Thursday, December 28, 1933

Mother and I went downtown. I had my hair set. We got some kettles. Mrs. Raifert came over. Played pinochle.

Jacob L. Loose
Founder of Loose-Wiles Biscuit

Jacob Loose was a young Pennsylvania transplant to Chetopa, Kansas. He opened his first

 dry goods store there in the 1870s. Twenty-five years later, he was baking mogul of Kansas City's

enormous Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company . Cookies and soda crackers enabled Jacob and Ella

 Loose to live well. And they gave generously.

The Loose's philanthropy is legendary. Jacob's name evokes lovely Loose Park . Mrs. Loose

 gave the 80-acre green space to the city in 1923 in her husband's memory. Ella Loose herself

 was famous for her 30-year tradition of Thanksgiving "shoe parties." Until the 1940s, Mrs. Loose

 gave an annual party for the children at the Gillis Orphans' Home. Each child received a brand new pair

of shoes plus a dollar bill for spending money!

The Loose's splendid 1909 mansion still stands on the southeast corner of Walnut and Armour

 Boulevard. Jacob Loose died at age 73 on September 18, 1923. Ella Loose outlived him almost a

quarter of a century, expiring on September 26, 1945. Their charitable trusts, combined

with those of his brother Joseph and family, ultimately formed the basis for Kansas City's largest

 charitable organization, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts.