William (Bill) Franklin Knowles, Jr. 7/12/1950 ~ 4/1/2023
Bill Knowles was born July 12, 1950 in Sedgwick County, Wichita, Kansas, the eldest of three children born to William F. Knowles Sr. and Isabelle Jones Lambert Knowles.
He died at home in Walsenburg, at 2:23 a.m. on April 1, 2023, surrounded by his family. His sister Buffy commented that it was just like Bill, to pass on April Fool’s Day.
Bill grew up in Wichita, graduating in 1968 as a proud Wichita South High Colonel.
He then enrolled in Theological Studies at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kansas until he left to join the Army Reserves in 1971.
After the war, he embarked on his career in journalism, studying Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas,
After graduating from KU, Bill returned to Wichita and worked at QuickTrips from 1975-1980. In Wichita, he met and fell in love with a vivicious redhead named Jana, who was studying nursing in the area.
He took a warehouse job at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Wichita until he secured a job as a printing pressman for City Blueprint, Inc. He also started his own small printing business at that time.
Those who knew Bill will remember the deep resonant quality of his voice, which was showcased on Wichita’s 1240 KNSS news talk radio, where he worked on-air, did programming, and news until 2006, when the family moved to Colorado Springs, so that Bill could study to become an pastor (Nazarene Studies). He did not like the James Dobson/ Focus on the Family movement, so they moved back to Wichita where Bill studied online to become an ordained pastor.
There he worked in the printing department of Checks Unlimited, until a hand injury forced him out of printing and into the sales department.
Printer’s ink was in his blood however, so he moved to Walsenburg in 2009 to work as the reporter for the Huerfano County World, which had recently been purchased by Lisa Grace Kellogg, an attorney from southern California. Kellogg sold the newspaper to Brian and Gretchen Orr in 2010, and Bill came on board as a reporter the newly rebranded Huerfano World Journal.
Bill continued to work at the Journal until the family moved to Missouri from 2012-2015 to care for a family member.
He was glad to leave Missouri, or “Misery”, as he called it, to return home to Walsenburg in 2015 where he was rehired as an investigative journalist at the World Journal, and where he continued to work until December of 2022.
He greatly enjoyed fishing with his grandson Titan, and was a voracious reader. His daughter Candice recounted how his preferred way to de-stress was to lie on his back, arms spread wide, in the buffalo grass of Kansas, and go “cloud shopping.”
Bill was a Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member since 2000, and also wrote for the World Socialist Web Site, www.wsws.org.
Daughter Sonja perhaps said it best, that Bill’s hobbies were, “political debate, bringing down the man, and screwing Uncle Sam.” And, says, as immortalized in words from the Ben Stiller comedy, Zoolander, “you can put that on my you-google-ee.”
Bill was predeceased by his parents, William F. Knowles Sr. and Isabelle Lambert (Jones) Knowles; and his grandparents, Cora and Lawrence Knowles. He did not know his grandparents on his mother’s side, as Isabelle was an orphan.
He was also predeceased by two uncles, William and Robert (Betty) Knowles of Houston, Texas; and two aunts, Maria Carothers of Littleton, Colorado, and Mildred Scott of Florida.
Bill is survived by his wife of 44 years, Jana Harrison Knowles.
He is also survived by his three daughters and three grandchildren, daughter Heather R. Weil and grandson Christopher J. Knowles of Arizona; daughter Candice F. Knowles of Walsenburg, Colorado; daughter Sonja T. Knowles Smith (Jason) of Spring, Texas; and grandchildren Titan O. Knowles (17), Niy K. Martell (10), both of Walsenburg, and Isobella Knowles-Smith (3), of Spring, Texas.
He is also survived by his sisters, Elizabeth Ann (Buffy) Weber (Russell), Kathleen Knowles-Duncan, all of Wichita, Kansas; and his uncle Dick Knowles (Ann -deceased) of Detroit, Illinois; and cousins, Larry Scott of Florida, and Marsha Soria of Littleton, Colorado.
The date and location for services for family and friends will be announced at a later date.
