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Guest Column:
Tread carefully when requiring down payment for democracy By Jim Pumarlo
ARKANSAS
Ar kansas
PRESS
Publisher Weekly
Vol. 13 | No. 37 | Thursday, September 13, 2018
ASSOCIATION
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Orangutan obituaries aside, Wiggins brought love of community to Paris Express Just four days after her high school graduation, Vickey Wiggins walked in to the offices of the Paris Express. Fortytwo years, six ownership groups and one thwarted orangutan obituary later, Wiggins left the Express for the last time. Wiggins retired Sept. 7 as publisher of the Express, the oldest business in Logan County. She spent 22 years as the paper’s publisher and she also ran the Booneville Democrat from 2001 to 2016. She got her start at the Express in May 1976 as a copy setter. She moved into advertising a while later and before long, she says, she learned enough about the paper’s operations that serving as publisher seemed to be a natural next step. “Having worked in several roles, all this
time the industry was slowly changing,” Wiggins said. “I just had a great knowledge from beginning to end, the process of all stages — from classifieds to legal notices to affidavits.” Wiggins’ institutional knowledge ensured her newspaper’s vital role within the community and it led to a number of awards and recognition from the local chamber of commerce. It was a colleague’s knowledge of the community early in Wiggins’ career that helped the newspaper avoid a correction and an embarrassment. “Many, many, many years ago, there was a gentleman that walked in and placed an obituary for his brother in the newspaper,” she said. “It was typed up, placed on the Continued on Page 2
Former Gazette reporter Jerol Garrison dies at 86 Jerol Herried Garrison, 86, of Fayetteville, died last week.
Garrison was a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette during the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis in Jerol Herrid Garrison the 1950s, and he served as the director of communications for what was then known as Arkansas Power and Light. Garrison is survived by his wife of 64 years, Sally, who he met while attending the University of Arkansas. While at UA,
he was the editor of the Arkansas Traveler newspaper. He earned his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He worked for the Neosho (Mo.) Daily News before moving to Central Arkansas and starting with the Gazette.
Garrison worked at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock then moved to AP&L. Roy Ockert, the former editor of the Jonesboro Sun, described Garrison in a social media post as “one of the best reporters and best guys I’ve ever known. He made AP&L credible at a time when the company needed it most.”
He was a member of Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Margaret Holaway and Catherine Stark, six grandchildren; and a sister, Nancy Larner. He is preceded in death by his parents and a daughter, Linda Richmond. Funeral services are Friday, Sept. 14, at 2 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. Donations can be made to the Jerol Garrison Journalism Scholarship at UALR or to Heifer International.