photo by: Mike Yoder

One-time radio station owner, longtime radio executive and ongoing on-air personality Hank Booth, shown here in this file photo, learned last week that his services as public-address announcer at Kansas University men's basketball games no longer would be needed.

On a cold, windy Friday night in November, the Lawrence High football team had barely gotten off the bus as raindrops started falling ahead of the Class 6A state regional matchup against Derby – a team that had beaten the Lions in the very same playoff in consecutive years.

Without missing a beat, Hank Booth threw on his headset and jumped right into his signature pregame show alongside partner Matt Llewellyn on KLWN.

LHS lost that game 76-28, cutting short a late-season turnaround that enthralled the football team’s faithful fans, Hank included, who had driven three hours to Wichita for the broadcast. After the dust settled and stadium lights dimmed, Booth recognized every senior on LHS’s roster one last time, the same way he’d done year after year covering his alma mater (class of ’64).

Lawrence said goodbye to that radio icon last week, when the longtime on-air personality and community figure died suddenly early Friday morning after a short illness at the age of 77, according to Booth’s son, Andy.

For more than five decades, Booth was the guy on the radio everyone knew. From his weekday radio show, “According to the Record with Hank Booth,” on KLWN and the endless sporting events Booth covered behind the mic, he was seemingly everywhere all of the time.

Booth hosted his final weekday radio special June 30, finished his 50th year calling Lawrence High football this fall and emceed the annual Rock Chalk Roundball Classic charity basketball game at Free State High on June 8.

To those closest to him, Booth’s persistence to stay involved with the community stands alone, even after selling KLWN, the longtime Booth-family-owned radio station, during the late 1990s. It’s that drive that kept Booth reporting on everything from ballgames to school board meetings.

“He didn’t let anything get in his way,” Andy Booth said. “If he could help someone, he’d drop everything he was doing and he would go do that. Children are no different. He just loved children.”

Andy, a now-retired firefighter from the Lawrence Fire Department, and Amy, a registered nurse, are the two surviving children of Hank and his wife, Sue. The family recently endured another heartbreaking loss when Hank’s second daughter, Becca, died due to a chronic illness in December.

The Booth family owes much of its local radio success to Hank’s father, George “Arden” Booth, who helped cofound KLWN alongside his wife, Bette, during the Great Flood of 1951 that forced Arden to famously broadcast nonstop for 62 hours.

Eager to join the family business, Hank Booth first started at KLWN as a sideline reporter for the station while attending Lawrence High and returned to begin his weekday radio show immediately after leaving the U.S. Army in 1972.

A long radio career placed Booth into many camps. Outside of high school football, Booth served several community boards, philanthropic organizations and other community-based events inside and outside of Lawrence.

It became a large part of Booth’s life, beyond just a career, said Kim Murphree, a former news director at KLWN.

Booth gave Murphree her start at KLWN to work Sunday mornings in 1998, and she spent 15 years at the station working alongside him. As she climbed the ladder from programming Sunday church services to the Saturday morning show, Murphree saw how Booth’s commitment to providing unparalleled service to listeners set him apart.

“That’s what was reflected in his voice and demeanor every single day,” Murphree, who currently serves as a civilian manager at the Lawrence Police Department, said. “There were so many aspects of this man and his service that the loss of that light in (Lawrence) will be felt beyond what we can see.”

Outside of his community reporting at KLWN, Booth wore a couple of different hats in town.

Booth served as the public address announcer for Kansas men’s basketball, taking over for longtime announcer Howard Hill, from 2003 to 2007. After his time calling hoops at Allen Fieldhouse, Booth made multiple stops at the chambers of commerce in Lawrence and Baldwin City during the 2010s.

Over the years, Booth was responsible for giving numerous young broadcasters their start covering sporting events at KLWN – the same opportunity Booth got back during the 1960s. Brian Hanni, the present-day voice of KU Athletics, was one of the names to come across Booth’s desk.

“No one taught me better than Hank what it meant to be entrenched in a community,” Hanni wrote in a text message.

“To give one’s time and talents so selflessly to countless causes that needed his voice. His emcee skills were only surpassed by the size of his heart. He will be sorely missed but I hope his immense impact on Lawrence will be forever cherished.”

A service celebrating the life of Booth is slated for next week, according to Andy Booth.