Loman Doyle Cansler was born September 6, 1924, to Pruitt H. Cansler and Nettie Broyles near Long Lane, Missouri, in Dallas County. He grew up on a farm in a family with seven children where singing was very much a part of the household. Cansler left school in the eighth grade and in 1944 he was drafted into the Navy. While serving in the South Pacific as a radio operator on the U.S.S. Attu, Cansler began work on a high school degree, taking correspondence courses at the American School in Chicago, Illinois. After the war, he was able to test into the University of Missouri, where he earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education between 1946 and 1950.

After college, Cansler began his teaching and counseling career at Fayette High School. In June of 1952, he married Laura McElwain of Galesburg, Illinois. The couple soon moved to North Kansas City where Cansler worked as a high school counselor for the next thirty years and Laura embarked upon a career in art. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, in 1951, and a master’s degree at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1953. Laura also taught art workshops as an Artist in Residence and later painted sets for plays for the Bell Road Barn Players in Parkville, Missouri.

Cansler’s interest in collecting folk songs began in the late 1940s while he was in college and continued throughout his lifetime. In 1954, he bought his first tape recorder, which he and Laura carried around the state taping anyone willing to sing a song for them. Two albums were released from this material, Folksongs of Missouri in 1959, and Folksongs of the Mid-West in 1973. Loman and Laura Cansler had three children, Philip, Joel, and Myra. Loman died October 5, 1992, and Laura died September 25, 2007.

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