Old home week* got even more fun, if that could be possible, when I read Kathy Forsythe’s e-mail Saturday morning asking “Do you have a blog?”.  Kathy, editor of the South County News, is writing a story for the August issue about Vicksburg and Vicksburg-connected folks who had self-published their books.  Kathy, VHS class of ’76 and an English teacher at the high school, assumed the post upon the passing of Sue Moore May before last.  Sue had cut her chops as a newshound doing child labor for her dad, Meredith Clark, publisher of the now defunct weekly Vicksburg Commercial ( 1).  In our ‘burg, news of doings at the high school were always a big deal, so I found myself in there a time or two.  I had ‘em send the paper to me at my dorm at Michigan, much to the amusement of my more sophisticated dorm mates.  Sue married Tim Moore of Simpson Lee Paper, with whom she begat Chris, who has come back to the ‘burg to transform the abandoned Simpson Lee paper mill into an entertainment and meeting venue, a garagantuan project (front page and pp24-33) (2).  One of the highlights of reunion weekend was a tour of the mill arranged for the classes of ’70 and ’71.  We were fortunate enough to have Tim in our tour group.  Mid tour, he sat and told us about the complex process of paper making.  He was joined by Chris, who didn’t say much, but clearly adored his dad.

Sue divorced Tim but remained a force in the village.  She was amongst a group of folks convened by Village president Bill Adams to bring forth a successor to the Commercial-Express, the last iteration of the Commercial, then owned by the Kalamazoo Gazette, who finally closed things down in 2012.  The group asked Sue to edit what emerged as South County News (3) in June 2013.  The monthly is every bit as charming and informative as the Commercial was, and features color!

I’d made it into SCN twice, once when Sue wrote about me (4), and a few months later when I wrote about her (5).  The paper is free, but I send ‘em a donation every so often and make it onto the back page on the list of supporters.

When I published my first book in May (6), I e-mailed Kathy Forsythe in case she wanted to tell her readers that that doctor from April 2020 had finished his project.  When I hadn’t heard from her in June, I e-mailed her again, hoping that that piece would be in the paper when members of the VHS class of ‘70 descended on the ‘burg for their 50^th plus one reunion*.  She wrote that that issue was full, but that she’d be writing a piece for the next month about locals who’d self published; all she wanted from me was a pic of me holding my book.  You got it Kathy!  I’m giving her 2 choices.

See you in the (funny) papers!

References

1.         Vicksburg Historical Society.  Vicksburg Commercial Newspaper Office and Print Shop.  History of Vicksburg Commercial Newspaper. https://vicksburghistory.org/vicksburg-commercial-newspaper-office-and-print-shop/.

2.         Mackinder L.  going in BIG.  Encore October 2019.  p24-33.  https://issuu.com/issuuencore/docs/encore_october19

3.         South County News.  https://southcountynews.org/

4.         Moore S.  Dr. Ike Plans to Write About 1968 Vicksburg Car Accident. South County News.  April 2020. https://southcountynews.org/2020/04/18/dr-ike-plans-to-write-about-1968-vicksburg-car-accident/

5.         Ike B.  Goodbye Sue.  South County News.  July 2020.  https://southcountynews.org/2020/07/09/goodbye-sue/

6..        Ike R.  Shameless plug.  theviewfromharbal.com.  5/19/21.  https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1417