

“He was a very helpful person to people who wanted help in gardening,” she said. “People were always asking him questions. And he gave them his opinion. He was devoted to his work and worked hard at it.”

Considered an expert in the field and popular for his folksy writing style, Good was remembered by readers and colleagues as a welcome source of tips for their plants.

“My mother had many of his columns torn out – I’ve found many of them in scrapbooks,” said reader Carolyn Smith of Bel Aire. “I was a fan of his because he offered such hope. I liked his philosophy about nature – he respected and honored it.”

His memory lives on in the 3,500 volumes at the Frank Good Library at Botanica, much of which was donated by the Goods. It is the largest collection of horticultural and gardening advice in south-central Kansas.

“Frank’s thing is he had a brilliant memory and everything had to be right,” said Bob Neir, Sedgwick County extension agent. “Frank was the walking gardening encyclopedia.”

Good’s journalism career began in 1945 when he was hired by The Wichita Beacon, primarily to monitor teletype machines for updates in the closing days of World War II. His first foray into gardening advice was supposed to be a short-term thing in 1946, but he became so devoted and knowledgeable on the topic that it took over his professional life.