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ANF Executive Director Karen Brown announces retirement
Guest Column:
How do we stop newspapers from fading into obscurity? By Tim Gallagher
ARKANSAS
Ar kansas
PRESS
Publisher Weekly
Vol. 13 | No. 34 | Thursday, August 23, 2018
ASSOCIATION
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Legendary publisher of White River Journal passes away at 96 Dean Walls’ newspaper ‘was the only thing she knew’ Every Wednesday night for seven decades — 3,600 Wednesday nights, more or less — Dean Walls put out a paper. From hand setting to linotype to offset press to pagination, the method changed but the work didn’t for the longtime publisher of the White River Journal in Des Arc. Walls, who was 96, died Thursday, Aug. 16 at a Little Rock hospital. “Week in, week out, all her life. All her life was the newspaper,” said her son, Charles Walls. “There was usually one all-nighter every week. That never changed. It was the only thing she knew.” Butch Calhoun, a former state representative and former Prairie County judge from Des Arc, recalls many nights driving past the newspaper office at 11 p.m. or even later to see the lights on and know that “Mrs. Dean” was working on that week’s edition. “It was just a neat paper, done through love and a lot of hard work,” Calhoun said. “She was just an icon of our culture. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of good, local papers in our state, but as far as covering what went on the area, nobody could top Mrs. Dean and the White River Journal.” Walls’ newspaper career spanned more than 72 years, from when she and her late husband, Charles J. Walls, took over the newspaper from her father-in-law. She became editor and publisher in 1980 after her husband resigned because of health reasons. He preceded her in death in 1983.
In 2012, she was recognized by the Arkansas Press Association as the first, and only, recipient of the Golden 60 Service Award for her work of more than six decades in the newspaper industry. The Journal suspended regular publication in August 2017, but Walls and her son continued distributing a digital version of the paper to subscribers via email. Charles Walls, who is 79, said his mother’s failing eyesight and the lack of additional manpower led to suspension of the print product. When the paper was suspended, Walls attempted to return to subscribers any money that may have been owed them for additional issues, but Charles Walls said that White River Journal loyalists wouldn’t have it.
Attending a 1940’s APA Convention in Hot Springs
“They didn’t want money. They just wanted a paper back,” he said. “She never did understand why someone local didn’t come talk to us and take it over. She would have trained them.” Calhoun, who is now director of the Arkansas State Plant Board, said it took losing the newspaper last year for Des Arc residents to fully recognize just how beneficial both the newspaper and Walls’ institutional knowledge were to the community. Losing her impacted the entire Grand Prairie region, he said. “It’s hard to put into words exactly what she meant to this community,” said Calhoun, who was a pallbearer at her funeral. “You take for granted all the years, all the time,
Dean Walls in her office at the White River Journal
and all the labor and love she put into that paper for our community. She loved Des Arc. We miss the paper. Nobody can keep up with what’s going on around town now, when people pass away or when people graduate.”
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