ABSTRACT
Lower-middle class was a designation most such people applied to themselves, and it was a phrase other Kansas Citians found most natural in characterizing the third of their city's population who fit these descriptions. Lower-middle class families were linked to one another by a formal network of organizations, churches, and schools, and by an informal network of socializing in the neighborhood and/or with "friends from the job" and "just old friends." Technicians were taking the place of the "tight white-collar" man at the lower-middle levels of Kansas City corporations. In Kansas City, lower-middle joiners were commonly found among men and women over fifty and among the families of independent businessmen. The largest number of ministers in Kansas City were found among the lower-middle-elite; they led the smaller churches which served mainstream denominations and were located in ordinary middle-class or working-class neighborhoods.
