Iowa

After her family spirals, disabled daughter ends up furious, in misery

Published

1 month ago

June 5, 2026

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After her family spirals, disabled daughter ends up furious, in misery

Sarah Beaman, an intellectually and physically disabled woman, was removed from her family’s care after her parents were charged with neglect.
Separated from her family, Beaman’s mental health spiraled, leading to violent outbursts in two different group homes.
Beaman’s case highlights the difficulty in finding adequate care for Iowans with significant disabilities and behavioral challenges.

When the Beamans bottomed out: Fourth in a series.

MOUNT AYR ― Sarah Beaman ran the pizza cutter across the back of her hand. Sometimes pain calmed her and stopped her from hurting others.

In times like these, when the 33-year-old, intellectually disabled woman was anxious, upset or angry in the small group home in Mount Ayr, she was supposed to be able to call “Miss K,” the director, so her behavior wouldn’t escalate. That was part of her safety plan, something the group home staff were told she needed to calm her.

But on that Saturday, the day before Easter, Sarah complained, those working at the Circle of Life group home wouldn’t let her make the call.

Instead, they said she needed to get in a car so she could be driven to the Ringgold County Hospital. She was hurting herself and they feared she was suicidal.

Sarah hated hospitals and was terrified of being alone in them without her family. The group home staff had already told her, she said, that she might never see her parents again. She knew they could try to commit her to an institution. That’s what happens at hospitals.

“They would not leave me alone,” she said.

In another era, someone like Sarah with a low IQ, serious physical limitations and acute mental health and behavioral challenges, likely would have been placed for life in a state institution or county home, hidden from sight without an education, the opportunity to learn life skills or any hope of exercising free will.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed in 1990 by then-President George H.W. Bush, and a landmark 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision ensured even people with significant disabilities had the right to receive state-funded services in their communities instead of institutions.

With the support of Social Security and Medicaid, the social income and insurance programs for disabled, low-income Americans, Sarah, along with her parents and three siblings, had been able to stay independent for more than three decades, despite many hardships, the loss of providers, poverty and a mix of mental and physical health struggles.

But the family’s situation grew dire last year after they crowded together in an uninhabitable house in Audubon with dog feces and urine throughout, a basement floor covered with human waste from a broken sewer line, and frequent outbreaks of domestic violence. The Audubon County attorney and a district court judge agreed Sarah’s disabled parents had neglected her in an increasingly chaotic household. Todd and Bonnie faced possible prison time for criminal dependent adult abuse and animal neglect. They pleaded not guilty.

While state and federal laws gave authorities the right to take custody of Sarah, they did nothing to ensure she’d be better off afterward.

In Iowa, finding a permanent home with skilled caregivers for anyone with her level of need has proved incredibly difficult, if not impossible, as providers, bed space and Medicaid coverage for such services have dwindled.

In Sarah’s case, a nine-month waiting game has proved incredibly traumatizing for her — and dangerous to others.

Separation, isolation leads to violence

Since authorities condemned last fall the house in Audubon where the Beaman family had been living, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and a state managed care contractor had moved Sarah from a hospital to two different group homes over seven months’ time, hoping to find her a better situation than she experienced with her family.

But separation from the people she had depended on her entire life caused Sarah to spiral, rebel and lash out violently.

In her first group home in Creston, she stabbed a staff member with a fork, tried to jump from a moving car and injured a law enforcement officer.

Christopher Swensen, the Audubon County attorney, moved to have a judge cut off her communication with her siblings after she’d already been restrained from communicating with her parents, alleging her sister and two brothers, who also had intellectual impairments, encouraged her to harm herself and others as a “means to disrupt placement.”

But Steven, Sarah’s brother, said Swensen’s action to cut them off from Sarah came after he made a formal complaint to the state about how she was being treated in the group home. Sarah, he said, had sent him photos of bruises and alleged in a Facebook posting that she was being harmed. He filed a complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, writing: “She is being treated like a caged animal.”

The group home staff took away all her electronic devices, court records show.

Sarah tried to tell anyone who would listen that her family was all she had. She was miserable, angry and isolated from the only people who knew her and could help her feel secure. She complained some staff in the group homes were mean and made fun of her. Others provoked her rather than calmed her, she said.

“I cried so much, I don’t think I had any tears left,” she said.

A night in jail

On the Saturday before Easter, Sarah’s frustration with her second group home in Mount Ayr boiled over.

Fearing being forced to go to the hospital, she took a pair of scissors from a desk and allegedly threatened her roommate, telling the group home staff she wasn’t going. Authorities alleged Sarah barricaded herself in the room and the “staff could not control her or calm her down,” court records show.

The outburst landed Sarah in the Ringgold County Jail, accused of domestic abuse. In one afternoon, she went from someone the state had deemed in need of protection to an accused assailant.

It also triggered another difficult hunt for a place to house a complex young woman with an explosive personality disorder, cerebral palsy, narcolepsy and major depression. Someone who could suddenly collapse and not come to for as long as 20 minutes. Someone who could be sweet, resourceful and determined, but emotional, impetuous and violent when she didn’t get her way.

Some of those who weighed in on the guardianship case in April court hearings had never talked to Sarah. But Sarah’s attorney Bill Early had, and he warned the others something the Beaman family knew well: Sarah was, in many ways, smarter than others gave her credit for and incredibly willful when she wanted to be.

“Quite honestly,” Early said, “she’s in a position to poison any placement she doesn’t want to be in.”

In the group homes, Sarah also had been taken off medications that helped her manage her narcoleptic “spells” and regulate her behavior. She’d been prescribed a powerful drug, Haldol, an antipsychotic prescribed for schizophrenia, that came with a black-box warning. She’d gained a lot of weight on the drug and she said it left her exhausted, especially in the morning. That was the anxious, tired state she was in on the Saturday of Easter weekend.

After being taken by deputies to jail that morning, Sarah had a panic attack, a feeling she’d had many times before, like she couldn’t breathe. But she said a jailer there was kind and told her she was safe. At least there, she said, she got good sleep.

“I slept better in jail than I ever did in the group home,” she said.

Free falling

With their first born yanked from their lives, Bonnie and Todd were in a free fall. Their mental and physical health deteriorated. Todd, in congestive heart and kidney failure, was hospitalized in March and deteriorated more in April.

Unable to pool their family’s Social Security and Medicaid any longer, the Beamans also were poorer. Living on less than $15,000 annually, they stretched what they had, making the rounds at central Iowa food banks as often as they could. Twice a week, the Beamans drove their van to Des Moines so Bonnie and son Steven could make money selling plasma.

The costs to the state of the Beamans’ problems also mounted. Among them: courts were handling 11 different cases, all involving lawyers paid for by the state. There had been jail time, mandatory psych evaluations and a hired court visitor, an attorney who worked by the hour. Group home care for someone with Sarah’s acute needs can cost as much as $260,000 annually, figures obtained from the state show, and now people believed she needed an even higher level of 24-7 care.

After her release from jail, the woman Sarah’s family wanted to be her new guardian, her aunt Kristi Beaman, placed her temporarily in the Guthrie Center home of Beverly Wild, an elderly, disabled attorney who had helped the Beamans with their guardianship of Sarah and her brother Steven. Wild had previously tried but failed to persuade a judge to let Sarah Beaman go back home with her parents to Menlo.

Wild lived with Kelly Bast, a retired physician, who also strongly believed the best placement for Sarah was with her family.

The temporary living situation for Sarah at the home did not sit well with most others involved in the case, including Swensen, who wanted to quickly move her, believing the arrangement was highly dangerous for them all.

“Sarah Beaman has a history of violent behavior including multiple instances of physically attacking and injuring facility staff. She also has a history of physically assaulting law enforcement personnel,” Swensen wrote in a court motion.

The decision angered Donna Bothwell, a judge temporarily involved in the case, who said the guardian should never have moved Sarah to Wild’s home without court consent. The judge called it “completely unethical” for Wild to take Sarah into her home because she had been the attorney representing the parents accused of neglecting her. But the Beamans were no longer Sarah’s guardians.

In a phone hearing to weigh Sarah’s next placement, Early, her attorney, cautioned the judge not to be too harsh, warning any other placement would likely end in disaster, too.

“I don’t think you’re going to find a group home that is going to take her at this point because of her conduct,” Early said. “I would urge caution on the court… because the hornet’s nest is about to be struck.”

She helps find her own solution, then sabotages it

Where the Beamans lived, word had long since trickled out about a hard-luck family that had been living a house with a basement full of sewage and filled with malnourished dogs ― a home so filthy, it was immediately condemned.

“It was terribly sad to hear some of these details,” Audubon Mayor Palle Lansman said. “These were people who needed help. They were in a scenario well beyond what we typically see in a small town.”

People involved in Sarah’s case felt the same. But help in the form the Beamans needed never came.

Instead, yet another judge, Jennifer Benson Bahr, was asked to decide Sarah’s fate.

The temporary housing options discussed after the domestic abuse arrest were typical of those for others across the state with mental health issues, disabilities and serious behavior problems: a hospital, a shelter or a crisis stabilization center.

Some, including Swensen, the county attorney, felt Sarah needed a locked facility. But no placement was available and a representative from Molina Healthcare Iowa, the for-profit, managed-care business handling the case for the Iowa’s privatized Medicaid system, warned the judge no community placements in Iowa, like group homes, are locked.

Listening to others discuss her in phone calls, Sarah knew what was coming would not be good.

Using Bast’s cell phone, she did her own research and found a host home in Ankeny. She called and asked if those who ran it would talk to her guardian. The couple seemed perfect: The host woman used to be a teacher who worked with people with disabilities. The husband was a life coach. Both had lived and worked with people with violent behaviors.

“I really want to go to a host home,” Sarah later told Bahr in a phone hearing. “My old group homes provoke me.”

But before that placement option could be examined, Sarah would sabotage herself ― lashing out this time at her advocates: Bast, Wild and her aunt.

On April 22, Beaman became increasingly angry when she could not use Bast’s phone, trying to contact her family. She eventually screamed at Bast, storming away from him and telling him not to follow her. Deputies were called.

Later, her aunt Kristi called the home in Guthrie Center from Des Moines to try to help Sarah calm down.

Sarah exploded again, punched a wall and started throwing things at Bast. Then she threatened him with a kitchen knife.

Violating the judge’s no-contact order, they had to call Bonnie to calm Sarah down. They also called Guthrie County sheriff’s deputies for assistance.

Bast, Wild, Kristi Beaman and deputies tried to figure out what to do next. They learned Woodward Resource Center, one of the only state-run facilities still operating in Iowa, no longer took acute patients. An emergency room, they were told, might only hold her for about four hours.

In an emergency phone hearing the next day with Bahr, Bast was forced to admit he no longer felt safe caring for Sarah in his home. Kristi Beaman said her niece needed immediate removal to protect Bast and Wild, but she said she had called around and knew of no permanent placements that would take her. She said a hospital could take Sarah in the short term.

She also told Bahr she no longer wanted to be Sarah’s guardian.

“Unfortunately, unless there’s someone who wants to replace you, we can’t allow you to simply withdraw,” the judge said.

With no permanent housing options on the horizon and no way of protecting themselves from another violent outburst, Bast and Wild lacked a way to get Sarah that day to the county courthouse to start work on an involuntary commitment or hospitalization.

Sarah said that day she felt abandoned by others, including her aunt.

“I don’t know why you guys are punishing me,” she said in the phone hearing with the judge. “I got taken from my family.”

“You’re not being punished,” Bahr told her.

Bahr made clear on that call, and in a subsequent court order, that her legal powers in the guardianship case were limited. She could not write a court order demanding an involuntarily commitment or hospitalization.

“The court,” she wrote in her order, is not “Sarah’s day-to-day caregiver, treatment provider, case manager, insurer or placement coordinator. The Court does not control hospital admission decisions. This Court cannot simply pick a facility and order that the facility accept Sarah, particularly where admission may depend on provider acceptance, bed availability, clinical judgment, insurance authorization or separate statutory procedures.”

Bast wondered how he would make it through the night with Sarah so on edge.

Not long after the call with the judge ended, Sarah erupted again in anger. She eventually stormed out of the Guthrie Center home, screaming at Bast not to follow her.

Bast waited a bit and went looking ― and couldn’t find her.

But her family knew where she’d gone.

Eventually, Bast found her a block away at the Guthrie County Hospital being led down a long hallway for yet another mental health exam.

Sarah had done what she feared most: Voluntarily checked herself into the hospital alone.

After eight months, still no permanent home

By June — nine months after Sarah was taken from her parents’ for alleged neglect — a permanent placement for her still hadn’t been found.

After eloping twice from the Guthrie County hospital, while trying to get in touch with her family, she was moved to the Independence Mental Health Institute in Buchanan County. The institution is intended for short-term stays for people with severe symptoms of mental illness.

The whole time Sarah was out of her parents’ care, DHHS left her brother Steven, also considered a dependent adult, in the care of Todd and Bonnie. He did what he could to help his parents as they struggled without Sarah, and he feared being taken from his family, too.

Sibling Rex also rejoined the family in Menlo after his release from jail.

As they awaited trials that got repeatedly delayed, Todd and Bonnie said they took classes to try to prove they were neither unsafe nor criminally abusive. They also said they sought therapy.

“But it’s hard to find therapy out here when you only have Medicaid,” Bonnie said. “I only have Medicaid and a lot of providers won’t take that.”

An attorney for DHHS filed a complaint against Beverly Wild, the attorney who represented the Beamans and who, with Bast, took Sarah in for a short time. The complaint with the state’s Attorney Disciplinary Board stemmed from earlier accusation Wild crossed ethical boundaries by allowing her clients’ daughter to live with her without a judge’s approval while her guardianship case was ongoing.

Wild and Bast maintained that the state’s actions in Sarah’s case did far more harm than good. They still believe Sarah’s only hope of a stable placement is with the family that knew how to handle her — if only they could have some help.

Lacking providers and skilled caregivers, more people with disabilities nationally are going without. Around 700,000 people with disabilities already were on waiting lists for programs and services across the country in 2025 before decade-long historic cuts to Medicaid began. Individuals with intellectual disabilities in Iowa already on a wait list for services increased more than 334% since Medicaid was privatized, to 8,046 in January 2026 from 1,852 in 2016, records obtained from Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services show. For some with acute needs like Iowan Sarah Beaman, jails and hospitals become solutions of last resort.

Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at @leerood or on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.

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Can Tre Singleton fill familiar role for Iowa State basketball? | Hines

Published

8 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Press Room

Can Tre Singleton fill familiar role for Iowa State basketball? | Hines

It didn’t take Tre Singleton long to learn the lesson that has dawned on so many Iowa State basketball transfers before him.

“There’s not much to do around Ames,” the Northwestern transplant said July 14, “besides get better and be good at basketball.”

Perhaps not a slogan the Ames Chamber of Commerce will be adopting any time soon, but a sentiment – and, maybe, self-fulfilling prophecy – that the Cyclones themselves have turned into something of a brand, going back to the early days of Fred Hoiberg’s Transfer U tenure.

Get in the lab. Get better. Get wins.

Repeat.

“Cut all the distractions,” Singleton said of the setup. “It helps you key in on the things you need to work on to get better at.

“It helps me come in here every day with the focus of being better.”

That’s a focus Iowa State and its fans hope they’ll be able to appreciate this winter when Singleton is expected to take on a significant role for a Cyclones team that will reconfigure itself after losing three starters off last year’s Sweet 16 squad.

Most notably, Singleton has the look and feel of a Joshua Jefferson approximation. At least in terms of style and role. Expecting a transfer coming off a promising, but certainly not elite freshman season to just slide into the spot previously occupied by an All-American and first-round NBA Draft pick would probably be … unwise.

“I think it’s best to stay away from any comparisons to other guys because Tre needs to be the best version of himself,” said Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger. “There’s differences between him and Joshua, even though I know there’s a natural inclination to draw that comparison.”

That natural inclination comes from their similar size (both 6-foot-8 though Jefferson has 30 pounds on 215-pound Singleton), versatility as playmaking power forwards, ability to rebound and high-IQ play.

I think the expectation for Singleton (and Iowa State fans) is to see if the sophomore can operate in that same Jefferson role, if not with the same sort of production and overall impact.

“We see him as somebody who can create advantages for us offensively to make plays,” Otzelberger said. “He’s a gifted passer. He takes a lot of pride in making the right play.”

I think the high-end hope would be that Singleton can approach that Jeffersonian impact in a year or two.

“Tre,” Otzelberger said, “is a very gifted player.”

Singleton’s bet on Iowa State’s development model and the Cyclones’ bet on Singleton to maximize it seems like the sort of transfer portal match that’s often overlooked amid doom-and-gloom bellyaching about player movement.

I’m sure the dozens (dozens!) of Northwestern hoops fans would disagree, but Singleton’s move from a middling Big Ten program with a sparse NBA track record to a Big 12 contender with a strong developmental program seems like not only an inoffensive use of the portal but one that rewards both ascendant players and programs.

We’ll see how it plays out, but Singleton and Iowa State feels like a win-win marriage of skillset, opportunity and culture.

“I chose Iowa State,” Singleton said, “because it fits me as a person. “

Besides, Evanston has the lakeshore and a world-class city 20 miles away. Which, sure, I’d call amenities, but aspiring NBA players might consider distractions.

You take your wins where you can get them, I suppose.

Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.

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Meet the 3 Best New Food at the Iowa State Fair finalists for 2026

Published

20 hours ago

July 14, 2026

Press Room

Meet the 3 Best New Food at the Iowa State Fair finalists for 2026

It’s all about the food at the Iowa State Fair, and a panel of judges has named their top new foods coming to the fair in 2026.

From an initial list of 84 entries, the field was narrowed to 11 contenders. Judges tasted each of the 11 new foods and voted for three finalists during a Facebook livestream event from the fairgrounds on Tuesday, July 14.

Those three will compete for fairgoers’ votes for the 2026 Best New Food at the Iowa State Fair.

Last year, Winn & Sara’s Kitchen’s bacon chicken ranch eggroll took home the top honor.

These three finalists will face off in public voting Aug. 13-19 at the Iowa State Fair. The winner will be announced Aug. 21.

What are the top three new foods at the 2026 Iowa State Fair?

All-American Scrambled Egg Roll

Winn & Sara’s Kitchen will try for its third-straight win with a breakfast offering. The All-American Scrambled Egg Roll is stuffed with bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs and cheddar, finished with cheesy ranch.

Cost: $15
Vendor: Winn & Sara’s Kitchen
Where: Next to the craft beer tent, west of the Jacobson Building

Porky Parm Gnocchi

The Pork Parm Gnocchi features gluten-free potato gnocchi with sausage, parmesan cream and pesto. It’s topped with an America 250 flag and a suvenir piggy pal.

Cost: $14
Vendor: Destination Grille
Where: Between the Jacobson Building and the Craft Beer Tent

Ultimate Minneapple Pie

An offering from a Minnesota State Fair vendor making its first Iowa State Fair appearance, the Ultimate Minneapple Pie includes fried apple pie with ice cream and apple syrup.

Cost: $14
Vendor: Minneapple Pie
Where: Near the Anne and Bill Riley Stage

More standout new foods at the 2026 fair

Here are the eight other items that rounded out the top 11:

1776 Dubai Strawberries from The Strawberry Station, $19. Fresh strawberries topped with milk chocolate, pistachio crème and crunchy kataifi. Find it at West Marketplace.
Cajun Cluck ’N’ Chaos from Cluckin’ Coop, $14. Cajun chicken sloppy joe with slaw, spicy pickles, pickled egg and pickle cotton candy. This lunch-cafeteria special is served right across the street from the Animal Learning Center at Little Hands on the Farm.
Crunchy Lamb Wrap from HoQ, $19. Deep‑fried naan stuffed with risotto, lamb and cheese. Located east of the Administration Building.
Garlic Dill Pickle Cheese Curds from Brad and Harry’s Cheese Curds, $9. Garlic‑dill mashup curds. You can find Brad and Harry’s Cheese Curds west of the Jacobson Building.
Star Spangled Swine from Whatcha Smokin’ BBQ, $15. Pork belly with apple‑chipotle rub and honey crystals. Located next to the Iowa craft beer tent, west of the Jacobson Building.
Strawberry Bliss from Iowa Specialty Crop Growers Association, $8. Shortbread, strawberry, meringue and milk chocolate. Located in the Agriculture Building, under the southwest stairs.
Stuffed Tater Kegs from Tater Todd and Hot Doug’s, $10. Loaded potato bites with breakfast or cheese options. Located in front of the Agriculture Building.
Sweet Americana from Over the Top, $13. Strawberry shortcake, lemon bar and blueberry crisp ice creams. Over the Top’s stand is on Grand Avenue, just outside the Varied Industries Building.

Previous winners of Best New Foods at the Iowa State Fair

2013: Zag’s Po Boys — Shrimp Corn Dog
2014: Multiple vendors — Funnel Cake on a Stick
2015: The Rib Shack — Ultimate Bacon Brisket Bomb
2016: Iowa Turkey Federation — Not Your Mamma’s Taco
2017: Steer ‘N’ Stein — Pork Almighty
2018: Applishus — Apple Eggroll
2019: G Mig’s Wrap Stand — Georgie’s Roast with the Most Wrap
2020: No fair due to COVID-19
2021: Cluckin’ Coop by the Iowa Egg Council/Iowa Poultry Association — Chicken Egg Salad with Fry Bread
2022: The Rib Shack — The Finisher
2023: What’s Your Cheez — Deep-Fried Bacon Brisket Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese
2024: Winn & Sara’s Kitchen — Bacon Cheeseburger Eggroll
2025: Winn & Sara’s Kitchen — Bacon chicken ranch Eggroll

Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.

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Some Iowa originals to get the spotlight in RAGBRAI overnight town

Published

1 day ago

July 14, 2026

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Some Iowa originals to get the spotlight in RAGBRAI overnight town

RAGBRAI will feature popular Iowa party bands Hairball and the Pork Tornadoes on back-to-back nights.
Guthrie Center’s entertainment lineup will highlight original Iowa music, including The Nadas and The Weary Ramblers.

What would RAGBRAI be without Hairball and the Pork Tornadoes?

Cyclists on the July 19-25 ride will have the chance to rock with both of the venerable Iowa party bands as they perform on back-to-back nights.

They’re perennials on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, as traditional as the Mississippi River tire dip. Hairball will bring its signature pyrotechnic, costumed arena rock tribute to the main stage in the overnight town of Boone on Tuesday, July 21, and the Pork Tornadoes will be in Marshalltown on July 22 to perform selections from their seemingly endless, genre-spanning repertoire.

Other headlining party-cover faves booked in RAGBRAI overnight towns will include the Spazmatics in Dyersville, Not Quite Brothers in Independence and Gut Feeling in Onawa.

But if you’re a fan of original music, make plans to spend a little extra time at the stage in Guthrie Center, the Monday, Day 2, overnight town.

While Gimikk, a RAGBRAI classic cover band that also proudly performs some originals, will be the headliner, don’t miss the other Iowa originals on the bill.

Most prominent are the Nadas, a fixture on the state’s music scene for nearly 35 years. Co-founders Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth got their start in Ames in the early 1990s while students at Iowa State University. Expanding into a five-member ensemble, they worked to build a following across the country and have sold thousands of records on their independent Authentic label featuring their original, alt-rock-leaning folk-Americana tunes.

Marking 25 years of the Nadas in 2018, Walsmith told the Register, “As long as it’s fun, we’re always going to do it.” And they still are, performing regularly and adding another album, “Come Along for the Ride,” to their lengthy discography in 2023.

Also on the bill: a duo that has launched with a bang. The Weary Ramblers, Iowans Chad Elliott and Kathryn Severing Fox, are songwriting and performing partners who got their start in 2022. Elliott, a veteran guitarist and singer on the Iowa scene, and Severing Fox, a classically trained musician steeped in jazz violin, released a debut album in 2024 that hit the top 10 on the Americana charts and produced a hit single, “Pretty Lights of Denver.”

In December 2025, they collected a major award for independent songwriters presented at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. With a second album starting to chart, they were back in Tennessee again in January to compete in the International Blues Challenge, and came home the overall winners for solo or duo act.

In growing demand as touring performers, they opened for the Des Moines Symphony at the annual Yankee Doodle Pops show July 3 on the grounds of the Iowa Capitol, drawing an enthusiastic response from a crowd of nearly 100,000.

Superintendent summons former students to put on a show

Steve Smith, the Guthrie Center RAGBRAI entertainment chair who tapped the Nadas and Weary Ramblers, is high on a third act: Hillbilly Air Show, the afternoon’s opener. They’re a country duo that includes former Navy fighter pilot Brick Imerman and whose songbook is rich with the tunes of honky-tonk balladeers like George Strait and Alan Jackson.

One thing Imerman, of Panora, and Elliott, a Lamoni native who lives in Jefferson, have in common: They spent their school days in Guthrie Center, where Smith was a teacher and now is superintendent of the regional school district.

“There’s just a personal connection,” said Smith, who counts himself a big fan of the musical careers his former students have forged. And he said he’s been kicking himself for 25 years after failing to book the Nadas for a school reunion when he had the chance,. He said he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity a second time.

Smith said he got some pushback from other Guthrie Center RAGBRAI organizers for his unorthodox choices, but stuck by them.

He said he hopes the town’s show and an effort to keep food and beverage vendor prices reasonable will reward the riders for climbing some of the 2026 ride’s steepest hills coming into and leaving town.

So far, he said, he’s gotten a positive reception from veteran RAGBRAI riders who’ve heard about his eclectic music lineup.

“They said they don’t always go to the (overnight town) shows, but, ‘If you’re having them, we’re there,’” he said.

Hillbilly Air Show goes on at 2 p.m., followed by the Weary Ramblers at 4 p.m. and the Nadas at 6:30 p.m. Smith invites Des Moines metro residents who aren’t on the ride to join the party.

“We’re a town of 1,600 that’s going to be invaded by another 30,000 to 40,000, but we’re ready,” he said.