The core of my problem was that the printer was not being seen on the USB bus. Playing around with cables, various USB plugs/ports, etc. I got the printer to show up on a "lsusb" command.
Once that was done the proprietary drivers "saw" the printer, the KDE desktop similarly saw the desktop and either the drivers or KDE configured things. Similarly, CUPS on the localhost now sees things too. So all is well. Now just to modify CUPS to allow anything on the LAN to print to the printer... -- "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Republican President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt.
