Anything that has been in existence 151 years, gone through four generations of the Ray family as owners and is now under a third corporate hand is bound to have had the opportunity to have experienced a number of good employees.

However, none can compare in longevity, consistency and reliability to those qualities demonstrated by Darlene Wierman.

Darlene joined the Democrat front office staff in 1970.

As of this day, the last day of the month, she is retiring after serving faithfully for 51 years.

After a short period of time, she became office manager and meant even more to the family. We always appreciated the compassion she had for my mother, the publisher, who was always a fixture at the front desk, during her active years. Kathryn Mitchell thought the world of Darlene, leaning on her and her personality.

My memory of them sitting side-by- side at the front office counter will always be a cherished one.

A very close friend of the family and newspaper, the late James C. Kirkpatrick, one-time Missouri Secretary of State, once told me he would like to hire an “office full of people like Darlene in Jefferson City.”

We always thought her Christian outlook on life was an attribute that was highly valuable to our business.

Leaving the Democrat will mean she will be joining husband, Richard, in retirement since he sold his cattle herd before last winter.

According to other staff members, there will not be any major event in observance of this major accomplishment. According to Editor Kyle Troutman, because of her humble refusal of any limelight, it was being left open for a drop-by the office, for anyone who might want to wish her well.

In this particular instance, words fail this journalist in describing the first interview conducted, mainly by Sue. As we had just gone to offset printing of the paper, this editor said he always asked potential hires if they could sew.

That’s something a veteran offset editor had suggested due to some precise need in the new process. Darlene’s answer was in the affirmative, and I left the interview to others.

During those years of 1970 through 1996, she did more than sew — she often took a heavy load off my office.

Cassville’s rush to acquire jobs for the area put a load on the Industrial Development efforts, consequently, on my desk.

During those days, I had to be away from the office quite frequently, during which time Darlene and Sue filled the void without fail.

The same applied around the Democrat when we tripped to see the family in their far-flung locations.

A summation can be very simple. Thank you, Darlene, for giving 52 years of your life to the Cassville Democrat and our family.

Enjoy your retirement!

Next week we drop into another month, with next Monday giving us Labor Day and the last holiday of the summer.

The date will also be a prelude, hopefully of the fall season, best of them all so far as my thinking has always been, if there were leaves to rake.

Then we can wonder where the summer has gone since Autumn is just around the corner. This brings us to the threshold of that time of years when lots of things start happening around these parts.

For the most part, possibly with the exception of raking leaves, piling them and eventually burning them, activities and events will be aplenty when the 10th month of the year arrives.

This was the ideal time of the year when outdoor pleasures can be the most outstanding as Mother Nature takes over in one of her season changes. Being out on Table Rock and observing wildlife can be one of the most rewarding events in this part of the Barry County Ozarks.

Let there be no doubt about it, the beginning of fall provides many opportunities to get out and around these parts and enjoy what is with us every day.

It’s an added feature to Roaring River Statre Park that its spring is 472 feet deep, now the deepest known in the U.S.

That will undoubtedly add considerably to the million and onethird number of visitors recorded last year. That was sufficient to be the leader in Missouri state park numbers.

People are always attracted to these things and the deepest spring in the country will likely join the list of available sites.

Cassville might give some thought to this possibility and become prepared for that eventuality. Nothing like looking to the future and promoting appropriately.

Its clear water, emptying into the old mill pond, down the familiar Twin Falls and then making the stream is a world-known feature of our Ozarks.

Bob Mitchell is the former editor and publisher of the Cassville Democrat. He is a 2017 inductee to both the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame and Missouri Southern State University’s Regional Media Hall of Fame.