LeRoy Walters & the Heart of America DanceSport Championships

LeRoy Wayne Walters (January 22, 1944 – January 8, 2021) was a nationally respected Kansas City ballroom-dance figure — competition organizer, adjudicator, and studio owner. With his family he founded and ran two of the Midwest’s signature ballroom competitions, the Heart of America DanceSport Championships (Kansas City, est. ~1973–74) and the St. Louis Star Ball, and in the late 1990s co-founded the national Dancers Cup Tour. He and his wife Ginny owned the Kansas City, Kansas dance studio that still bears his name — Walters Dance Center on Minnesota Avenue — until they stepped away in 2003. The Heart of America Championships remains Kansas City’s marquee ballroom event, having marked its 51st edition in August 2024.¹²³

The person — LeRoy Walters (1944–2021)

LeRoy Wayne Walters was born January 22, 1944, and died January 8, 2021, at the age of 76, in Glendale, Arizona; at the time of his death he was a resident of Tonganoxie, Kansas, in the Kansas City metro’s western edge.¹ He served in the U.S. Army from July 30, 1962, to July 29, 1965.¹ On August 29, 1981, he married Ginny Leighty; his obituary names children Denise, Raymond, Brandon, and Mark, and siblings Mary Sprang and Roger Walters.¹

Within the ballroom world Walters was, per his obituary, “renowned and well respected,” and was repeatedly sought as a Chairman of Judges, Scrutineer, Adjudicator, and Invigilator — the senior officiating roles that govern competitive ballroom events.¹ His public legacy rests on three intertwined contributions: the Heart of America Championships, the St. Louis Star Ball, and the Kansas City, Kansas studio that carries his name.

The precise span of LeRoy Walters’ Kansas City tenure — when he arrived in or established himself in the metro, and his birthplace — is not stated in the sources reviewed.

The institution — Heart of America DanceSport Championships

The Heart of America DanceSport Championships is a Kansas City ballroom competition that Walters “started and ran” with his family, alongside the St. Louis Star Ball.¹ It is one of the longer-running ballroom competitions in the United States: it celebrated its 51st anniversary with the August 7–10, 2024 edition in Kansas City, Missouri, which places the inaugural year around 1973–1974.²³ (The commonly cited “~1974” founding year is consistent with the 51st-anniversary count but is approximate; the exact inaugural year is not confirmed in the sources reviewed.)

The competition is held each August in Kansas City and is a member event of the National Dance Council of America (NDCA) circuit and the Dancers Cup Tour — the latter a national promotional tour Walters himself co-founded “with his friends, Dan and Scott, in the late 1990’s.”¹² The event has since passed to new organizers: it is now run by Eric and Michelle Hudson, who describe stewarding the Heart of America dance floor over the past decade and continuing it as a welcoming, community-minded competition.²⁴ (The exact date and terms of the Walters-to-Hudson handoff of the competition are not stated in the sources reviewed.)

The St. Louis Star Ball, the second competition Walters founded and ran, is treated by the obituary as a companion event to the Heart of America Championships; further independent detail on its history was not pursued for this page.¹

The KCK studio lineage — Walters Dance Center, Minnesota Avenue

LeRoy and Ginny Walters owned a dance studio in Kansas City, Kansas, until 2003; per LeRoy’s obituary, that studio “still bears the Walters name to this day.”¹ That studio is Walters Dance Center, at 5023 Minnesota Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas (Wyandotte County), on the historic Minnesota Avenue corridor — a long-running social-dance institution that bills itself as “teaching dance in Kansas City for over 40 years” and “home to many National Dance Champions.”⁵⁶

When the Walterses stepped away in 2003, the studio passed to Mark Harris and Mary Carrington-Harris, decorated national swing- and country-dance champions, who took over and kept the founder’s name rather than rebranding.¹⁵ Under the Harrises the studio has continued its signature offering — a no-contracts weekly Saturday-night social dance and beginner-friendly group classes across ballroom, Latin, swing, and country styles — preserving both the Walters name and the founder-era social-dance culture into the present.⁵⁶ The studio’s full current operating profile is documented on the Registry page Walters Dance Center.

Directory listings give a soft “established 1980” date for the studio, but LeRoy Walters’ dance career and the institution’s “40-plus years” framing predate that date; the exact original studio-opening year is unconfirmed.

Significance to Kansas City

Through the Heart of America DanceSport Championships, LeRoy Walters anchored a piece of Kansas City’s competitive-ballroom heritage that has now run for roughly half a century and remains the metro’s marquee ballroom event.²³ Through Walters Dance Center, he established a Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas social-dance institution that has outlived his ownership and his life while keeping his name — a rare instance of a local studio carrying its founder’s identity across a change of ownership and into a third decade under new champions.¹⁵ Together the competition and the studio make Walters a documented founder-figure in the KC partner-dance landscape mapped in social-dancing-in-kansas-city.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Dignity Memorial — Obituary of LeRoy Walters, Kansas City, KS (accessed June 2026). https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/kansas-city-ks/leroy-walters-10001777 — Asserts: LeRoy Wayne Walters b. January 22, 1944, d. January 8, 2021 (age 76), resident of Tonganoxie, KS, died Glendale, AZ; U.S. Army 1962–1965; m. Ginny Leighty Aug. 29, 1981; started and ran the Heart of America and St. Louis Star Ball competitions; co-founded the Dancers Cup Tour “with his friends, Dan and Scott, in the late 1990’s”; Chairman of Judges / Scrutineer / Adjudicator / Invigilator; he and Ginny owned a Kansas City, Kansas dance studio “until 2003,” which “still bears the Walters name to this day.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Heart of America DanceSport Championships — official site (accessed June 2026). https://hoadancesport.com/ — Asserts: the competition is held annually each August in Kansas City; current organizers Eric and Michelle Hudson; membership in the NDCA circuit and Dancers Cup Tour; “Our Story” framing of a multi-decade event. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. DanceVision Blog — “Heart of America” (2024 recap; accessed June 2026). https://blog.dancevision.com/heart-of-america — Asserts: the championships marked their “51st anniversary” with the August 7–10, 2024 edition in Kansas City, Missouri (implying a ~1973 founding year); organized by Eric and Michelle Hudson; among the foremost ballroom events in the United States. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Heart of America DanceSport Championships — “Our Story” page (accessed June 2026). https://hoadancesport.com/our-story — Asserts: Eric and Michelle Hudson have run the Heart of America dance floor “over this past decade” (corroborates current organizers; exact handoff date not stated). ↩

5. KS.City Registry — Walters Dance Center page. walters-dance-center — Asserts (with its own sourcing): studio at 5023 Minnesota Ave, Kansas City, KS 66102; founded by and named for LeRoy Walters (with Ginny); Mark Harris & Mary Carrington-Harris took over in 2003 and kept the Walters name; “40+ years teaching dance in KC”; “home to many National Dance Champions”; no-contracts weekly Saturday social. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Walters Dance Center — official site (accessed June 2026; reachable over HTTP only — broken HTTPS certificate, ERR_TLS_CERT_ALTNAME_INVALID). http://www.waltersdancecenter.com/ — Asserts: “teaching dance in Kansas City for over 40 years”; “home to many National Dance Champions”; ballroom / swing / country / Latin / salsa / tango instruction; group + private classes; Saturday social. (Flag the cert issue before any public linking.) ↩ ↩²