By Glenn Dromgoole

One of the many things I like about Loretta Fulton’s Spirit of Abilene website is that it is trying to keep alive something that has almost become extinct: the importance of personal commentary or personal journalism to the fabric and spirit of a community.

Unfortunately, that’s missing from most daily newspapers these days. There was a time, not so long ago, when newspapers like the Abilene Reporter-News featured writers whose names and faces were well known to readers. Loretta, for one. Bill Whitaker, Al Pickett, Greg Jaklewicz, Bill Hart, Miz Cheevus, Ask Doug. For Abilene old-timers, Frank Grimes, Katharyn Duff, Art Lawler, Dick Tarpley. Readers looked forward to what they had to say and the way they said it, the stories they told, things they had experienced, the food they liked, their observations on matters great and small. When I was editor, I felt it was important that, at least once a week, I tried to write something of a personal nature as a way to connect with readers. 

And that was true in newspapers all over the state, all over the country. George Dolan, Elston Brooks of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Paul Crume, Frank Tolbert, Dallas News. Blackie Sherrod, Dallas Times-Herald. Leon Hale, Houston. Bob Greene and Joan Beck, Chicago. Dave Barry, Philadelphia and Miami. Erma Bombeck, Dayton, Ohio, before she became nationally syndicated. And so on. Nearly every city had at least one, probably several, well-known writer personalities.

There’s very little of that kind of personal journalism left, as newspapers have lost readership, cut staff, and become less of a force in their communities. With tighter budgets and fewer pages, personal columns have virtually disappeared. 

I’m sad about that. I was fortunate to live and work in what was probably the heyday of Texas journalism, particularly as it related to personalities having a significant presence in their communities. I miss that.

But at least now, every Tuesday, I can open up the Spirit of Abilene email and click on contributors Danny Minton, Nancy Patrick, Jim Nichols, Marianne Wood, and, of course, Loretta, and other writers and read their thoughts on a variety of topics, all having to do with the spirit of this community, or the larger community of believers and seekers. Nearly every week I find something that makes me think, or laugh, or agree or disagree with, or want to know more about. I don’t know most of these writers, but I feel like I do. I connect with them. And that’s what personal journalism is, or was, all about.

Abilene author Glenn Dromgoole was editor of the Abilene Reporter-News, 1986-97. He and his wife Carol own the Texas Star Trading Company book and gift store downtown.