08/19/2025
Meet our Saturday afternoon history speaker for this year’s 126th annual reunion:
A native Kansan, and the descendant of homesteaders, Marla Matkin is a former teacher as well as a respected historian and scholar. Best known for her portrayal of Elizabeth “Libbie” Custer, wife of General George Armstrong Custer, she utilizes her love of history and theatre to inspire and entertain her audiences. Along with her numerous historical programs, she writes and directs plays reminiscent of the old-time farces and melodramas, which take you on a rollicking romp through history.
Marla currently serves on two boards, the Society of Friends of Historic Fort Hays and the Smoky Hill Trail Association. She has also had the pleasure of serving on the Arts and Entertainment Committee for the 200th celebration of the Santa Fe Trail. And she is very excited to be a part of the docudrama, The Contested Plains, dealing with the 1874 German Family Tragedy. She and Buck Taylor (Newly O’Brien of Gunsmoke) play Ruth and Rufus Brown, aunt and uncle of John German.
She has also published her first children’s book entitled Custer’s Mouse, based on the true account of General Custer’s smallest pet. It’s an imaginative blend of history and storytelling. Her second children’s book, A Dragon’s Tale, has a 2022 publication date, and is the interesting story, told through the eyes of a young boy, of the discovery of the fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric swimming reptile called a plesiosaur at Fort Wallace in 1867. It is just another way to educate and excite future historians and enthusiasts.
