Dear Leader readers, I’m writing this column to tell you about the new phase of life I’ve entered. After 26 years working full-time for the Leader, I have retired from my job as editor in chief. Like most longtime Leader employees, I can’t completely let go, though, and will continue doing a little work for the company.
My last day was Jan. 30, so I no longer am working six and often seven days a week, including the two long deadline days each week when the four papers the Leader publishes are put together and sent to the printer.
The new editor leading the newsroom is Gary Castor, a seasoned journalist with lots of experience in the industry who will continue helping the Leader with its mission to publish the local news that matters to those who live and work in the Jefferson County, Eureka and Wildwood communities.
I approach this new stage of life with both excitement and sadness. I have loved working all these years at the Leader, where we are serious about the job of providing news to our readers about the people, events and happenings that are important to them. The Leader informs readers about upcoming festivals and meetings, and it lets readers know how school districts, cities and other governmental entities are spending their tax dollars. It also lets people know about upcoming ballot measures and the candidates seeking office to represent them.
The Leader publishes obituary, wedding and birth announcements, as well as news about local businesses, churches, community groups and schools. It also has a robust sports section, as well as space for readers to share their views through letters to the editor.
I’ve always been proud to work for the Leader, especially the past several years running the newsroom. People know that most journalists don’t make a lot of money, but the work offers other rewards.
I looked at my job as a sort of calling, allowing me the opportunity to help inform and educate my fellow community members; to provide them with news to make their lives easier; and even to entertain them. Each week the Leader publishes a trivia column and a children’s story or activity. It sometimes publishes recipes, and it often shares photos our readers enter in the contests the Leader holds each year. It also reports breaking news each day on the Leader website, myleaderpaper.com, and keeps people updated on social media.
The Leader is an award-winning newspaper company, but it also holds a variety of community events each year, including several senior expos, job fairs, a wedding fair and a Celebrating Women event. And, Leader employees are deeply involved in the community, participating in local civic groups and community service projects.
I began working full-time for the Leader in 1999. Before that, I was an adjunct English instructor at a couple of area colleges, including Jefferson College. While I was teaching, I also did some freelance work for the Leader for a few years, first writing movie reviews, then adding in some feature stories and finally covering a couple of local school districts and cities.
Once I left teaching for full-time work at the Leader, I started out as a reporter, covering the city of Arnold and the Fox C-6 School District, as well as other happenings around Jefferson County, primarily focusing on the north part of the county. I also handled a lot of reporting involving crime and traffic accidents.
It wasn’t long before I was promoted to editor of the Arnold-Imperial Leader, and later I was named managing editor and finally editor in chief, overseeing a newsroom filled with dedicated journalists, including seven full-time and four part-time reporters and editors, as well as a handful of freelance writers and photographers.
During my tenure at the Leader, I covered a lot of interesting local news. I reported on the controversial exits of former Fox district Superintendent Diana Bourisaw and then years later Fox Superintendent Dianne Critchlow. I covered Arnold when its officials decided to build a rec center and later buy a golf course, which has since been turned into a park.
I also wrote about Arnold’s unsuccessful attempt in 2001 to annex some property outside Kimmswick where an Isle of Capri casino was proposed. The annexation failed, and the casino deal fell through after a vocal group of opponents helped put an end to it. More recently I wrote about a group that opened a church in Festus that former members claimed was a dangerous cult. That group has since packed up and left town.
I will miss that kind of interesting work, as well as my colleagues and the community members and readers I’ve gotten to know over the years, but I do relish the thought of finally having some free time. I now will have the chance to visit with and help out my parents more and help my son and daughter-in-law with their newborn, my first grandchild.
I also have plans to join a book club and perhaps a film club. I’d like to travel more and complete some updates to my Imperial home. My husband and I also own a property in St. Louis with two historic homes on it that we bought a few years ago and have been renovating ever since, and we hope to have more time to finish that project.
I’ll continue to do some work for the Leader, though, like editing letters to the editor each week and writing the occasional news story or column. I might take on a special project here and there, like the Historic Route 66 100-year anniversary commemorative magazine the Leader just published and began distributing around the area. Be sure to look for one.
While I won’t be completely absent from the Leader world, I won’t be involved on a daily basis, and I won’t be in the office answering calls and emails from readers with tips for stories, compliments and, yes, complaints.
But, please, keep reaching out. An office full of professional and friendly journalists and sales representatives are there to help and to make sure you keep receiving the Leader in your mailbox every week for free.