Rural Missouri - January 2022 - 13

by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop
T
asked with painting the quintessential country
newspaper for the Saturday Evening Post, artist
Norman Rockwell had the entire country to search
for his subject. He discovered exactly what he was
looking for at the Monroe County Appeal in Paris, Missouri.
The result was one of the artist's most popular works.
The painting, titled " Norman Rockwell visits a Country
Editor, " shows a typical day at the weekly county seat
newspaper in the 1940s. At one end a young man dashes
off to carry copy to be set. Seated behind his old
Remington typewriter, the editor, H.J. " Jack "
Blanton, puts the fi nishing touches on his
column while the typesetter estimates how
much space it will take. At the counter a farm
family discusses a subscription with the city editor.
Walking in the door, portfolio in hand, is the
artist himself making a cameo.
The artist got one thing wrong says Becky
Vanlandingham, the great-granddaughter of the
editor. " He was missing the ends of his fi ngers because
of an accident, " she says. " He was a two-fi nger
typist. "
The work was published in the May 25, 1946 edition of
the Post. Becky recalls the original painting being displayed
at the newspaper offi ce. " He put it in the offi ce for
everyone to see. After a week or two it was just in the way. "
She says he loaned it to the University of Missouri, which
eventually sent it to the National Press Club in Washington,
D.C. In 2015 the original of the painting sold for a
whopping $11.5 million.
A large, framed copy of the painting still hangs in the
offi ce of the Appeal, which recently merged with the Ralls
County Herald-Enterprise. Combining the two papers likely
kept both from folding as so many others have says its
publisher, Robin Gregg. " When I came here in 2018, they
were very much in the hole. This year we've been breakeven
or above. We've come a long way. "
The staff, which also includes Editor Lacey Shumard,
continues to meet an important need for the two-county
coverage area, just like the newspaper did when Norman
Rockwell visited.
Today's paper has a following that includes subscribers
all over the country and even in Canada and France. Its
1,200 print copies compare to the 40,000 who read it online.
Beyond the printed words, the paper livestreams just
about every event taking place in the area.
Paris
" We are very digital, " Robin says, comparing today's paper
to the one featured in the Post. " We of course have one
generation that has to have that paper in their hand. And
then some want the news right now when it happens,
which is online, but then they want the paper to keep. "
But she believes its former editor would recognize
and appreciate their weekly efforts. The Appeal was
featured by the Saturday Evening Post because its
editor was almost a household name across the
country, thanks to his Appeal column called
" Hints by the Horse Editor " and " When I Was a
Boy, " a twice-weekly column that ran in the St.
Louis Globe-Democrat and was later published as
Louis Globe-Democrat
a two-volume book.
Jack came from generations of newspapermen in a family
that included his father, Benjamin Franklin Blanton,
who bought the Appeal and moved it to Paris from Monroe
City in 1873. Becky recalls Jack being " very genteel. He
always wore a coat and vest. When he came home from the
offi ce the radio went on to the national news. When the
news was over then we ate. "
He started his journalism career at age 12 as a janitor
and printer's assistant, one of 10 siblings who learned
to set type at their father's paper. By 15 he was reporting
the news. He took the helm as editor when he was just 21
years old.
In 1942 he earned fame with a banner headline
splashed across Page 1 after a lengthy drought: " Lord, we
confess our sins, We ask forgiveness, We pray for rain. "
Within an hour after the paper was printed rain started
Norman Rockwell, left, smoking his
trademark pipe, visits with three members
of the Blanton newspaper dynasty, which
included (from left) Jack, his grandson
Carter, business manager of the Shelbina
Democrat and Jack's son Edgar, publisher of
the Democrat. The artist is holding the comic
section of the Shelby County Herald.
JANUARY 2022 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 13
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Rural Missouri - January 2022

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