Monday, February 12, 1963
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
of the Emporia Gazette
The Gazette staff poses for a 1935 picture outside the office. The building has been changed since the original picture
was taken, though plans are being made to restore the building to its original appearance.
...and tells its revered saga
nalistic careers on the Gazette under White's direction and have since made names as Kansas journalists include: Oscar Stauffer, owner of the Stauffer chain of newspapers in the Midwest including the Topeka Capital-Journal; Rolla Clymer, editor and publisher of the El Dorado Times, who spoke at the dedication ceremonies Saturday of a marker honoring White; Stuart Aubrey, editor of the Hutchinson News, and Whitley Austin, editor of the Salina Journal.
There were others, too. And some stayed in Emporia.
Russ Roberts, who came to the Gazette in 1934, is one of those persons. White assigned Roberts to do a series of stories on Emporia's vice problem. After a few stories, the "bad" element in town began cursing the Gazette openly.
"White told me that's what he wanted. 'I want 'em to cuss me and the Gazette,' he said. I remember talking with him just before he died. He raised hell because the paper was not raising issues. People weren't cussing the Gazette any more. He used to say, 'Cuss the Gazette, but read it.'"
Clymer, who gave a short speech at the ceremonies, said: "He set out consciously and deliberately from the beginning of his newspaper career to sound the hopes of middle-class America."
The Gazette's circulation is about 10.000. While W.A. White was alive, it never achieved much more than 7,000.
White loved his country—he was a part of it.
"Emporia was the one spot on earth he called home; it was his individual Sussex by the sea," Clymer said.
At the William Allen White Memorial Foundation luncheon in the Kansas State Teachers College Student Union building, Sen. Frank Carlson, R-Kan., paid tribute to White in the presence of about 600 persons, including Gov. Robert B. Docking.
Saturday night, 170 people invited by W. L. White came to enjoy eight roast suckling pigs, applejack and Irish coffee in the Broadview Hotel.
Erwin D. Canham, editor-in-chief of the Christian Science Monitor, spoke at the gathering.
"It's a great man whose reputation can survive the eulogies written about him, and if William Allen White can survive the festivities of the next few months, he is truly a great man," Canhann said.
Outside, the streets almost were deserted, but one block away stood the Gazette building.
William Allen White, Canham and Emporia seemed to think, would survive his eulogies.
The home is virtually unchanged today. White's son, William L. White, occupies the home while in Emporia.
The newsroom today, physically changed yet still producing the same product.