The Ridge Runner outdoors columnist who wrote for the Daily American Republic for 32 of his 70 years with the paper has died.
Paul Woods was 84.
Funeral arrangements are with Cotrell Funeral Service. A visitation for Woods, who will be cremated, will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at West Side Church of God with a memorial service afterward.
Woods is survived by a daughter, Paula (Ron) Tibbs of Poplar Bluff; a son, Mike Woods of Arkansas; five grandchildren, Mark (Bethany) Tibbs, Christopher (Katie) Glass, Jamie Kellerman, Rebecca (Will) Jones and Emilee Woods; 14 great-grandchildren, Amber, Alexis, Addysen, Crystal, Brayden, Willow, Maggie, Rowan, Hunter, Kaden, Adalee, Kristen, Chloe and another Alexis; two great-great-grandchildren, Teagan and Ava; and two sisters, Barbara (Ed) Lemons, Overland Park, Kan., and Imogene (Walter) Jones, Poplar Bluff.
Woods took pride in his passion as an outdoorsman. Longtime friend Leroy Romine remembered Woods as a thorough-minded person who conducted himself professionally.
"He was very considerate of the laws and the rules. The game board would never catch him wrong," Romine said. "(He was) conscientious about wildlife. That portrays him fairly well."
Romine knew Woods from an early age.
"We grew up in about the same neighborhood, and both of us were coon hunting in the old Butler County Coon Hunters Club back when we were in our 20s. Since that time we'd done some rabbit hunting and a little bit of fishing."
Woods and Romine would each show one another new places while they were out hunting and fishing during their time together. Romine reintroduced Woods to the Mingo Wildlife Service in Puxico and all the fishing it had to offer after he had stopped going for a while.
Woods was a man of faith as well. He and Romine attended the same Sunday school classes at West Side Church of God.
"That'd give us a lot of time to exchange information and make plans to do something (the next day). As a Christian man, he didn't hide anything. He was open, honest and just a very good neighbor," Romine said.
His final column appeared in the Aug. 30, 2012 edition, ending a 70-year run with the newspaper.
Woods started delivering 60 to 70 newspapers downtown when he was 9 years old, he said in a 2011 story.
"I went in almost every door and put the paper on the first counter," Woods said.
His salary was $1.50 a week and 10 percent of his collections, which gave him around $3 a week. His first supervisor was circulation manager Rose Saracini.
"She always preached to us that we were little businessmen who delivered a product and collected for it," Woods said.
He moved into the newsroom as an eighth grader after three years delivering when the company needed help. He worked in the mailroom and pressroom through high school and then publisher Bob Wolpers offered Woods a job upon graduation from high school.
"I graduated on Thursday and started working in the composing room on Monday," Woods recalled. "I was 17."
He retired from the composing room after 48 years on June 1, 1999, but continued to write his weekly outdoor column.
John Stanard wrote the outdoor column before becoming the editor of the paper in 1980.
"I asked John if I could write an outdoor column, and he asked me to submit one. He read it and offered to pay me for a weekly column," Woods recalled.