Diane Langton
The Gazette
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Past articles by Diane:
Time Machine: Passion Plays depicting life of Jesus Christ used to make many Iowa stops
Passion Plays - the dramatic representations of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - began in medieval Europe as a way to teach a largely illiterate population the biblical story. → Read More
Time Machine: Meet Phyllis Fleming. She did it all in 45 years in The Gazette's newsroom
Phyllis Fleming spent 45 years working in The Gazette's newsroom, most of that in leadership positions, before retiring in 2002. It's been 10 years since she died, and she seems a good person to write about during Women's History Month. → Read More
Time Machine: When Cedar Rapids hosted a historic all-star basketball series featuring top players from ACC, Big Ten
A group of seven Iowa Hawkeye fans from Cedar Rapids started a nonprofit in 1979, the Iowa Hawkeye Rebounders Ltd., to support Iowa basketball. They ended up organizing the largest nationwide college all-star game for three years in a row, from 1982 to 1984. → Read More
Time Machine: Married 66 years, Cedar Rapids' Allen and Elizabeth Peddycoart were lifetime valentines
A marriage of 66 years seems a worthy topic to write about on Valentine's Day. → Read More
Time Machine: Cedar Rapids 'Moonshine King' kept making booze (and getting arrested) during Prohibition
When the 18th Amendment outlawing the manufacture and sale of liquor was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, it provided a lucrative challenge organized crime couldn't pass up. As crime and violence increased nationwide, so did the number of bootleggers in Iowa. → Read More
Time Machine: Fawcett Building in Cedar Rapids twice housed clubs for teenagers
Charles E. Fawcett - who would become a successful Cedar Rapids businessmen - moved to the city from Benton County as a teenager in 1880 with just $3 to his name. → Read More
Jan. 6 Capitol attack evokes memories of 1954 attack that wounded Iowa rep, 4 others
Images of the violent Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol, in which five people died, evoked recollections of previous brutal attacks at the congressional chambers - including one that badly injured an Iowa representative: → Read More
Time Machine: Iowa Christmas tree growers organized 65 years ago to guarantee holiday greenery
Christmas trees were first sold commercially in the United States in the 1850s. The trees were chopped down in forests and sold from metropolitan tree lots. → Read More
Time Machine: The history of Belmont Hill mansion in Cedar Rapids
The story behind the Belmont Hill mansion in northwest Cedar Rapids goes back to 1882, when Philip Andrew Wolff bought 45 acres west of the city limits that, he determined, had an abundance of 'excellent clay for the manufacture of first-class brick.' → Read More
Time Machine: An Iowan invented of the pop-up toaster
Breakfast time around the world changed dramatically after an Iowa native, Charles Perkins Strite, invented the pop-up toaster. → Read More
Quonset huts provided married student housing after World War II
Quonset huts, used as temporary housing by the military during World War II, became student housing on college campuses after the war. → Read More
Time Machine: Cedar Rapids 'Bohemian tabernacle' 110 years later
The south side of the roof on the old church at 1510 Second St. SW is missing following the Aug. 10 derecho in Cedar Rapids. Broken windows are visible above the tall piles of debris lining the curb in front of the 110-year-old building. → Read More
Time Machine: The story of a stowaway from Cedar Rapids
Thomas Brundige Powell Jr. embarked on a lifelong career as a newspaper publisher in 1939 but not before he spent more than a year as a stowaway. → Read More
Time Machine: As we relocate, a look back at The Gazette building through the years
When The Gazette published its first newspaper in 1883, its office was at 309 First Ave. SE. Two years later, the newspaper moved to 'The Gazette block' on First Avenue near Third Street NE. Three years after that, in 1888, it moved to 83-37 First Ave. SE, where City Hall now sits in the former federal courthouse. → Read More
Time Machine: Bruce Bucknell, the puppet master from Cedar Rapids
The Bucknell family moved from Spencer to Cedar Rapids in 1927 when the father, Richard E. Bucknell, became manager of the Cedar Rapids Fair and Exposition at Frontier Park, the forerunner of Hawkeye Downs. → Read More
Time Machine: The Iowa prison camp that lasted 50 years in a state forest
During the Great Depression, the Civil Works Administration - a New Deal program - surveyed the nation's forest and wasteland. Allamakee County in northeast Iowa was one of the counties covered in the 1934 survey. By 1936, the state of Iowa had bought several thousand acres of forest in the county to preserve it. → Read More
Time Machine: 'A Field of Dreams' revived Shoeless Joe Jackson's tarnished image
Shoeless Joe Jackson's nickname came from his time playing baseball for Greenville in the Carolina Association. He had a sore heel and kicked off his shoes to play in his stockings. → Read More
Time Machine: Reporter Gladys Arne floated the Mississippi on a johnboat before heading to NYC
Gladys Arne and her friend Emma Raphael, both in their early 20s, set out from a Davenport dock to begin a Mississippi River adventure early the morning of Aug. 15, 1920. → Read More
Same sculptor who created Iwo Jima statue in Arlington made one for Cedar Rapids
A version of the well-known Iwo Jima flag-raising sculpture - officially known as the Marine Corps War Memorial - stands in front of the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island in Cedar Rapids. → Read More
Time machine: Cedar Rapids' first Black police officer was hired in 1890
The first Black police officer in Cedar Rapids grew up in Canada. → Read More