I made it to the state fair in Sedalia at least once, c. 1975 or so. Actually, I'm pretty sure that was the only time.
It's not at all unusual for there to be areas even near the epicenter where a quake is not felt at all, and yet, other areas much farther away where the motion is quite pronounced. The big Denali quake in Alaska several years ago, for example, went unnoticed by most of North America, but had dramatic effects in isolated regions as far away as Louisiana. It's just like with sound waves -- reflection, absorption, phase cancellation, filtering, etc. -- they all combine to produce some pretty wild effects.