More bad news for Lee

This has not been a good year for Lee Enterprises. That’s the company that owns the Rapid City Journal, Chadron (NE) Record, and the Hot Springs (SD) Star, among many others. Their most visible property is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Lee this week (7/30/09) reported a loss of $24.5 million during the last fiscal quarter. Its advertising is off more than 24% from last year, and circulation is down by more than six percent.

The company is based in Davenport, Iowa.

In earlier postings about Lee, we noted that they were going through many of the same kinds of problems being encountered by virtually all of the newspaper industry. There were layoffs at many of their properties in Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana.

We paid $2.00 for a Wall Street Journal yesterday and observed that USA Today, the Gannett property started by South Dakotan Al Neuharth, now goes for $1.00 a copy. These hefty newsstand prices do little to offset the record losses being endured by papers across the country.

Leveraging new acquisitions on the backs of papers that are doing well has been a common woe among several big newspaper chains – including Lee Enterprises. It’s something of a “local” chain, and we’re sorry they’ve fallen victim to this trend.

We love newspapers and hope Lee is able to fend off its own demise. But the prognosis is not good.

A Tribute to Slim

He was a hero, and we didn’t know it. And I doubt he ever considered himself a hero – but isn’t humility a common trait among the truly heroic?

I didn’t know him well, but Warren Beamish and his wife Gladys were good friends with our family.

He loved horses and would perform with his horses and as a rodeo clown in communities around western Nebraska and the surrounding region.

Warren grew up in Michigan during the Depression years of the ‘30s. It was there that he became acquainted with my uncle Alex Miller and decided to accompany Alex back to Chadron, Nebraska. He was a “hired hand” for my grandfather Bill Maiden, among other jobs he had over the years. In 1942, Warren married Gladys Warren.

In World War II, like so many other young men, he went into the Army and was shipped overseas. It was in July 1943, when – as part of the American invasion of Sicily – that “Sergeant” Beamish and one other soldier helped open up enemy beaches for an Allied assault.

Official Army records indicate that “…on 10 July 1943…a few minutes after landing…Staff Sergeant Beamish, then a Sergeant and squad leader, volunteered to accompany an army officer and, under fire from enemy guns, succeeded in moving inland, assaulting a gun position and pill box which was being manned by six Italian soldiers.”

After opening up a landing site, they then proceeded up the beach, capturing another 25 Italian soldiers manning 20 millimeter and 50 caliber guns. Their actions opened the beach for 500 yards, allowing a successful assault – the largest such amphibious assault of its kind up to that time of the war.

For his “extraordinary heroism” during this major Allied invasion, Staff Sergeant Warren W. Beamish was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the highest combat medal awarded by the United States military – second only to the Medal of Honor. Read the text of the award.

Who knew? Like so many of his era, Warren came home from the war and – according to his wife Gladys – never talked about his war-time exploits. He merely got on with his life in Chadron, Nebraska. He and Gladys raised two children, Bill and Bonnie.

Warren "Slim" Beamish died on July 21, 1998. He was 80 years old. We've compiled a few photos to help tell this story.

It was Warren Beamish and others like him who won that war. Winning for us a way of life that most of the rest of the world can only dream of enjoying. It is right that we should honor him and others who've fought for our country.

Thanks, Slim. Belatedly, but with much admiration.

A Class Reunion is....FUN?

I could hardly believe it. It wasn’t even MY class reunion. It was Karen’s. After leaving blessed Chadron High School in 1962, her classmates gathered last weekend (July 13-14) in Chadron, Nebraska for a reunion. They came from far-away places like Clackamas, San Diego and Fountain Hills. But mostly, they came from Chadron and the surrounding area.

“What’s your brother doing these days?”

“Are you still teaching?”

“Sorry to hear about your dad.”

“Yup, we’ve moved…..again!”

“Guess you didn’t hear about Gerald?”

“Norm and Sally plan to retire next year.”

The names and circumstances are always a bit different, but the conversations are almost contagious and the fellowship is heartwarming!

I long ago gave up wondering why some folks don’t enjoy class reunions. Lots of people – especially locals – choose to not attend them. I guess it’s a character defect that I have, but I thoroughly enjoy them. Always have – always will.

And it’s not just to reminisce about pranks of the past or revive memories of youthful friendship. It’s also an opportunity to pay tribute to those who’re no longer with us. The CHS Class of ’62 has lost six of their members. Nancy. LaDonna. Neil. Bonnie. Rex. Karen.

Reunions are also a time to finally get to know those other classmates that we never really knew very well. What a treat that is!

I rather enjoy catching up with school chums -- learning where they live now -- although few of them have endured the number of “Adventures in Moving” that Karen and I have survived. I’m still looking for a cuckoo clock that must have fallen off the U-Haul truck somewhere between Ames, Iowa and Stillwater, Oklahoma 35 years ago!

We’ve even lost a few pictures along the way. So….I’m more careful these days. To help ensure that photos from the Class of ’62 reunion are preserved for posterity (and anyone else who cares!) I’ve posted a few of them at:

www.photographs.galeymiller.org/school

I wonder whatever happened to Rich….and Joyce……and Shelly…..and Eric….and…