In 1930, personable young Hugh White, age 27, was elected county commissioner in Linn County, Kan. He raised cattle as his father had done before him. His grandfather had settled in Kansas before statehood.

In 1936, Hugh came to the Kansas City stockyards as commission agent at an exchange firm. Realizing the potential benefit that living in Johnson County offered his family, he brought his wife, Mary, three sons, and daughter here in 1941 to purchase a small dairy.

In the 1930s and '40s the dairy industry was flourishing.

In an interview with the Overland Park Historical Society, Tom Porter, whose father operated the Porter Dairy at 91st and Antioch, said that at one time, of the 285 dairies licensed to sell dairy products in Kansas City, Mo., more than half were in Johnson County.

The Whites occupied a farmhouse on 40 acres between 85th and 87th on the east side of Metcalf, which at that time was a brick highway. They operated the Wolverine Dairy for eight years, milking 60 to 80 cows at noon and midnight and delivering the milk to about 150 houses over a 50-mile delivery route.

Louise, who was 13 at the time, remembers her brother Bob driving, she being the "runner," delivering to customers in Kansas City. Louise and her mother also fed the hired hands three times a day and laundered the bunkhouse bedding weekly.

The Wolverine Dairy closed in 1949 but the family continued to raise cattle there and on some rented land all the way east to Nall until 1951. At one point, they had 150 dairy cattle and 150 Herefords on three sections of land and at least one horse, which Louise recalls riding to 80th and Santa Fe to buy groceries at the Kroger Store. In 1952, they sold all the cattle.

Bob married in 1950 and Hugh suggested that the couple build a house on their land. A carpenter, Roy Harmon, taught Bob and his younger brother, Joe, how to do everything necessary to build a home—and that was the beginning of White Haven Estates. The land was subdivided and they started building homes and selling lots to other builders. The youngest son, Gene, was in college at the time.

In 1955, building a motel seemed a logical next business step. Little did the family realize that it would become an Overland Park landmark and employ almost all the family through four generations.

There were other tourist lodgings on Metcalf (then highway 69); the nearest was the Annette Cabins. Although they were typical lodgings for the time, they were not what the Whites envisioned. A two-year struggle ensued when Mission Township refused zoning. A lawsuit was taken to the Kansas Supreme Court and settled on the courthouse steps in Topeka right before the hearing was to begin. The Whites were given their zoning, and the White Haven Motor Lodge was born.

Bob and Joe, along with their carpenter friend Roy, built the first 34 rooms in 1957, and the place continued to grow through the years. The lodge was a beautiful addition to the area, with rooms that had diamond-shaped leaded glass, tasteful furnishings, and a lovely swimming pool. It eventually grew to more than twice that number of rooms and suites, along with several furnished apartments and small homes. Those residences were especially appreciated by local people whose homes had burned or were otherwise uninhabitable.

For most of the White Haven Motor Lodge's 50 years, its colorful 35-foot neon sign read "No Vacancy." After the lodge closed, the Johnson County Museum purchased the sign.

Hugh and Mary moved to White Haven as soon as it was habitable and lived there for five years. In the 1960s the old farmhouse was demolished, and they moved into a new home where it once stood.

The success of the business, and having his family involved, allowed Hugh to indulge his passion for horse racing in Emporia. He bought a place in Stanley, Kan., where he kept prize-winning horses. Hugh and Gene won several prizes for racing.

Attending church was difficult for the Whites because no Catholic parish was near. Eventually the Kansas diocese purchased land at 71st and Metcalf, and the Whites kept that land mowed and ready for the eventual erection of Queen of the Holy Rosary Church in 1944.

In 1966, Bob took his wife, Esther, and children back to Linn County, where he remembered exploring the ruins of an old Indian mission as a child. They found the place and arranged for its purchase. Eventually, after the Whites spent 20 years working on it, the ruins of the old St. Mary's Sugar Creek Mission—where 3,000 displaced Potawatomi Indians lived for 10 years in the 1840s—was turned into St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Memorial Park, named for the first Catholic saint who lived and died in America. They received a prestigious award from the church for this achievement.

The Hugh White family has played a significant role in the history of Kansas and of Johnson County for 70 years.