Visiting Nebraska’s Boys Town . . . A December Gift To Aid Troubled Youngsters Since 1917

By DEXTER DUGGAN

BOYS TOWN, Neb. — Like a salvific event in a scruffy Middle Eastern manger centuries earlier, there was a modest beginning in far-eastern Nebraska in December 1917 that would go on to attract the mighty in awe.
No astrologer-kings on their camels searched for the Christ Child in the Cornhusker State, just west of the border with Iowa. However, a succession of human stars in the rising 20th century came to pay tribute to the work done for other children made in His image.
Movie, music, and sports personalities, a national humorist, a war hero, and a U.S. president were among those who came to this location on the west side of Omaha to recognize what was being accomplished after Irish-born Fr. Edward Flanagan opened a modest house in the city to a few troubled boys on December 12, 1917.
“Before the home was four years old, more than 1,300 boys from 17 states had been served,” says a 30-page summary of the work here, Boys Town: Memories and Dreams. “Some stayed only a few months then returned to their families for a fresh start. Others were adopted by good families that had been carefully scrutinized by Fr. Flanagan.
“But one fact stood out boldly — another expansion was necessary,” the summary continues. This led to the October 1921 move to Overlook Farm, where Flanagan’s boys’ home was to grow into its own village.
Perhaps Boys Town isn’t as iconic today in everyday American culture as it once was, but its work has expanded nationwide, far beyond the empowering village that drew tribute from 20th-century personalities including Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Spencer Tracy, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Douglas MacArthur, Will Rogers, Jack Dempsey, and Harry S. Truman.
And about every generation since the 1940s knows of Boys Town’s famous statue encapsulating love and commitment, a youngster carried on an older boy’s back. “He ain’t heavy, Father, he’s m’ brother.”
Christmas, that special time for children, is celebrated memorably at Boys Town, with programs and observances on the holiday calendar again this year.
They include a free-admission Christmas Family Festival on December 7 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., with reindeer, cookie-decorating, and Santa Claus. Also, free admission to the founder’s own home in this village, where “Irish Christmas at Fr. Flanagan’s Historic Home” will be held December 7-14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (For more information, see boystown.org/christmas.)
Nearby, Flanagan’s remains are entombed beneath a slanted metal covering in an octagonal room attached to Dowd Memorial Chapel, the 32-pew-deep Catholic worship facility. Inscriptions on the covering include, “This work will continue because God provides,” and, “I want to get boys ready to go back into society.”
A kneeler by the tomb and two pews along the walls allow for meditation.
Born in 1886, the priest who broke new ground in aiding children died of a heart attack while visiting Berlin in 1948.
The Wanderer stopped by the chapel just after mild Nebraska fall weather was snapped short in November by a polar surge of air that sent temperatures plunging below freezing and covered the ground with the season’s first sprinkling of snow.
Because Boys Town was opened to youngsters regardless of race or religion, there also is a Protestant structure on the campus, Chambers Chapel. Youngsters of other faiths are taken to their places of worship.
After Boys Town expanded its program by opening its campus to troubled girls in 1979, the girls’ first high school graduation ceremony here occurred in 1983.
Flanagan, who came to the U.S. in 1904, was known as a young priest in Omaha who ran the Workingmen’s Hotel for men down on their luck while he also served as assistant pastor at the local St. Patrick’s Church.
According to Boys Town: Memories and Dreams, Flanagan traced the thread that led a neglected child to grow into a drifter or criminal. He asked his superiors to let him redirect his energies to troubled boys.
Information about the positive-thinking priest at the website boystown.org says:
“He had a dream that every child could be a productive citizen if given love, a home, an education and a trade. He accepted boys of every race, color, and creed. Fr. Flanagan firmly believed, ‘There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking’. . . .
“Fr. Flanagan and Boys Town became internationally known with the help of the 1938 [Spencer Tracy-Mickey Rooney] movie, Boys Town. He became an acknowledged expert in the field of child care, and toured the United States discussing his views on juvenile delinquency.”

Good Citizens

A letter for visitors was near Flanagan’s tomb when The Wanderer stopped by, written by Stan Struble, a member of the Boys Town Class of 1968. In part, Struble wrote:
“The miracle of Boys Town is that our founder created a place that provided exactly what children require in order to become good citizens. You see, no matter how hard the staff works, no matter how well they counsel or role-model, it’s still up to the individual child to make the transformation. There’s no magic pill or bullet.
“Only the child can make the decision to heal from their abuse and neglect,” Struble continued. “No one can do the hard work for them. Herein lies the miracle and genius of Fr. Flanagan. All Boys Town alumni know that Fr. Flanagan built this place just for them. We all experienced his spiritual presence and healing in some way, whether in church, school, or on the gridiron. His spirituality and mission continue to resonate individually within each new generation.”
Rather than nursing their sorrows in the corner, the boys were encouraged to reach out and develop themselves.
An early photograph in Boys Town: Memories and Dreams shows a few of the boys in military-looking uniforms standing next to a horse-drawn wagon about the size of a caboose that carried the painted announcement: “Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Shows. World’s Greatest Juvenile Entertainers.”
At the Nebraska headquarters, Boys Town: Memories and Dreams says, there are 900 acres of land — 400 of which are cultivated farm fields — along with more than 95 buildings, including 76 homes in 60 buildings for young residents and the trained married couples who guide them.

The Right Path

Sometimes a youngster is helped without even setting foot on the campus.
An Omaha man, Eric Lang, recalled for The Wanderer that he fell in with a bad crowd in high school and joined in vandalism and drug and alcohol use.
He turned himself in to the police after he heard his name on a police scanner, he said, but when the authorities contacted his mother, she refused to sign for his release so he could go home.
His frustrated mother said they could just turn him over to Boys Town, Lang told The Wanderer. “It kind of got real for me” at that point, he said, because he didn’t want to go into an institution.
Lang said he signed up to enter the Navy after he finished high school — which he did in 2001 — and he put his life back on the right path.
In addition to its headquarters campus, Boys Town offers services from California to Washington, D.C., and Texas to New England under the Boys Town USA program. The website explains:
“At some of our sites, children find refuge at a Boys Town group homes. At others, Boys Town works with families in their own homes with our in-home family services. In addition to our physical locations, Boys Town reaches more than 2 million people each year, right where they live through our national hotline, books, online resources, and national research hospital.”
The hotline is 1-800-448-3000. More information is at boystown.org/locations.