Timeline Ties Newspaper, Community
Jack "Miles" Ventimiglia, Associated Press Published: April 17, 2015
The newspaper and community are bound inextricably one to another, with The Daily Star-Journal today continuing the work of the newspaper’s forebearers by holding up a mirror into which the community sees its reflection, good or ill, accurately.
Dates and events provided herein – each footnoted and provided to the Johnson County Historical Society – are taken from a variety of sources, with most coming from the newspaper’s own pages.
1800s
1833: Martin Warren settled on land that would become Warrensburg.
1860, May 18: James D. Eads and J. Milton Bonham edited The Western Missourian, Warrensburg. The paper carried news and advertising, including about runaway slaves.
1861-1865: No one published a paper in the city during the war years. The county clerk, having lost an election to Marsh Foster, editor of the former Western Missourian, murdered Foster at the courthouse on Main Street in February 1861.
1865
April 17: The Journal opened under J.D. Eads.
• July 20: Johnson County’s county records returned after being absent during the Civil War.
• Sept. 20: “The first Pacific passenger train completed a trip across the state, leaving Kansas City at 3 a.m. and arriving at St. Louis at 5 p.m. on the same day.”
1867: (circa) Vigilantes who first put to death murderers then went after other people, with guards posted at The Journal office “as threats were made against that paper for counseling the vigilantes to disband.”
• The newspaper reported the organization of the first teachers college in Warrensburg.
1868: The newspaper reported the organization of the first public schools in Warrensburg.
1870: George Graham Vest eulogized a dog, Drum, marking a milestone for animals.
1871: The Democrat newspaper opened in Johnson County.
1874, Oct. 4: Wallace Crossley is born.
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| Lt. Gov. of Missouri and Daily Star Journal Editor/Owner Walt Crossley |
1876, Oct. 27: The Journal and The Democrat merged as The Journal-Democrat.
• David Nation, husband of Warrensburg’s nationally infamous bar basher, Carrie Nation, at one point served as a Journal-Democrat partner.
1878, Nov. 12: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized to address “drunkenness in our midst, notwithstanding that there are no licensed saloons,” but also expressed a belief that druggists in town sold alcohol and thus resolved to seek “suppression of the places of dubious character.”
1883, Nov. 22: Someone robbed the Hyatt and Boyle safe at Hazel Hill.
• The Johnson County Star moved from Knob Noster to Warrensburg.
1886, Nov. 6: The newspaper advertised Superior cook stoves.
1892, Jan. 1: Downhome humor would spin within the pages of the Warrensburg Journal-Democrat: “Stranger: ‘You say the editor died with his boots on?’ Printer: ‘Yes, sir. You see, he knew the town so well he wouldn’t pull ’em off for fear they’d steal his socks.”
1894: Mrs. Joseph Carmack, who would become a long-term Star-Journal employee, set type by hand.
1895: The Missouri Press Association, including Warrensburg’s newspaper, met at Pertle Springs.
1896, April 18: The newspaper reported Cora Carter, a student at St. Cecelia College, Holden, visited her relatives in Warrensburg.
1897, June 7: Fire burned the Gordon House on South Normal Avenue, the paper reported.
1898: The editor/publisher of The Journal-Democrat, Maj. Henry Reed, started raising a company to serve in the Spanish-American War.
1899: Murray Reed served as the Journal-Democrat’s news staff.
1900s
1900, Nov. 18: The newspaper quipped: “The electric fan has long since ceased to put on airs.”
1901, Feb. 3: A man and wife argued about who should get up to make the fire and the man won by slapping his wife, who then took him to court where he received a $1 fine.
1902, June 29: The newspaper reported Col. H.P. Farris owned a cycle-auto.
• Dec. 30: Wallace Crossley married Erma Cheatham.
1903: Wallace Crossley acquired The Star.
1905, June 15: James C. Kirkpatrick is born.
• Crossley began his first term in the Missouri House.
1911: Crossley finished his tenure in the Missouri House.
1912: Negotiations to combine The Journal-Democrat and The Star got under way.
• Crossley won election to the Missouri Senate.
1913: Crossley bought out his Star newspaper partner, W.C. Capp.
1914: Bill Tucker is born in Fulton, Mo.
• Crossley’s newspaper started a half century-stay at 108-110 W. Culton St.
1915, April 17: The staff celebrated The Journal turning 50.
• The newspaper reported that only the Dockery Gym survived a fire at the State Normal School, now the University of Central Missouri.
1916: Crossley became Missouri lieutenant governor.
1917: Crossley finished his tenure in the Missouri Senate and began serving as lieutenant governor.
1918, Feb. 6: Crossley combined the Journal-Democrat and The Star to create a single publication, The Star-Journal.
1921: Crossley became The Star-Journal’s sole owner.
• Crossley finished his tenure as lieutenant governor.
1922: Crossley served as a member of the state’s constitutional convention.
1925: Mrs. Bert Thompson began writing what became a long-time Daily Star-Journal column, New Hope.
1926: The newspaper reported completion of the first concrete parts of U.S. 50 through the county.
1927, Sept. 20: In what may be the first “Backward Glances” printed in The Daily Star-Journal, the paper stated the Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce planned to meet for lunch. “This is an important meeting and the committee hopes that at least 100 men will be present,” the newspaper reported.
• Sept. 21: The college achieved a record enrollment of 900.
• Kirkpatrick belonged to the first journalism class at Central Missouri State College.
1929: Tom Benton Hollyman moved to Warrensburg with his father, the Rev. John Hollyman, and family.
• James C. Kirkpatrick, who previously worked for The Normal Student publication at the Normal School in Warrensburg, began working in November for The Daily Star Journal. He later became The Star-Journal news editor.
1930: The newspaper reported that Gas Service Co. had 100 customers in Warrensburg.
1931, Jan. 22: The newspaper began publishing “No Hard Feelings,” a serialized version of the story of World War I Medal of Honor recipient John L. Barkley, Holden. He became the most decorated American in World War I. The first column in the series states stuttering almost kept Barkley out of the war.
• Feb. 6: The paper stated, “Born of high ideals and by able and efficient management, the paper has become indispensable to the reading and progressive families of Warrensburg and Johnson County.”
1932, June 7: The paper reported Warrensburg City Council would discuss having all electricians licensed.
1933: Crossley served as state relief administrator.
1934: Wallace Crossley finished his term as Missouri Press Association president.
• Kirkpatrick interviewed Senate candidate Harry Truman at The Star-Journal.
1935: University of Missouri School of Journalism awarded general excellence to The Star-Journal.
• “… Inside the door (to The Star-Journal) was the most bustle and urgency one could find in Warrensburg in 1935,” Tom Benton Hollyman wrote. A nationally recognized photographer, Hollyman early in his career “freelanced,” with the emphasis on “free,” for The Star-Journal.
1936, Feb. 3: The newspaper reported homes without water due to freezing temperatures.
1937, Feb. 17: The newspaper reported Warrensburg’s city marshal continued to investigate why fire claimed a 1927 Essex parked on Holden Street, on the wrong side, next to a fire hydrant.
1938, Nov. 9: The Star-Journal ran a national news story about Nazi violence against Jews, which became known as Kristallnacht; crowed at the success of the newspaper’s election night party; and reported doctors disagreed about the need for a Johnson County hospital.
1939, June: Hollyman took most of the photos for The Star-Journal’s modern publication, Photo News. In the 1939 section, Gov. Lloyd C. Stark remarked, “It is in keeping with the modern trend whereby newspapers keep their readers informed of current events not only through the medium of print, but by means of pictures.”
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| More pictures from Buddy Baker at the end of this story |
• MU School of Journalism awarded Crossley a journalism medal of honor.
1940, April 15: The Star-Journal’s diamond jubilee, marking 75 years in business, came and went with nothing about the anniversary. The issue included information about the Rev. J.C. Hollyman, Warrensburg, being named a Presbyterian commissioner at a denominational meeting in Rochester, N.Y.; news snippets about fighting in Germany; and an advice column by Dale Carnegie, who as a younger man had attended UCM.
• May 10: Robert Wadlow, 22, Alton, Ill., known as the Alton Giant for standing 8-11, visited Warrensburg. The newspaper reported he wore size 37 shoes. “Mr. Wadlow asked the tallest man in the crowd to get a silver dollar off Robert’s head. Donald Martin, a freshman at the college, surprised Mr. Wadlow and the crowd as well by standing on his tip-toes, and getting the silver dollar, which was presented to him by Robert Wadlow. Martin is 6 feet 8 inches tall and played on the basketball team at the college last year.”
• June 17: The Daily Star-Journal’s 1939 Photo News, a publication devoted to community photos, took first place in the National Newspaper Contest.
• July: Hollyman received recognition in print for his work on Photo News. He is described in personal terms: “fine, manly character, dependable, straightforward, enthusiastic, persistent…” The publication states further, “Tommy’s pictures have won numerous prizes for their quality and originality. Many have appeared in the rotogravure sections of metropolitan newspapers.”
• Bill Tucker married Avis Green.
• Kirkpatrick left The Daily Star-Journal to do publicity for a St. Louis brewery
1941, Dec. 8: The Star-Journal’s banner headline roared “U.S. DECLARES WAR ON JAPAN.”
1942, Aug. 10: Nan Carnahan Cocke born.
1943: Wallace Crossley died.
1944, March 14: The newspaper reported that while stationed in the South Pacific, Cpl. Bert Brasington, a clarinetist and son-in-law of W.M. Foster, Warrensburg, won $50 and a case of beer, in a talent contest.
• June 6: The newspaper announced, “ALLIES LAND IN NORMANDY,” making a same-day announcement of D-Day, when Allied forces invaded Europe, marking the beginning of the Allied drive on Berlin.
1945, May 8: President Harry Truman declared victory in Europe, or V-E Day.
• Aug. 6: Truman announced the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.
• Aug. 15: The newspaper, using a 3-inch tall news headline, likely the largest headline in the paper’s history, yelled ecstatically, “JAPS SURRENDER.” Warrensburg held a noisy celebration.
• Nov. 18: The Star-Journal offered this observation: “Doing business used to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys but we can hardly tell the difference anymore.”
1946, Feb. 3: The newspaper reported the college would become the location for 10 temporary federal housing units.
1947: Bill and Avis Tucker bought and began to operate The Daily Star-Journal.
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| William "Bill" Tucker and Avis Green Tucker, 1965 |
1948, Oct. 1: The State Historical Society of Columbia announced plans to microfilm newspapers, including The Star-Journal. The society today has microfilmed copies of the paper available for viewing.
1949, Jan. 17: The newspaper reported polio coin boxes would be in stores so people could donate to end the disease. Since then, the disease has been wiped out in this country, and thanks in large part to the work of Rotary International and individual clubs in Warrensburg, most of the world today is polio-free.
1950, Oct. 2: The newspaper carried news of fighting in Korea, including sniper fire in Seoul.
1951: The Tuckers went for a carriage ride across their Sunrise Farm.
1952: Bill Tucker’s boyhood dream came true when he could buy horses, the Missouri Press News, a news association publication, reported.
1953: KOKO radio started.
1954, July 7: The newspaper announced community plans to integrate public schools.
• Sept. 23: The football field at the college became named for Vernon Kennedy.
1955, July 1: The Daily Star-Journal published an issue touting the city’s 100th anniversary. Contents including a story about Warrensburg as a railroad town, identifying then-Mayor A.G. Taubert as the Warrensburg Standard-Herald’s editor and part owner; and noting the Christian Church in Warrensburg also had turned 100 years old.
1956, March 13: Missouri Senate members considered crowding a problem at the Warrensburg college.
1957, Feb. 17: The paper reported Warrensburg leaders considered a city manager form of government.
1958: Kirkpatrick spoke to Central Missouri State University students about his journalism career.
1959: Kirkpatrick, then of the Windsor Review, served as the MPA president.
1960, Oct. 14: Future Daily Star-Journal reporter Bill Dedman is born in Chatanooga, Tenn.
• November: Kirkpatrick ran for secretary of state and lost to Warren Hearnes.
• The Tuckers bought KOKO radio.
1961, April 17: The newspaper reported on the Bay of Pigs, which resulted in disaster for Cubans opposed to the Castro regime.
1962, Oct. 18: Keith Sproat joined the newspaper and would become the chief press operator.
1963, Nov. 22: The newspaper reported on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
1964, July 14: The youngest full-time member on The Daily Star-Journal staff, Keith Sproat, worked on a Linotype machine.
• July 15: Robert C. Jones wrote for The Daily Star-Journal about the new office at 115 E. Market St.: “The new building is an elegant, svelte-looking Colonial dame with four columns in front, a recessed walkway…”
• September: Rea Wilson and Jean Smith, teenage girls who had won a contest and received Daily Star-Journal press credentials, interview The Beatles in Kansas City. The girls’ report includes: “From a picture of Paul’s father, it is evident that the elder McCartney has thinning hair. … ‘It ought to be, he’s 65!’ retorted Ringo. Scratching thick black hair, Paul smiled and said, ‘Well, if it thins, it thins.’” The interview predates the release of a 1967 Beatles’ hit, “When I’m Sixty-four,” written by Paul and starting, “When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now. …”
• November: Kirkpatrick ran for secretary of state and, helped by Hearnes, the new governor, won.
• A bank, wanting the space to build, demolished the old Star-Journal office, 108-110 W. Culton St.
• Cocke graduated with a degree in math from Arkansas Polytechnic College in Russellville.
• The Tuckers built a printing plant at 135 E. Market St.
1965, Dec. 7: The Tuckers printed The Daily Star-Journal’s 100th anniversary edition. A former employee, Mrs. Joseph Carmack, recalled having once set type by hand for about $4.50 per week; President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote to The Daily Star-Journal, “A tradition of responsible journalism is a cause for pride and I hope that the years to come will add continued success to the fine record of a century”; and the issue contained history about the paper and the community.
• In contrast to comments about the wonders of train travel in 1865, the biggest news of the year as of Dec. 7, 1965, involved Gemini Four orbiting Earth 62 times for a total of 1.61 million miles in 98 hours.
1966: Bill Tucker died of a heart attack and Avis Tucker took over as publisher.
1967, June 7: The Six-Day War ended with victory for Israel, the newspaper reported.
1968, Jan 31: North Vietnam began the Tet offensive, an incursion into South Vietnam, which failed, ultimately, but showed U.S. vulnerability.
1969: Avis Tucker maintained control of KOKO radio after her husband’s death.
1970, Oct. 14: The newspaper reported that hope ran high among community leaders that this area would become home to ballistic missiles, and homecoming marked the start of the college centennial, “which is as significant to the town of Warrensburg as it is to the college.”
1971, Feb. 3: The newspaper reported work continued on North Park Shopping Center on Business 50 near Route 13.
1972, June 29: The U.S. Supreme Court found the death penalty unconstitutional.
1973, Jan. 29: The newspaper reported the government rested in the Watergate case (which would end in the resignation in shame of President Nixon), and the last American killed in Vietnam before the peace declaration came from Michigan.
1974, April 21: The Warrensburg Heritage Collection, a set of six sketches by James Barkarth, went on sale to benefit the Johnson county Historical Society.
Dec. 13: Continuing a long focus on community news, the newspaper reported on meetings by the Sunshine and Centennial clubs.
1976, July 2: The Daily Star-Journal published a bicentennial issue recognizing the nation’s 200th birthday. The cover asked why the town is called Warrensburg rather than Groversburg.
• Dedman worked as a copy boy at the Chattanooga Times.
1977, Oct. 25: The paper, long a friend to scouting, reported on the Boy Scout Troop 400 Court of Honor.
1978, April 9: Warrensburg junior high students took first-place honors at the college science fair.
• Nov. 1: Cocke, after having worked for a typesetting business in Tennessee, and as a math teacher, joined The Daily Star-Journal staff.
• Dedman graduated from Baylor University.
1979, Oct. 1: Kenneth L. Amos, a Central Missouri State University graduate, began work at The Daily Star-Journal. “I am looking forward to working with a professional staff in covering the news of the area,” he said. He replaced Bruce Reynolds.
1980, Dec. 22: The Daily Star-Journal suggested in an editorial that the Reagan transition team should engage in “a big dose of silence.”
1981, Feb. 25: The Daily Star-Journal suggested the Warrensburg City Council should control “rowdyism and the frequency of fisticuffs and brawls” in downtown bars.
1981, March 20: In a letter, Kirkpatrick suggested a Warrensburg street should be named for Crossley.
• April 1: The paper stated, “We remain staunch in our support,” and noted, then as now, that a levy issue for improved facilities, including a track, failed twice before and a third time might be a charm.
• April 14: An article in The Daily Star-Journal introduced Dedman, then 20, to the community, with him saying of his former part-time job at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “There you don’t get a chance to know everyone in the building like you do here,” adding this about reporting, “It’s just something I felt suited for. I like writing and I like the atmosphere.”
• Sept. 12: The newspaper on Sept. 4, Sept. 11 and Sept. 18, 1981, accidentally published with an 1881 date. A reader brought the error to the newspaper’s attention.
• Nov. 3: The Daily Star-Journal endorsed Republicans and Democrats for national and statewide offices, including Ronald Reagan for president and Thomas Eagleton for U.S. Senate.
• Nov. 18: “It is young people like Warrensburg’s David Pearce who stoke the fire of hope for a bright future in this community, the state and nation,” the newspaper wrote, and congratulated him on being named an FFA national vice president. Today, Pearce chairs the Missouri Senate Education Committee.
• After less than a year on the job, Dedman quit and Cocke replaced him on the police beat.
1982, Feb. 17: Star-Journal reporter Jeff Murphy photographed country music legend Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, performing at the University of Central Missouri.
• June 17: Boys State honored The Daily Star-Journal with a plaque for the newspaper’s support.
• Aug. 11: The newspaper referred to the Hancock Amendment as a “smorgasbord of flaws.”
• Oct. 18: The newspaper held an open house. “Seemingly, most popular with the crowd was watching our offset web press run.”
• Dec. 23: Under the direction of Amos, The Daily Star-Journal printed the paper’s first color image.
• Avis Tucker became the Missouri Press Association’s first female president.
1983, Dec. 30: The newspaper stated in the year-end issue, “We renew our pledge to do our best in fulfilling our obligation to serve you as individuals and the best interests of the community.”
1984, Jan. 31: Surveys showed “a groundswell of support” for removing the city’s parking meters.
• March 19: The Star-Journal crowed “A salute to champions” when the Mules and Jennies basketball teams each won an NCAA Division II crown. “Never before have teams from the same school won both the men’s and women’s title in the same year.”
• March: Amos left the newspaper.
• March: Cocke replaced Amos as news editor.
• Dec. 13: The paper marked the county’s sesquicentennial and included a quote from the man for whom the county is named, Kentucky Col. Richard M. Johnson: “Freedom of speech and the press, the rights of conscience, the responsibility of political agents to the people and the universal education – main pillars.”
1985, May 15: The Daily Star-Journal wrote, “Every letter to the editor received is given careful consideration. Unless it is in violation of one of our guidelines, it is printed.”
• June 21: An editorial challenged the sense of creating the drink, New Coke, stating “all indications are there’s considerable rebellion out there.”
• Oct. 28: On the World Champion Royals: “The heart and pride with which the Royals played was something to be reckoned with, perhaps underestimated by those even closest to the players.”
• Kirkpatrick retired as secretary of state.
1986, July 14: Warrensburg marked the city sesquicentennial with an editorial explaining the city received the name in 1836, but did not incorporate until 1855, so that meant the city could celebrate one date in 1986 and another in 2005.
1987, Jan. 6: “Yesterday, 4th District Congressman Ike Skelton was a messenger with especially good news for this area. He made the first official announcement that Whiteman Air Force Base has been selected as the first base in the nation to receive the new stealth bomber.”
• July 15: The Supreme Court upheld a federal law that made 21 the drinking age for all states.
• Nov. 16: Johnson County United Way reached the fundraising goal of $100,600.
• Dedman, after working at several papers, went to work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
1988, June 2: “Never have we been more pleased about being told we were wrong than when a group of fifth-graders did it this week.” Twenty-five Martin Warren Elementary School students wrote to say they disagreed with an editorial stating children put a low priority on reading.
1989, March 14: The newspaper reported Warrensburg advanced a plan to annex property north of Highway 50, which became the site of Wal-Mart.
• April 12: “Foremost is the need for understanding by parents and some coaches that a newspaper of our size is unable to indulge in the luxury of maintaining a sports staff. Instead, one man serves the complex role…”
• July 24: The Star-Journal opined that plans by TV networks to use actors to recreate news events represented bad journalism.
• July 28: The Star-Journal recognized Civil War warrior Francis Cockrell, a lawyer in the Drum dog case and a U.S. Senate member, as deserving of Francis Marion Cockrell Day.
• Dedman, while working at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He exposed racial discrimination practiced by Atlanta’s leading financial institutions.
1990, March 1: The Kansas City Times folded.
• March 7: The Star-Journal participated in Newspapers In Education, a project that continues to this day, which involves newspaper-based student learning.
• April 24: “Rumor, gossip, half-truths and misinformed individuals who think they are ‘in the know,’ but don’t know that they don’t know, are not the stuff that responsible newspapers use in publishing news.”
1991, March 25: “Surprising (is) the number of letters we receive that merely vent personal vendettas. They make charges of a vindictive nature. That sort of letter is material for the round file.”
• April 26: “While some members of public boards may not fully understand what can and cannot be discussed behind closed doors, there are those who, at times, attempt to hide some specific action under the guise of executive privilege. That poses dangers in a free society. … Some elected officials who lack conscientiousness would ransack the public store.”
• Nov. 8: The Daily Star-Journal backed putting labels on food so that Americans could consider healthier diets.
1992: Avis Tucker became the Missouri Press Association’s first female Hall of Famer.
1993, Aug. 12: “Racism is an issue that must be addressed until the goal of eliminating radicalism and making consistent progress toward equality and a greater commitment to collective and individual responsibility is reached.”
1994, May 3: The Johnson County Courthouse on North Main Street and the Garden of Eden gas station, built around 1928, north of town, joined the National Register of Historic places.
• May 30: Gov. Mel Carnahan signed a bill to make Warrensburg the site of a Missouri Veterans Home.
• Dec. 13: Work began to revitalize downtown Warrensburg.
1995, Feb. 10: After running an unpopular editorial cartoon involving the Enola Gay, which dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, the newspaper wrote that cartoons do not necessarily reflect the editor’s opinion and, “Distasteful as it sometimes is, freedom of expression must be enforced. And we defend it.
• June 20: Recognizing Kirkpatrick’s 90th birthday, the paper wrote, “A warm outgoing person throughout his life, he has built a huge network of admiring friends in Missouri and outside state borders.”
• Oct. 2: The newspaper referred to the O.J. Simpson trial as a “courtroom circus.”
• Nov. 20: In a case of “then as now,” due to a budget crisis in Washington, the newspaper observed, “Polls, political commentators and the general public have been derisive of the silly antics played out by the politicians in Washington. And rightly so.”
1996, June 5: Ground broke on the Warrensburg Community Center, 445 E. Gay St.
• July 12: A copper time capsule, which took six hours to chisel free from the granite cornerstone and open at the Old Johnson County Courthouse, contained 10 different newspapers published in the county in 1896. “It is noteworthy that all four of the county newspapers now published were in existence when the courthouse was built 100 years ago.”
• Aug. 15: The 100-year-old time capsule, from Aug. 24, 1896, included information from The Johnson County Star and the Warrensburg Journal-Democrat, both forerunners of the Daily Star-Journal.
• Oct. 25: Kirkpatrick spoke at the groundbreaking for the James Kirkpatrick Library at the University of Central Missouri. The Star-Journal headlined an editorial, “A singular honor richly deserved.”
1996: The National Local Media Association named Jack “Miles” Ventimiglia Journalist of the Year.
1997, Jan. 30: The newspaper noted the price of attending college is getting harder to pay.
• July 14: A settlement between the government and tobacco companies meant an icon of tobacco marketing, Joe Camel, is dead.
• Dec. 26: Kirkpatrick died. In addition to the UCM library, The James Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City is named in his honor.
1998, Jan. 8: The newspaper bemoaned that children no longer played with corn husk dolls, and hoops with a stick to make them roll – such toys replaced by “dinosaurs with laser beams and missiles.”
• March 10: Voicing a continuing complaint, the newspaper wrote, “Government entities are spending taxpayers’ money and making decisions on how they will spend it. This is the public’s business. Therefore, it must be conducted in the open.”
• May 26: In a case of “when will it end,” the newspaper wrote, “In the latest episode, at a high school in Springfield, Ore., a 15-year-old boy with three guns devastatingly sprayed bullets into a crowd of students in the cafeteria.” The boy, Kipland P. Kinkel, a freshman at Thurston High School, killed one student and wounded 23 others at the school, and killed his parents at home.
• Sept. 17: Alabama Gov. George Wallace, died and is remembered “as one who sincerely repented his racist views and tried to make amends.”
• Dec. 23: Guests gave opinions about the call to impeach President Bill “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” Clinton following his dalliance with Monica Lewisky.
1999, April 21: The paper reported on the murdered students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
2000
2000, Dec. 13: The newspaper reported presidential contender Al Gore conceded the presidential race. The Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling making George Bush president; some still maintain Gore won.
2001, Sept. 11: The Daily Star-Journal reported heightened area security after terrorist attacks on East Coast sites, including the World Trade Center.
2002, Nov. 5: David Pearce won a Missouri House seat, capping a good night for Republicans, who also captured Congress.
2003, April 9: Baghdad fell, with dancing, cheering and looting.
2004, Sept. 16: Oil neared $50 per barrel.
2005, Sept. 1: After Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, bringing death and criticism for a slow government response, Johnson Countains responded with aid.
2006: Dedman joined NBC News.
2007, March 29: Jack “Miles” Ventimiglia won the 2006 National Local Media Association Editor of the Year award..
• The News Press Gazette Co. bought The Daily Star-Journal from Avis Tucker. Longtime newspaperman and Missouri Press Hall of Fame member Bill James became The Daily Star-Journal’s publisher.
2008, April: Ventimiglia, whose work as editor resulted in his news staffs winning the Southern Illinois Editorial Association’s General Excellence award, four Missouri Gold Cups and the Kansas Press Association’s Sweepstakes award – became The Daily Star-Journal’s editor. He holds an M.A. from the University of Central Missouri.
2009: Hollyman died.2010, June 5: The Kansas City Press Club named The Daily Star-Journal Newspaper of the Year.
• June 16: Cocke died.
• August: The National Newspaper Association awarded first place for a news photo to The Daily Star-Journal.
• Oct. 15: Keith Sproat retired as press man.
• Dec. 17: Avis Tucker, 95, died.
2011, Feb. 2: The Great Blizzard of 2011 shut down the city, the post office and the newspaper.
• May 2: For the only time known in the newspaper’s history, The Daily Star-Journal threw out an entire press run to cover President Obama’s announcement that Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden.
• Sept. 9: The Daily Star-Journal captured the Missouri Press Association’s Gold Medal Newspaper award in the small daily circulation class.
2012, Feb. 18: Fire forced the evacuation and relocation of more than 65 Johnson County Care Center residents in downtown Warrensburg to The Daily Star-Journal; from there they went to nursing homes. No one suffered injuries.
• Sept. 22: The newspaper repeated as an MPA Gold Medal Newspaper.
• Nov. 8: Inland Press Association, representing newspapers nationally, awarded Ventimiglia the Editorial Excellence Sweepstakes Award for best editorial writing among newspaper of all circulation classes.
2013, July 24: The Star-Journal for the first time presented live, streaming video to the public while covering President Obama’s visit to the University of Central Missouri.
• August: The Missouri Press Association named the William E. James Outstanding Young Journalists of the Year Awards for William E. James, The Daily Star-Journal’s publisher.
• Sept. 7: The newspaper repeated as an MPA Gold Medal Newspaper.
• Sept. 29: Bill Dedman coauthored the New York Times best seller, “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Hugeutte Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.”
• November: James, 65, the newspaper’s publisher, died after battling lung cancer. A Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame member, James marked a lifetime of service.
2014, Sept. 27: The newspaper repeated as an MPA Gold Medal Newspaper.
• After replacing James, Brad Slater served a year as publisher before taking a new job and being replaced by Joe Warren.
• Dedman joined Newsday, a Long Island paper, as a senior reporter.
2015, Feb. 13: The Daily Star-Journal won the Missouri Associated Press Media Editors General Excellence award for small newspapers, continuing the award-winning tradition begun by Wallace Crossley.
———©2015 The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.)
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Buddy's (Baker) father, Carl, drove the Daily Star Journal's show wagon in parades and events around town in the 1950's.
Bill Edwards, Carl Baker and William Tucker. Bill Edwards had nothing to do with the Star Journal. He was just a friend of Carl's and was there when the picture was taken.
The picture below was taken around 1940. Wallace Crossley gave a party every summer for members of the Star Journal Staff. This is a snapshot taken in the dark so it's somewhat blurred. Wallace owned the old Grover house (on the site of the Warren homestead located where the post office parking lot is now.) Smack in the middle of the picture is 16 year old Buddy Baker. He had just been promoted from paper boy to printer's devil and was therefore eligible to go to the party. He can't remember most of the people there, but he did recall some names.
Buddy Baker remembers that the people just to his right were J.W. Parsons, (printer) and
Olive Sterne, (Receptionist).
The two women to Buddy's left are Dorothy Martin (bookkeeper) Esther Huffendick (circulation manager) They lived together.
Owen Ball, and ? Haldiman were Linotype operators.
I tried to get Buddy to say that the old man with the hearing aid was Wallace Crossley but he would not confirm it.
Buddy worked for the Star Journal as a Linotype operator from 1955 to 1966 and from 1968 to 1972.
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