My bad ... I should know better then to quote a journalist. Actually there have been three other winners from Kansas:
1958 Jolitta Schlehuber, Topeka Daily Capital (Kansas)
1968 Robert L. Walters, The Topeka Daily Capital (Kansas)
1978 Peg McCarthy, The Topeka Capital-Journal (Kansas)
Congrats to all

?Journalism largely consists of saying "Lord Jones is Dead" to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.? G K Chesterton