By DEB GRUVER

Staff writer

A new mural in Peabody will highlight the town’s history.

Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission gave Sunflower Theatre a $7,500 grant to create a mural at Peabody Market.

Susan Mayo, chairman of the Sunflower board, said the mural would celebrate the “rich history of Peabody and transform the south wall of the Peabody Market into a work of art.”

Peabody Historical Society and Marilyn Jones are partners in the project. Jones serves on the theater’s board and was instrumental in getting Peabody’s downtown listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Downtown, Mayo said, “is pretty unusual because none of the buildings have been torn down.”

Artist Diana Werts, described as a recent transplant to Matfield Green, will be lead artist for the project. Ideas for the mural will be solicited at a community meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 in Ann Potter Room of Peabody Township Library, 214 N. Walnut St.

Werts’ work will be the second mural the commission has helped pay for in Peabody.

“The Sunflower Theatre hopes to continue to beautify the town with more murals in the future,” Mayo said.

Sunflower Theatre dates to 1920. In 1960, it was gutted and turned into a bowling alley. Several years ago, the bowling alley was removed.

“The community is really engaged in it,” Mayo said. “A lot of people have a lot of memories of it.”

Upcoming events

The Sunflower Theatre presents a “fabulous meatloaf meal deal” at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the last farmers market. It features meatloaf by Catherine Weems, pasta salad by Ann Channel Leppke, crescent rolls by Shirley Beisel, and marble cake by Shirley Davis. The recommended donation is $7. One of the marble cakes will have a $20 bill baked inside.

 Other events, all at the Lutheran Church in Peabody:

• Bluegrass concert by the Weda Skirts at 3 p.m. Oct. 2. Children attend free, and tickets for adults are $10.
• McPherson Brass Band at 3 p.m. Dec. 4.
• Readers Theater from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 19 at St. Paul’s Kaffehaus.
• ARISE (African Americans Renewing Interest in Spiritual Ensemble) concert on March 11.