Celebrating my two best anniversaries

Today, June 1st, marks the two best anniversaries in my life. Today is the 58th wedding anniversary for me and my wife, Judy. Also, today marks the 35th year I have been the publisher of this newspaper.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

The best thing that ever has happened to me was meeting and marrying Judy Holman,  daughter of Pauline and Bitsy Holman. We have three beautiful daughters and four grandchildren.

I first saw Judy while working as a disc jockey at radio station WCTT through a window from the control room to one of the studios. My nephew, David Witt was with a group of students visiting the radio station and I asked him who that beautiful girl was. From there I got the courage to ask her for a date and the rest is history. I have been extremely lucky and happy to share my life with her.

About four years after our marriage we started construction on our first house. My dad was a retired highway contractor and he managed the building. The first order of business was to get some money.

I tell you this story to illustrate how simple it was to get a loan in the 1960s. I walked in to the Corbin Deposit Bank and told Max Duncan I needed about $7,000 to start construction and buy a lot. He said sign here and that was it. Later I went back and got $5,500 more to finish the job.

We built a 1,250 sq. ft., three bedroom house for $12,500 Our monthly payment was $110. At that time I was making $75 a week at the radio station but we could manage with only me working. Ten years later we sold the house for $48,000 and bought a larger house. Our new monthly payment was $260. I lost sleep over that.

Even though my wife wanted to attend Cumberland College I talked her out of it because I worried too much about the daily drive on US-25. She remained home to raise our three children, a much harder job than mine. However, she was not to be denied and at age 48 she graduated Magna Cum Laude in Nursing from LMU. Very impressive!

My employment went from radio to the Cumberland River Comprehensive Center to the Corbin Times-Tribune, then to the Sentinel-Echo in London and finally, the best of all, I met Terry Forcht and that resulted in me being named publisher of the Whitley Republican in 1987.

I accepted the job on the condition that we would start a newspaper in Corbin to gain advertising support and Terry was receptive to that. After two and a half months we published Corbin! This Week, a companion product to our paper in Williamsburg. It was the first full color newspaper ever printed in southeastern Kentucky. The only printing plant that could produce full color for us was in Danville. We printed 10,000 copies of our first edition.

Two years earlier USA Today was first published and that is how we came up with the idea for the name and looks of Corbin! This Week. We published two editions of the paper from 1987 until 1991 and that is when I requested that we combine the two and call it The News Journal. However, we have kept the names Whitley Republican and Corbin! This Week just below that heading.

We started out as the smallest newspaper in the area, but by 1995 we grew to become the largest in the area and also the largest circulated large weekly in the state. Today we continue to have the largest readership in the area.

During the 35 years we have also published four books, one of which was written by my sister, Bena Mae Seivers. It was a story and cook book combined. It quickly sold out. Before she died she had written a weekly column for 25 years, which was one of our most popular features.

Linda Carpenter was the first person I hired and she is still with us now. Jennifer Benfield and Mark White both have been here over 25 years.

Many thanks to Terry Forcht for giving me this opportunity to run this newspaper and to my wife for putting up with me for 58 years.