http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/us/10kansas.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
But as the years of conflict have turned to decades, the city has settled into a tenuous, if mutually disdainful, co-existence with the Phelpses.
The children of Mr. Phelps work white-collar jobs: 11 of the 13 are lawyers, including the three daughters who appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. (Mr. Phelps was disbarred in 1979.) His 56 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren attend public school.
Most of us have good relations with our co-workers and our classmates, just not close relations, said Mara Phelps, 39, who grew up in Florida and married into the family.
The contrasts that emerge from living alongside the most hated family in America, as they were labeled in a recent documentary, can be striking.
The same local funeral home that has coached numerous parents, children and spouses through the emotional tumult of knowing that the death of a loved one would be the subject of a vitriolic protest has also handled two funerals at Westboro. The sheriff who arrested Mr. Phelps and raided the familys church and law offices later turned to the Phelps family when he was indicted on a raft of corruption charges, even though they had protested his mothers memorial service.
It was pretty hard to find an attorney that would take my case and fight the government, said the sheriff, Dave Meneley, who was later removed from office by a two-judge panel who found that he had engaged in false testimony and misconduct. They were darn good attorneys, probably the best in Topeka. And when you get one, you get them all.
But as the years of conflict have turned to decades, the city has settled into a tenuous, if mutually disdainful, co-existence with the Phelpses.
The children of Mr. Phelps work white-collar jobs: 11 of the 13 are lawyers, including the three daughters who appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. (Mr. Phelps was disbarred in 1979.) His 56 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren attend public school.
Most of us have good relations with our co-workers and our classmates, just not close relations, said Mara Phelps, 39, who grew up in Florida and married into the family.
The contrasts that emerge from living alongside the most hated family in America, as they were labeled in a recent documentary, can be striking.
The same local funeral home that has coached numerous parents, children and spouses through the emotional tumult of knowing that the death of a loved one would be the subject of a vitriolic protest has also handled two funerals at Westboro. The sheriff who arrested Mr. Phelps and raided the familys church and law offices later turned to the Phelps family when he was indicted on a raft of corruption charges, even though they had protested his mothers memorial service.
It was pretty hard to find an attorney that would take my case and fight the government, said the sheriff, Dave Meneley, who was later removed from office by a two-judge panel who found that he had engaged in false testimony and misconduct. They were darn good attorneys, probably the best in Topeka. And when you get one, you get them all.
