Sandra "Sandy" D. Kauffman

Sandy Kauffman entered this world as Sandra Daley on January 26, 1933 in Anselmo, Nebraska as the middle child born to Erma and James Daley. The Daley family farmed and raised livestock on 160 picturesque acres of the sandhills in central Nebraska. Sandy’s two brothers departed this world as infants, leaving her as an only child. She was doted on by her father and was literally educated by her mother, a teacher in a rural one-room schoolhouse in Dale Valley. The Daley family is most likely responsible for the rumors that Dale Valley was named for the Daley family.

Sandy enjoyed the finer offerings of rural life in the 1930’s: party lines, feeding the livestock, plucking chickens, and naming the barnyard cats, of which there were plenty. Sandy walked everyday some ten miles to a school house that was one mile from the family home. And due to what must be a geographic marvel not seen anywhere else on this planet, it was uphill both ways. In the winter she would carry fresh baked potatoes in her pockets to keep her hands warm on the walk and then eat those same potatoes cold for lunch.

Sandy was an excellent equestrian and in 1952 she was crowned the Rodeo Queen at the Custer County Rodeo. That honor brought with it the opportunity to represent the county in the Aksarban Rodeo that fall. Sandy had a lifelong passion for horses and her constant companion, Blaze, who took her on adventures up and down arroyos as she traversed the sandy hills of Custer County.

In the late 1940s, Sandy and Erma lived in Broken Bow during the week so she could attend High School and Erma taught at the local elementary school. They would return home on the weekends, weather permitting. In 1951 Sandy enrolled at the University of Nebraska and became the first generation of the family to go to college, as an education major.

Upon graduation, Sandy took her first teaching job in Falls City, Nebraska, where she and two other first-year teachers met their future husbands on a blind date in late fall of 1954. Sandra Daley had a whirlwind romance with Larry Kauffman from Kansas City. After months of dropping hints and with her exasperation reaching its limits, Larry finally proposed to Sandy by asking her to not renew her teaching contract in Falls City. The couple was married on September 4, 1955 and welcomed a daughter, Claudia, in 1961 and a son, Matthew, in 1963.

Sandy shared her passion for Nebraska each summer by taking her children home to Nebraska to spend a week, or two, around the homestead. She shared her passion for riding horses and for the simple life in a small town. Back at home in Kansas City, she was ever present in her children’s lives, serving as a room mother at school, taking the children to the pool in the summertime, teaching the proper way to weed a garden, and instilling a general attitude of snarky sarcasm … which was perhaps her greatest gift.

Sandy was a tireless volunteer. In fact, she never met an organization she could not improve through her leadership, until she met the Missouri General Assembly. She was the President of the PTA, President of the Musettes (Kansas City Museum), Girls Scouts Troop leader, and President of the Center School District Board of Education. In 1986 Sandy ran her first campaign to serve in the Missouri General Assembly and went on to serve for 12 years, ending in 1998.

Upon leaving the statehouse, Sandy continued to work by serving on the Port Authority for Kansas City and the Coordinating Board of Higher Education for the State of Missouri.

In retirement, Sandy focused on one of her great joys, gardening. She and Larry could be seen on any given day from March through October, bent over flower beds pulling weeds, feeding plants, building screens to protect them from the harsh summer sun, and occasionally sitting back to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Together the two of them created a wonderful backyard full of color and butterflies.