Sheila Boughner and I out for a celebratory (odd word to use here) beer the night before her last day.
Something many might not realize about a photographer/reporter relationship at a paper is how much just understanding the style of each plays into how well the stories they tell end up in the newspaper. And you build these relationships and understandings over time.
I haven’t been at the paper long, just a year, but the reporters here that I’ve come to know as friends have been great to work with and in this short time we’ve come to understand how each works. And we’ve told some pretty good stories.
This week, two of the best I’ve ever worked with are stepping away to pursue other jobs. Its sad for me because I not only like these folks as human beings and respect them as professionals, but I know when I work with them on a story its going to be a good story.
Sheila has worked at the Derrick and News-Herald for 20 years and is taking a job with the city of Franklin. She is going to be missed by the readers with her experienced reporting and keeping an eye on the area, as well as the wealth of sources who trusted her enough to be fair and balanced to offer information and heads up on story ideas. Only time and drive give one experience and she will be very much missed by this paper and the community. City of Franklin’s gain.
Curt Hanna and I at one of the save Venango Catholic meetings in March.
Curt Hanna worked here only a few months longer than I have. I have been impressed with this man’s compassion for his subjects and everyone else he comes in contact with. I would often hear the newsroom bust into laughter only to walk over and find Curt in the middle of a story and everyone watching and listening with bright smiling faces. He is a truly good man.
He will be missed also by our readers who were taken into the people’s lives that Curt wrote about.
Without knowing or understanding it, our readers were given a gift with these two writers. They cannot be replaced, we will move on and we will have new talented people taking their chairs and moving forward, but it will be a shame not seeing their bylines anymore in the daily paper.
(Richard Sayer – The Derrick and The News-Herald photographer)
