Today is a special day for the Daily American Republic family.
When Barb Horton turned on her computer for another day of reporting on the happenings of Poplar Bluff and the region, it marked her 50th year in journalism.
As the nation celebrates Labor Day in early September every year, Barb can use the time to look back on an amazing career.
Sept. 7, 1971. Richard Nixon was in his first term as president. Roberto Clemente led Pittsburgh to the World Series title. Louie N. Snider was mayor of Poplar Bluff, and Three Rivers College was founded just a little over five years earlier.
To say Barb is the go-to person for information about the area would be the biggest understatement of the year.
Barb grew up in the Campbell area and attended Three Rivers College (and was a member of the first graduating class), and she went on to study journalism at Arkansas State University in nearby Jonesboro.
I’ve only known Barb for a small slice of her 50-year career, but I’ve grown to appreciate her abilities and what she means to this community.
She has witnessed more changes in the newspaper business than most. And rolled with the punches.
Typewriters gave way to computers. Physically “cutting and pasting” stories onto a page gave way to pagination on the computer. Film cameras gave way to digital cameras. Then this thing called the World Wide Web and websites showed up and along with it came something called social media.
It has all changed the newspaper world. Most for the better, though I’m sure Barb is the same as the rest of us and has used a few choice words when it comes to social media and how brave some can be sitting in front of a computer screen.
Forgive me Barb for sharing your age — 72 — but that doesn’t slow her down. I’ve been in the business 41 years myself, and have worked with a lot of reporters. Barb can still outwork many of them.
She tugs at the heart with her ability to write feature stories. People have a way of opening up to her.
She can turn around the next day and write about a shooting, stabbing or even a murder. She’s the definition of an all-around journalist.
“I don’t think about age, and I don’t like to be coddled. I feel like I can keep up,” Horton shared earlier this year in a story for the DAR’s Ageless magazine. “Each day and each story and each activity is a challenge that I hope to learn from.
“I’m thankful that God was gracious enough to put me someplace where I could learn a lot and be involved a lot and be involved in covering stories that actually, at times, were world wide stories.”
When Barb walked into the office for her first day of work in the fall of 1971, the Wolpers family owned the DAR. The newspaper was later sold to Woodward Publications, and she worked for that organization for a year before joining Poplar Bluff’s other newspaper, The Journal, owned by Rust Communications.
Shortly after Barb left the DAR for The Journal, Rust purchased the DAR and Barb returned and hasn’t left.
Barb also spent some time as general manager at The Prospect-News in Doniphan and helped with the Puxico Press. Both of those publications are/were owned by Rust as well and a part of the newspaper family known as Butler County Publishing.
Barb spends countless hours volunteering in the community. She’s on the board of directors for Haven House and Women Aware. She’s also a member of the Poplar Bluff City Council, representing Ward 3.
If you ask Barb when she’s going to retire, you will normally get a smile. In all honesty, she doesn’t know what to say. She loves her job and isn’t sure when the time will be right to step away.
“A part of me would like to stay and write my own obituary,” she once joked. “I’m torn because most of my life has been a reporter working at the newspaper. I cannot imagine me not doing some of that.”
As I’ve gotten to know Barb and how much she’s respected in the community, I can’t imagine leaving my office, walking to the newsroom and the first person I see isn’t Barb.
Congratulations, Barb, on your 50th work anniversary. You are a Southeast Missouri treasure who has touched many lives.
Chris is the publisher for the Daily American Republic. He can be reached by email at cpruett.dar@gmail.com .