The Platte County Citizen has provided readers with a county-wide overview for more than 60 years. That’s a lot of change to witness.
I notice it most in the Citizen’s excellent high school sports coverage. Sports reflect society’s changes over the years. I notice it, too, because covering sports for this newspaper was part of my own entry into journalism. My sports write ups were primitive and the game photos few. Boys football, basketball and track were the main coverage, with some coverage of girls, basketball, volleyball and track.
Today, Citizen Sports Editor Tanner Cobb may be the hardest working sports journalist in the Kansas City metro area. I’m amazed. He covers five high schools in four school districts, and sometimes the paper picks up Park University’s sports.
Graham
Today, sports for young women get as much coverage as those for young men, and there are many more types of sports to cover for each. Tanner’s photo credits recently found him at soccer, baseball, and track and field. His photos are excellent. This matters to the young athletes and their families and fans. I also admire Editor Jeanette Faubion’s hard news coverage, and the thoughtful and heartfelt feature stories by Reporter Rimsie McConiga.
Newspapers are proof that people care.
This newspaper was founded by Jody Keefhaver, who grew up on a farm east of Edgerton and attended North Platte schools. In junior high, he started writing news about his community and peddling it on mimeographed sheets of paper. Jody kept reporting and writing. He and his wife, Glenna, had built the Citizen into an influential broadsheet when they hired me as a reporter and ad salesman early in 1981. They worked out of a small building in Edgerton, down the street from a dearly missed Harmer’s Café.
Edgerton, Dearborn, and Camden Point all had grocery stores, banks, and some small businesses then. Weston was working on historic preservation and Platte City was biding its time and awaiting growth. Parkville and Riverside were still small towns. Platte Woods was as it is now. Farley, Ferrelview, Iatan, New Market, Hoover, and Beverly were all hamlets with history. Jody covered them all, and he also covered Smithville.
Jody and Glenna worked very long days. It was Jody who introduced me to Prairie Home Companion on NPR, because they listened to it as they worked weekends. That show resonated with the small-town news they were printing. The Citizen was born and grew formidable because they believed what happened to the people in their community was important and interesting.
I had lunch with Jody recently. We dined at Roxanne’s in Platte City. That’s about as close as it gets in Platte County to Harmer’s Café. Jody looks great, he and Glenna are well, retired, and proud of their children and grandchildren. They sold the Citizen in 1983. The new owner moved the Citizen office to Platte City. Various owners since have maintained a rock-solid newspaper. Jody went on to work as a journalist at various newspapers. I moved on to The Kansas City Star early in 1984, then in 2009 on to new things.
Much has changed in Platte County since the Citizen first went to press. The internet puts turbulent world and national news at a person’s fingertips. Still, Jody and I agree that local news outlets like the Citizen are still important because they help knit a community together. Readers and journalists are partners in making such a hopeful thing happen.
Bill Graham is a long-time commentator on Platte County and its history. He lives in the Platte City area and can be reached at editor@plattecountycitizen.com.