Published: September 10, 2008 10:24 am         

For William (KB) (Cooter Bill) Thompson

“Alas, poor Yorick, too many didn’t know you all that well at all.”

– Cranius Hallux Maximus



An era will have passed. Years ago Sports Illustrated published a piece on Bill (Bull) (Cyclone) Sullivan, the East Mississippi Junior College reputed to have been the toughest coach that ever lived, so tough he had

two nicknames.

Without referencing any issues of toughness, a legend of some status will be closing the cover on

his career in community newspapering, not to be confused with sometimes sterile journalism.

Last Friday afternoon, William (KB) (Cooter Bill) Thompson will officially retire after 53 years with The Star-Herald, the official newspaper of Attala County and Kosciusko, our neighbors to the north.

Outside Attala County, not much of anyone knew KB or even knew of him. Fact is, in not so remote corners of that county he was oft over-looked and unknown, even as they lauded, applauded or cursed the product of his love and care, The Star-Herald.

Outside the newspaper business, and in most offices thereof, KB was largely unknown; he didn’t get bylines or photo credits; he didn’t write stories or chase fires or photograph crime scenes, but he made blessed sure that paper got out and it got out right.

He forever fretted over headlines that were “two letters too long.”

For most of his time at the Kosy paper the guidelines, the rules, by inviolable laws of W.C. Shoemaker, was that headlines had to be certain sizes, 18 point, 24 point, 30 point, 36 point, 48 point, 60 point and, for the big, ol’ lead story on front page, 72 point.

(I expect the same here, though I put 60-point heads on the big, ol’s lead story, saving 72 point for something unbelievably big, and, after a discussion with George Keith 25 years or so ago, I slid in a

42-pointer, ‘cause we decided we liked it.)

You might get away with an odd ball sized head for a feature, but for the every day, standard headline, you wrote in the standard sizes, or you wrote a different headline.

You might kern it or squeeze it, but you dare not turn loose a 37-point headline, or a 54-point,

or anything like that. You dare not.

So when a headline came to KB and it was two columns wide, two lines deep, and 36 points in size, it was his job, among so many, to confront the headline writer with the admonition, “This headline is two letters too long.” (I never recall one one letter too long or three letters too long.)

It was then the headline writer’s job to find a shorter word and send KB back to paste-up to finish his job.

His job was to make sure all the lines of type lined up, that spacing was proper, headlines fit, cutlines in place, waxers properly fed, lights lighting up the light tables, trash trashed and hauled, all X-acto Knives® present and accounted for, as were the photo blue pens and pencils, photo processors fueled with fluids, and everybody on task and doing their job.

Officially, the latter was probably not in his job description, if ever one was ever attempted for hi, but occasionally KB forgot he didn’t actually own and run the newspaper.

He just did all the little, thankless, overlooked jobs necessary to keep things running so the paper would always come out on time and right on time. Hardly a paper anywhere operates without someone like Cooter Bill, it may even take a couple of folks or more.

But few have ever focused on it like KB; in all the world he basically did two things: He took care of family, especially Momma, and he took care of that newspaper.

And very few have ever had the privilege, determination, luck and perseverance to do the job for over 50 years.

(In that The Star-Herald is truly unique; it also has Nancy Green, reporter and mom to every idiot news hand who wandered in and wandered off for more than 50 years, a woman who loves that paper just about the way KB does.)

It would be unfortunate in deed, and foolish even more, were I to let his retirement tomorrow pass without at least a small salute today to William Thompson and those who make the papers go.

I’d do more, but I’m running out of space here, and I have to go work on the headline some more.

The dadgum thing keeps coming up two letters too long.



Waide Prather is the publisher of The Carthaginian.