News-Record.com

Friday will be Elma’s last day at the News & Record. She has worked for 18 years at the newspaper, all of them as a member of the editorial staff.

When she joined the paper in November 1990, she was a single newcomer from Philadelphia who had begun researching the News & Record while she was in college.

She had noticed that one of the paper’s star writers, Greta Tilley, was frequently featured in an annual book, “Best Newspaper Writing.” And she had heard from others that it was both a good newspaper and a good place to work. We’re glad she found us.

Becky’s last day in the office was Dec. 15, although she doesn’t leave us officially until Dec. 26. She began her News & Record career 35 years ago. She expected to be here only until she could find “a real job.”

Both women have been valued colleagues. Elma has written editorials and columns. She has planned several hundred Sunday Ideas fronts and books pages. She consistently has won the praise from op-ed columnists and her fellow staffers for her skillful editing.
Over the years, Elma, a Penn State alumna who received her master’s from Indiana University, has suffered both the distinction and indignity of her unusual name. If she had a dime for every time someone called her “Emma” or “Elmo” ....

I prefer to call her versatile. We’ve asked Elma to take on different duties and work routines numerous times during her tenure here and she has always responded energetically. And no matter how much we asked her to do, she’d volunteer in a nanosecond to launch a new feature.
Amid all the headlines, deadlines and page proofs, she and her husband, Tom, have managed to grow and raise a lovely family of three children.

We will miss Elma here, but wish her only the very best as she moves on to her next challenges. Now she’ll pursue one of the earlier interests of her career, teaching.

Becky, a Jamestown native, has been the voice of the newspaper for many in our community.
As the person who has processed letters to the editor under three editorial page editors, she knows the power of an impression over the phone. Even if callers can’t see her smile over the telephone, they can hear it.

She is impeccably organized and a lightning-fast typist. And she has had to suffer me twice as her boss, in the Life Department and Editorial.

Then there are the fringe benefits of working with Becky. She and her husband, David, have managed to grow such a prolific home garden that she’d regularly bring surplus tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to the newspaper and parcel them out, for free, to all comers.

And though she may be little, she’s tough. And quick. Becky barely measures 5 feet tall on her tiptoes, but she is positively the fastest walker I know. At 6-2, I can only struggle to keep up.
Now she’s speed-walking into retirement, where she looks forward to volunteering and taking daily naps between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (Call between those hours at your own risk.)

Meanwhile, we’ll scramble to fill the void both ladies will leave behind. Editor John Robinson’s assistant, Theresa Apple, will help us with the letters chores, while Doug Clark and I will share planning the Ideas sections.

We’ll miss Becky and Elma as much for who they are as for what they did.
But we find comfort in knowing they’re close by, busily writing new chapters in their lives.