A Party for Print!

Quoting editor Barbie O’Neill Rogers, “You can blame me. I was responsible for the uproar.”

Cool, calm and conscientious Rogers created chaos in the newsroom of The Prospect-News in 1995 with her reply to a simple query by Larry and Pat McAnulty, the new owners of Doniphan’s weekly publication. Scattered throughout the pages were ‘news’ columns contributed by residents of various vicinities dotting the Ripley County map. To ensure the paper’s success as they stepped into the driver’s seat, they asked if anyone read those items.

It was her naive assumption that few did, since she at twenty-three years old didn’t. The owners decided to discontinue them to streamline production, reduce costs and increase efficiency. The disappearance of those particular articles proved Barbie’s confident “No” grossly incorrect. Phone calls multiplied as flustered readers expressed their displeasure and canceled subscriptions - especially those out of the area. Those weekly snapshots were lifelines to happenings from home and updates on beloved family and friends. Resuming the columns became a priority - as customer satisfaction is also key in any enterprise.

When the columns returned, readers could flip to a Correspondence page to read their favorite ones. Along with the new page came new guidelines. Formerly, most were written as if transcripts of coffee-break chats: who had come to visit whom and from where; who had a birthday party; who was sick or who had died; who preached and who sang the specials; and how Mother Nature had blessed or cursed events. To fit them all in the designated section, word counts mattered. To comply, writers had to alter perspectives and styles and make tough prioritizing decisions. They also began receiving a nominal fee for each contribution.

In years past, finding particular news items was indeed a hunt. In 1874 issues of The Prospect-News, items were varied in length and topic. Many did not have titles and none had bylines. News appeared in vertical columns; one article ran into another with only a space and a short horizontal line to alert the reader one had ended and another was beginning. Residents relied on neighborly news in print even after the arrival of telephones in the mid- 20th century. The joys (and perils) of the party lines did not displace the weekly columns. Columnists served a vital role.

I became a reader of the PN on visits to my grandparents when I was about ten years old. For this anniversary article, I flipped through the pages of some 1963 issues. Rural community news had acquired titles but still no bylines. Editors relied on the postal system to deliver the weekly submissions often written in cursive rather than typed. Here are communities represented in 1963 issues: Pratt; Bellview East; Ponder; Tucker-New Home; Center Hill; Flatwoods; Oxly; Highway K; Poe; Current View; Logan Creek; Good Hope; Oak Grove; Poynor.

Local postmaster Ralph Hall penned “The Current Drift," hosted a KDFN Saturday radio program of the same name, contributed to Missouri Conservationists and belonged to several writers groups: Outdoors Writers Association of Missouri, Great Rivers Outdoor Writers and Missouri Outdoors. He was also an area photographer. Another popular column was “Stories and Memories of Ripley County’s Senior Citizens” by Mrs. Orville McManus and based on interviews. Even our local Forest Service wrote a column - From the Ranger’s Hand.

As a county resident and a regular PN reader in the 1970’s, I read Bonnie Davis (Handy ) and Betty Murdock (Ponder). Both contributed weekly for about forty years. Murdock’s columns were longer than Davis’s, but with similar content. They were among the writers who resumed columns for the newly-created Correspondence page in 1995. Each enjoyed writing though they had busy families and careers. Murdock was an educator and Davis was a social worker. They mailed their columns or dropped them off at the office. Davis wrestled with advancing technology and used a fax machine sometimes. Having a columnist in the family whose idea of newsworthy was all-inclusive led to periodic exclamations like, “Don’t put that in the paper, Mom!”

Contributions continued but the columns changed as decades passed. Some were added, others disappeared and some appeared infrequently. Most included bylines. Consider these that have appeared through the years and their authors: Gatewood/New Home - Vera Hobbs and Delma Ponder; Oak Ridge - Irma Beckham; Naylor - Mrs. Dewey Frith; Current View and Bethany - (no bylines noted); Oxly - Reba Demos; K Highway - Mrs. Philip Davis; Ponder - Mrs. Jewell Kirby; West Point - Mrs. Blanche Adams; Riverton - Mrs. C. R. Hufstedler; Antich - Louise Robertson; Pratt - Mrs. Chester Pierce and Flatwoods - Clarence Jarrett. Kim Harrison and Laura Hoefer diced it up a bit with popular recipe columns.

Here it is 2024 and the Correspondence page still has fans though the lineup has changed along with content. Sharon Hastings (Out West), Norma Horrocks (News from Naylor) and Maggie Adair (News from Handy) contribute columns reminiscent of neighborhood news but with accents of human interest similar to Teresa Lee’s Close to Home, with touches of historical interest and old time ways by Thelma Aldrich in Modern Hill Woman and devotional inspiration like Becky Hill in A Good Word. We struggle with word-count; we’ll keep trying. We don’t want to be replaced by AI-generated concoctions.

PN columnists reflect cultural and societal changes in Ripley County and are proud to be part of The Prospect-News in the twenty-first century. The pages are smaller, articles are blocked and photos are a draw at the newstand. Readers can see issues in color with subscriptions to the digital version. Advances in technology speed up and simplify newspaper production but may it never take away our local news in print. MayThe Prosect-News party in print continue for another century and a half!