Thanks for the memories

Evelyn B.Washam

There’s an old saying that a woman should only be in the newspaper two times in her life — when she’s married and when she passes away.

Evelyn B. Washam has followed a routine throughout most of her life that involves enjoying breakfast and her copy of The News-Star around her kitchen table every morning at her Farmerville home. The News-Star helps Washam keep tabs on her friends and community in times both good and bad, and in her 92 years she’s been fortunate enough to see her three daughters and two granddaughters all in the newspaper for the right reasons on their respective wedding days.

Washam’s daughter Jean Hollis also had a seat at that kitchen table, where she watched and participated as Washam and her late husband, Arthur C. Washam, poured over and discussed the paper’s pages like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. We asked Hollis five questions about her family’s time as a subscriber.

1. When did your parents start reading The News-Star?

I don’t know exactly when they started taking the paper, but ever since I can remember and I’m 63. My mother has been in the same location in Farmerville since 1951.

2. What role as the paper played in her life?

My mother has always read it ever since she’s been retired. She feels like she can’t eat breakfast and have her coffee unless she has the paper with her. If the paper isn’t there then she can’t start the day off right. Like many people her age, she likes keep up with who got married and who died. It’s the bright spot of her day.

3. What is the biggest news story you remember reading in the paper?

I wasn’t around then and I won’t say they enjoyed it, but one of the big things I remember her and my daddy talking about was Pearl Harbor being bombed. She was here and my daddy was actually in Pearl Harbor. My mother didn’t know him then, but yes he was stationed over there.

4. Have you saved any clippings or papers over the years because they were special to you?

She’s saved lots of clippings, from her daughter’s and granddaughter’s wedding days to when my grandparents had their 50 wedding anniversary; that was in there among many more. We could talk all day about all the clipping she’s saved.

5. Why is a daily newspaper important to you?

To keep up with events in people’s lives and current events. It’s just a way to keep up in general and it means so much to her.