Amanda Henke is a huge fan of the Chiefs and Cardinals, but an even bigger fan of all things Blair Oaks. “She really does bleed green; everybody knows Amanda and the whole community supports her,” area that they’ll recognize Amanda before they recognize me.” Amanda, who will turn 40 in July, was born with Down Syndrome. But with the help of so many people around Central Missouri, she’s enjoying a good life. “Without the Special Learning Center giving her that start in life and giving her that boost up ... she was able to go right through high school, it was amazing. “She’s been a big blessing in our lives. There are always challeng- es to having a special needs kid, but Amanda is one of the most loving kids in the world.” Henke’s annual celebrity golf tournament has raised almost $1.5 million for the Special Learning Center.
“You’ll never get rich doing it, but it gets me out of the house, gets me to exercise, and keeps me active, that’s the main thing.” He’s found plenty of arrowheads and interesting Civil War items
like bullets and buttons, and a rosette (with U.S. on it) that went on the bridle of a horse and was part of the Union Cavalry. “I never paid much attention to it when I was in school, but I love the Civil display case.” settlement that “dates back maybe 900 to 1,000 years” and was likely part of the Mississippi Indian tribe. There was an old school on the property — you can still see the foundation — that closed in 1904 after being open for about 100 years. Henke also found a lot of old homesteads and the Baker Cemetery on one end of his proper- ty. “Somebody used to keep mowing the grass and kept it cleaned up — and I never saw anybody in there, I always thought it was ghosts doing it. I used to tell my kids when they were young that I’d give them $100 to go camp out in that cemetery all night. (It was 1.5 miles from the Henke’s home.) None of them would take me up on it.
“There is a row of tombstones that’s all kids, and they basically died a day apart, so there must have been some kind of epidemic going around. Now, I’m going to start taking it over and keeping it cleaned up, because the people who are buried in there deserve not to be forgotten.
“It’s just all kind of interesting. I have a lot of history on my farm. The most I’ve enjoyed my money is with the family and the farm. If I could have made the money farming that I did in baseball, I probably never would have played. But farming is almost like going to the gam- bling boat. You put your money in and hopefully hit the jackpot.” He already hit one. “I was very blessed to play baseball and do
he has too many hobbies, and that’s not even counting the work he has to do on his 900-acre plot of land. His latest hobby takes place on the land he loves — going “If you dig up a silver coin, you’re hooked,” he said. But that’s hardly hitting the metal detector jackpot. A silver George Washing- 1800s; the oldest one I found was 1852, but nothing older. But I’m working on it.
10 /// May 2026
something I love,” Henke said. “I started playing when I was 9 years old, and I probably had dreams of playing in the big leagues, but the reality of it was pretty obvious that it was a long shot, at best. But after high school, some of my buddies talked me into going to some of these tryouts, some colleges started looking at me, and it just kind of progressed from there. “Sometimes I get up in the morning, and it’s like it was all just a You certainly did. Thank you for letting us be a small part of your dream.
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