The Temple of Democracy

As part of the America 250 celebration, the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society, Wellington, will host the “The Temple of Democracy” about the Capitol of the United States, a zoom presentation by 1964 Wellington High School graduate, Steve Livengood, Public Historian and former Chief Guide for the U. S. Capitol Historical Society in Washington, D.C..

The meeting will be held on March 16th at 6:30 p.m. at the Sumner Campus – Cowley College in Wellington. The program is free and open to the public; reservations are not required.

Livengood said that when he was growing up, his parents took educational vacations every other year.

“When I was 12 years old, it was my turn to choose where we would go,” Livengood said, “I had two years to plan the vacation, and I chose Washington D. C..”

In June 1960, at the beginning of his freshman year in high school, Livengood moved to Wellington with his parents, Reverend Vern and Lois (Carson) Livengood, where his father became pastor of the Wellington Methodist Church.

“I was really focused on politics even before I got to Wellington, ” Livengood said, “the earliest moment I can remember, was when television arrived in Scott City where we were living in 1952. We watched the Republican Convention when Eisenhower was nominated.”

As a freshman in high school, Livengood said that he knew he wouldn’t be in Wellington long.

“However, I really blossomed there,” Livengood said, “as I probably would not have in Wichita in the much larger schools.”

He joined the Boy Scout troop at the church, where he said that even though he came in late, he “fit right in” with the other scouts and eventually became President of the Post.

“It was a nice experience,” Livengood said, and he credits his scout leader, Bob Ewing, for becoming a father figure to him, as well as his lifelong mentor.

“It was an amazing friendship,” Livengood said, “he asked me to give the eulogy at his funeral.”

Growing up, he devoured all the political news that he could. He said that he read the Wichita Eagle and the Wellington Daily News, and he was a paperboy for the Wellington Daily for two years. In 1965-66, he spent two summers working on the Kansas Turnpike, collecting the tolls from travelers.

After graduating from Wellington High School as a National Merit Scholar in 1964, Livengood attended American University in Washington, D. C. where he received his bachelor’s degree.

“Coming here to Washington was the smartest thing that I ever did.” Livengood said, “When I came here, I didn’t know anybody, but within six months I had a job, volunteering in the Congressman’s office.”

“Within a few months, I was receiving a salary,” Livengood said, “I worked my way through college.”

He began to learn about the history of the Capitol building when he gave tours to visitors from his home district in Kansas.

Shortly after graduation from American University, he was drafted. He served in Vietnam with the United States Army in 1970. When he was discharged, he became a PhD candidate at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia where he was voted Vice-President of the student body.

For the past twenty years, Livengood has given approximately two hundred Capitol tours each year, including a special ghost tour for Halloween. He served as Chief Guide and trained the volunteers that give the tours. He now serves as Public Historian and continues training the new guides.

On March 17th Livengood will be featured on PBS, along with Barbra Streisand, Gloria Steinem, Hilary Clinton, and many more, in “Bella,” an award-winning documentary film about 1970s New York Congresswoman and activist, Bella Abzug.

“I am being interviewed as a historian about her historical importance,” Livengood said.

Just this past week, Livengood has been asked to be the keynote speaker on Thursday, March 26th, when the U.S. Department of State hosts a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar in Washington, DC, celebrating 250 years of American history. The seminar at the Decatur House will bring together 125 international graduate students in the first year of their Fulbright program in the United States. Members of the U.S. Department of State will also be in attendance as the sponsors of the Fulbright Program. The foreign Fulbright graduate students in attendance will represent 67 countries from around the world and will be studying a variety of disciplines, from engineering to anthropology to the arts, looking at the early years of the nation’s founding through the lens of the nation’s capital.

At eighty years old this year, Livengood said he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I love my job,” Livengood said, “there is a lot of glamour in my job. Why would I retire?”