Twenty Years Passes Like A Blur
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
Another year will be in the books soon, and it reminds me of what the old folks always said. The older you get… you know the rest. I started thinking about how fast time passes while writing the story about county officials taking the oath of office on December 28.
Twenty years earlier, on December 29, 2003, former Herald Publisher Ed Shearer, III, took his last pictures for the Herald. He went to the courthouse for the swearing in ceremony for the newly elected county officials. He was killed later that day in a vehicle crash on the bypass. His death was on a Monday, and Betty got the paper to press the next day with help from friends and family members. She came to work that Tuesday morning after his death and wrote her column, just like she had done for countless weeks before. Occasionally when I am flipping through newspapers in our archives, I will stop and read it and it still brings tears.
I only met Ed a few times. I was more familiar with the Kilgore clan, Betty’s siblings who lived in Panola County. I hunted with her brothers, Don, Bo and Rance, and even dined with them at the Orwood Hilton (their hunting camp.) I could attest that their were no finer cooks, especially when it came to deer camp meals.
When I started at the Herald a few months after Ed’s death, Betty immediately adopted me as a second son.
Thinking about the 20-year mark also reminded me that when the Board of Supervisors convenes for their first meeting of the new term on January 2, 2024, there will not be a single official remaining from when I first started covering those meetings in 2004. Chancery Clerk Amy McMinn is the last one from 20 years ago. Board members then were Tommy Vaughn, Amos Sims, Butch Surrette, George Suggs and Bubba Tillman with John Crow serving as the board attorney.
Admittedly I had a learning curve, it takes time to learn the inner workings of county government. Yalobusha County was different than my home county of Panola. It also took time for the county officials to adjust to a pesky reporter in their midst.
Those were the days when I started relying on a tape recorder and using quotes generously, sometimes it is easier to write a story with the subjects’ words. There were also some contentious issues in the county that brought heated debates. Anybody remember the beer election?
Admittedly, there were times when I messed up and that brings me back to Betty. When someone called with a complaint, either about a county supervisor story or anything else in the newspaper, they first encountered Betty at the front counter or on the other end of the line. That was before we all did business on cell phones, and the land line was the main line.
I still chuckle when I think about Betty “straightening out” someone on the other end of the line before they got to me. It didn’t matter if I was right or wrong, Betty’s mind was already made up. To put it lightly, she was very loyal and I am pretty sure Melody and I would not have made it without her.
