Each of the last two weeks I’ve spent three days in Cordell helping out The Cordell Beacon, the city’s weekly newspaper.
It’s a sister paper to The Tri-County Herald, the Lincoln County News and the Stroud American and several others across the state and a few in Texas.
For two consecutive Monday mornings I left my house about 5:30 in the morning so I could be at the Beacon office by 8 or so.
I returned on Wednesday afternoon each time.
I’d never been to Cordell as far as I am aware. It’s about 130 miles from my house and 16-17 miles south of Clinton. Each trip I stayed in a motel in Clinton.
This week I am still helping out the Cordell paper. I didn’t have to leave my house at 5:30 Monday morning since I can work from the office which is in my home.
I will be doing the same next week and I may be helping out a while longer, not really sure.
The reason for my helping out all unfolded about three weeks ago when I received a call one night from my boss Brian. He related that the editor at the Cordell paper had suffered a heart attack in New Mexico while he and his wife were driving back from a quick trip to Utah.
Brian asked me would I be willing to go Cordell and help them out, just writing stories.
Of course my answer was yes and the following Monday morning I headed out long before sunrise.
Zonelle Rainbolt, who had retired as the editor a couple of years ago, had agreed to come back and fill in for a while and Heather Flores is the Office Manager. Thank goodness for them.
It’s difficult at best going into a town where you never have set a foot down in and you are expected to write stories about.
When I arrived at 8 Monday morning at the Beacon office we didn’t have much time to pull together an issue of the paper that was going to press late Tuesday afternoon/ early evening.
Zonelle and Heather know or are acquainted with most folks in the community and if they didn’t know the person directly I needed to visit with about a story, one or both had a good idea of how to contact someone who did or might.
They made my helping out there very pleasant.
Both were a blessing. We managed to get through it and though I’m sure we busted deadline the first week, I think we pretty well made it the second week.
By the time I had arrived in Cordell that initial Monday morning, the condition of the editor, Bob Henline, had worsened. I never had met the man and unfortunately he passed away on Aug. 19, a few hours after I left to return to Shawnee the same day.
Even though I returned last week again to help at the Beacon, I really didn’t have time to drive through or visit in the community with people other than those I talked with for stories.
I did find people friendly, though, and I like the small community atmosphere.