Rutherford finds community correspondents provide local color

As a high school student, Skip Rutherford worked at his hometown Batesville Guard. One of his duties was editing the newspaper’s numerous “country correspondents,” writers who shared both the mundane and unique happenings in their specific rural areas – or as it might have been said then, their neck of the woods.

Rutherford said there normally was very little editing needed, as the tone of each writer didn’t need to be tampered with at the expense of losing originality.

“I always looked forward to this opportunity,” he said of reviewing and compiling the correspondents for each issue, “because I thought then and still do that these correspondents collectively reflected community newspapering at its finest.”

He said the country writers were at the top of his reading list in the Guard even after he left for college. “It was just a pleasure to read. It was a way of life that unfortunately has gone by the wayside.”

Here are some of his favorites from the 1960s: Strawberry (don’t have the correspondent’s name):

“Owen Ward was using a chain saw cutting wood one day last week and lost control of the saw and it cut his leg real bad. They took several stitches to sew it up. He can only walk backward as that way he doesn’t have to bend his knee.”

Pine Hill (correspondent Nellie Stout). She was Nellie Stout, Editor, Pine Hill News. She wrote the column for around 30 years.

“Mrs. Nellie Stout went on the school bus last Friday to Cushman and got her a permanent one. She got her curled for some friends that are supposed to come visit her and for Thanksgiving. Mrs. Glenna Gunther has the beauty shop in Cushman and she is a good one. She is so kind and friendly.”

“So now I will ring off and dress more and get my shoes on as my feet are getting cold, and I think I can beat the mailman, so I say bye bye for another week. Best wishes to one and all and I love you all.”