Behind the Headlines

By Stephanie Ariganello; stephaniea@monroenews.com

I happened to be on call yesterday - just in case something had to be covered or reported on. On Christmas, it usually has to be something big to warrant a call in.
So, I was a little shocked to get a call from both my editor and the editor of the paper. However, when they informed me that our second-generation editor and former president of Monroe Publishing and The Monroe Evening News, Grattan Gray died earlier that day, it was clear why.

I would be the one putting together the story on his life and his death. Talk about intimidating.

Knowing that Mr. Gray has such an enmeshed history in not just our paper, but the community at large, I came in last night to read through clips and old articles to get a sense of who he was and what he did in his life. The more I read, the more I realized just how enormous a task it is to summarize a person, their life and actions and what they’ve contributed to a community. Mr. Gray may be an exception in general, simply because he did so much.

I met Mr. Gray maybe two times since I’m relatively new to the newsroom. I had heard stories and knew he was held in high regard by some of the more esteemed of my colleagues, but I had no idea. He had spent more than 70 years in the newspaper industry - (70!) something that is inconceivable. What I found I really liked about him, as I was reading, was his drive to try new things, to keep things moving and to keep an eye on the little things but only while knowing how the big picture was shaping up.

I’m the first to admit that I’m not the strongest obituary/life story writer (when it comes to newspaper). I get caught up on the whole how would this person want their story to go? aspect a little too much. Plus, space and time are the usual constraints. With someone like Mr. Gray who had been a writer and newspaperman for so long, when I went to type, my fingers wouldn’t move. I was cracking - not something that usually happens to me when under pressure.

That was, until I read a column that Steve Gray, Grat’s son wrote in 1995 when his dad was handing over leadership of the company. The column, titled “From a son to a father:” starts off with the words “thank you.” Steve goes on to summarize kind of how I was feeling in the next few lines. (Obviously the sentiment from a son to a father was beyond anything I was experiencing, but I felt similarly overwhelmed.)

“Ours is a family where words come easily and sentiment doesn’t.” Steve wrote. In journalism, this is the hope - that words flow, but emotions don’t.

“But this is a time when I feel a powerful urge to say something special,” he continued. “There’s so much I could say that I scarcely know where to begin,” he wrote. “So I’ll keep it simple.”

So, that’s what I tried to do. I missed the mark. And my editor did some rewriting - but with the history we have in the newsroom and the collaborative nature of it, we were able to put something together that tells Mr. Gray’s story and also highlights his many accomplishments.