PHOTO OF THE DAY: A TRIBUTE

Passing of Bill Headley on Dec. 22 triggers look back on legacy for the ages

William J. Headley, known by most as Bill and whose surname is synonymous with newspapering in Hutchinson County, left an indelible mark on the community of Menno.

He represents three generations of family ownership over a 102-year timeframe;

What it means to recognize, honor and record the history of a community;

And — as his obituary published on page 5 clearly notes — what it means to be actively involved in a life’s greatest work.

All of that and more is being recognized, celebrated and honored following Bill’s passing three days before Christmas. The former editor and publisher of the Hutchinson Herald died following a brief stay at the Menno-Olivet Care Center Sunday, Dec. 22. He was 85.

“Ever the reporter — always the reporter,” said Judy, his wife of 57 years who, like Bill, has been a fixture in the Menno community for generations. “Bill was extremely dedicated to the paper to the point that he would attend every single event in town with his Polaroid camera, yet he still maintained time for family and community activities.”

Judy remembers joining the Headley family in 1967 when Bill and his father, Jasper, were both actively involved in the Herald. She had a teaching career of her own, she recalls, and says she was happy to stand down and begin raising a family while her husband carried out his blooming career as a community journalist. “That was a very happy time for him,” she says.

By the time their second child was born in 1979 Judy and Bill were making monthly installments to purchase the Herald from Jasper, and the third generation of family ownership was underway.

That is unique.

“For a family to own a business for 100 years is rare, especially for a newspaper,” David Bordewyk, executive director for the South Dakota NewsMedia Association, told the Yankton Press & Dakotan for a story published in 2000 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Headley ownership, and Bill himself acknowledged the grind in the same story.

“Small business these days can be a struggle — no paid vacation, no sick leave, no medical insurance, no pension or retirement plan — pretty much on your own,” Bill told the P&D.

But it also came with reward.

“People often paid for subscriptions with eggs, chickens, cobs and even an old single shot 12-gauge shotgun,” he told reporter Randy Dockendorf for that story back in 2000. “One man couldn’t afford a subscription but continued faithfully receiving the paper — then settled up seven years later with the $21.”

And, he added, “A gentleman told me last week that the Hutchinson Herald is the first paper he reads every Wednesday. It was nice to hear that.”

It started pre-1900

There was a Hutchinson Herald before the Headleys became involved.

In fact, the newspaper was established as the Hutchinson County Record in the county seat of Olivet on March 30, 1882, and was renamed the Herald and moved to Menno in 1898. Two years after that, Bill’s grandfather, John S. Headley, purchased the enterprise.

And so began a century-plus career in Headley newspapering — but it almost wasn’t to be, save for a buyer with second thoughts.

“In May 1919, George Pfeifle of Menno made a $50 down payment on the newspaper,” Bill told the P&D. “My grandfather spent a week in Nebraska looking for another paper, but when he returned he found Pfeifle wanted out of the deal — a week of owning the newspaper was enough for him.”

John S. Headley owned the Herald until his death in 1936, Jasper took over after that, and Bill and Judy carried the mantle from 1978 into the 21st century. But changing technology — a challenge exacerbated by age — marked the end of the line for Bill and Judy, and therein the Headley family tree of ownership.

Indeed, Bill found himself smack dab in the center of a changing landscape of newspaper production during his career. Even in the later years of ownership, when the Herald still operated out of the small brick building built by John S. as the Herald office in 1919, he maintained an 1871 Patent Pearl foot-powered platen press and a Model 5 Linotype, rebuilt in 1926. (The Headley’s printing equipment is being preserved at both the Menno Heritage Museum and Heritage Hall Museum & Archives in Freeman.)

When Bill entered the industry in the middle part of the 20th century it was the letterpress era — a time when type was set by hand and a Linotype used to create the materials for pages. Those pages were printed by literally pressing sheets of paper against ink-coated type and etchings, a technique used for five centuries.

But the development of accessible computer technology in the 1970s gave way to a new method of production called “modern offset” in which type was electronically set and prepared for plates to be used in the printing process.

The change in how content was created for production was only refined and improved for efficiency throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and photography took on a new look, as well. Judy says Bill used primarily Polaroids for his image work during his career, with film processing and printing giving way to digital production in the later part of the 1990s.

By 2000, Headley said publicly that the end of the line was coming.

“The third generation of Headleys running the Hutchinson Herald will probably be the last,” Bill told the P&D.

And in April of 2002, the Headleys sold the Hutchinson Herald to Tim L. and Mary Waltner, owners of the Freeman Courier.

The Herald would continue to be published as part of the Waltner operation until July of 2019, when the Menno weekly ceased operation and was absorbed by the Courier.

The closure of the Herald was made by The Courier’s own second-generation publishers, Jeremy and Stacey Waltner, and was triggered by a challenging newspaper landscape. Tough financial conditions brought on by an increase in expenses and a decline in advertising revenue and readership — not to mention an outdated model the industry has yet to reconcile — forced the owners to make difficult decisions.

On a personal note, I have never felt good about the decision to close the Herald, especially given its legacy built and established by the Headley family. But with the financial realities we were facing, there was no other choice.

That decision also came with a qualifier — that The Courier would continue to cover the news of the Menno community in a different kind of way, wrapped up in a hybrid community newspaper that would reinvent itself over the years that would follow.

I remember calling Bill after Stacey and I made the decision to close the Herald early in 2019 and before announcing its closure publicly; after all, he and Judy were the first who deserved to know.

And I remember his words, spoken quickly and without the slightest tinge of disappointment in his distinctive baritone.

“I understand. You’ve got to do what you’ve got do to.”

And I remember, even more vividly, Bill inviting me to join him on his golf cart for a drive around Menno following the Fourth of July parade in 2019 — the first event I covered in Menno after shutting down the oldest newspaper in Hutchinson County.

It was almost as though he was bringing me along for another generational ride.

Bill extended much grace and generosity in those moments, and I will cherish them the rest of my life. His passing is a bittersweet coda on a wonderful symphony.

Post-2000 & the final years

Bill remained active in the Menno community in the years following his retirement. He was no longer “ever the reporter — always the reporter,” but rather a community stalwart in a new kind of way.

Even when his health began to decline in the last couple of years, he still found both time and energy to be out and about on the streets of Menno in that golf cart and attended community events as he could.

And if his involvement meant sitting on his front porch, that’s what it was. In fact, he said in an interview with Waltner in July of 2023, that was his favorite thing to do.

Through it all, Headley remained a newspaper man.

“Ink in his blood? I should say so,” Judy said in that same interview in July of 2023, conducted as part of a documentary about the Menno Historical Society and the Menno Museum produced by Waltner. “What does he have in his pocket? Little scraps of paper and a pencil. He writes down names of nurses at dialysis — names of people he may have met once …

“There’s something about that reporting — always the pocket full of papers and the pen at hand.”

That was Bill.

Even in loss, there is much to be gained from the gift that William J. Headley and his larger family gave the people of Menno.

And it’s all right there on yellowed yet carefully bound newspaper pages, for now archived in City Hall in Menno — right where they belong.