Edmund Shelby’s book tells about the class of 1966

My background in the newspaper field for many years had been centered on advertising sales and management until I took the job as publisher of this newspaper in 1987. That is when I first started writing.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

To run a successful local newspaper Al Smith, whom I worked for in London at the Sentinel-Echo for seven years, advised me that a publisher must connect with the newspaper’s subscribers and the best way to do that was through a weekly column.

I remember my first attemp at writing. My sister, Bena Mae Seivers, a fantastic writer who became our most popular columnist at the News Journal, said,”Don, it is just like talking on paper.”

That did it. As a former radio announcer I knew how to talk and as Smith said, “Estep, you are the most opinionated person I have ever seen,” I took that as a compliment which would serve me as a writer.

But it wasn’t easy. I remember the first few attempts when I spent hours with a legal pad trying to say what I wanted to say.

All of this is a lead in about something I’ve thought about doing, writing a book. My sister had those skills. So does my friend Gary West and a former publisher and friend Edmund Shelby.

Shelby, a former Corbin Redhound, has written a book called, “ Graduating Present: The Vietnam War and The Class of ‘66.” I talked to him during his book signing session Tuesday at the Corbin Public Library.

In his book he writes about himself and his former classmates and describes how the Vietnam War affected their lives.

It was enjoyable to reminisce about his time as a Redhound football player and me broadcasting the games of the 1966 team.

His coach was Ledger Howard. Shelby said he was tough on the players. I knew Ledger very well and considered him a close friend. His post game comments on the radio were very entertaining.

In his book Shelby has comments from several people who still live in this community and many of you know who share their anxieties about the war.

Class member Jerry Elliott, wrote in his senior yearbook that he would be off to “the university of South Vietnam.”

The 1966 class valdictorian, Arlo Sharp, is quoted as saying, “I first heard of Vietnam in Mrs. Neva Pennington’s fifth grade class at Central Elementary school in the academic year 1958-1959.”

But it wasn’t until 1966 when those students were confronted with the reality of becoming part of that engagement. Shelby wrote that of those students born in 1948 in his class, one-third served in the military.

Shelby retired from the newspaper business five years ago and now lives in Clay County. His new book is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

During the 1960s I was a disc jockey and sports announcer. I married my beautiful wife of 58 years in 1964. We had our first child in 1966. Life was good.

But for those who served our nation in Vietnam it was a far different story. We are indebted to those people and Shelby’s book will give you a better understanding of it.