A New Orleans developer, which had been chosen and then dropped as a downtown mall developer, was “seriously considering” building a regional shopping mall on 61 acres on Iowa Street south of Armstrong Road. A representative of Sizeler Realty Co. Inc. said that they had never lost interest in Lawrence and hoped to come back at the right time with the right project.

Near-perfect growing weather in May was causing crop experts to raise their estimates of Kansas wheat production. Southern Kansas farmers were beginning to harvest their wheat as the fields started to dry up after recent rains.

About 120 catamarans were gathered at Perry Lake’s Rock Creek Recreation Area to participate in the Mid-Eastern Championships regatta, a two-day race event.

Dwane Schaake, his wife Dorothy, and their children Mark and Jill were named 1985’s Kansas 4-H Family of the Year. They had more than 70 combined years of service to the 4-H program.