Remembering Friends

By Tisha Thomas Emmons

I have often spoken of all the good people I have met through the years working at the newspaper and recently one of those people passed away.

I met Dean Applegate in the late 90’s after Debbie McCord was hired at the Flemingsburg Gazette. She brought with her a host of new clients and he was on the list.

I can remember my first trip with Debbie to Orangeburg. She’d turn down one back road, then another … I thought where in the world are we going, and we ended up in the small town of Orangeburg. Dean had a large building full of furniture and appliances. You might be wondering why I made the trip with Debbie, well I was the “photographer” — I took photos of all the items he wanted to showcase in his ad, and I loved it. You always left with another item on the wish list. Photography was different then, I think by that time we did have a digital camera, which was a major step up by just plugging it in and downloading your photos.

I remember clearly my first site of Dean … smiles and gold. Anyone that knew him knows exactly what I mean. He loved jewelry—rings, necklaces and bracelets and it was shiny gold. He was simple, easy to work with and a pleasure to do business with. We did many ads for Dean Applegate in the next three to four years. We were first place general excellence winners three years straight in our paper category with the Kentucky Press with his ads that we designed for him. It was a great time.

In 2000, after I had my youngest daughter we stopped by and Dean gave her a great big ceramic piggy bank … and yes, we still have it. There are many items in my home that are from Applegate’s including a glider/rocker I just had to have after having baby Larissa.

We also became friends with Dean’s daughter, Denise. She also claimed that infamous smile and great personality.

That’s the beauty of this business … we have met all kinds of professional people and entertainers, and during the process you become more than just business, you become friends and family. You care about them and what’s going on in their lives.

Like the quote “things change” well that’s true. After 9-1-1 hit America, things changed. Small businesses failed with the recession and newspapers did a nosedive. Nothing has ever been the same. Businesses closed and we lost advertisers and even through the years it has never rebuilt itself. Later came Internet and social media. Folks think they can use Facebook to advertise and that be sufficient, but posts get lost and buried within seconds. They no longer want to hold a paper in their hands, they want to scroll through their telephone, but the world needs records.

A newspaper holds a record of deaths for genealogy research or for which team won the district game in 1985, among tons other things people research. That’s what a newspaper is for. I think of my former boss Guy Hatfield often, he bought the Flemingsburg Gazette from Lowell Denton in the late 90s. He was a mover and shaker and I often wonder what he’d do with all this new innovation and how he’d make the newspaper work along with it. That’s what he was great with and he was one of the smartest people I’ve known. I think…would he be like the Arkansas newspaper owner who bought iPads for all his subscribers? Probably so … he always said once ink got on you it was in your blood and he’d find a way to make it succeed.

This is my 26th year in the industry, yes it’s definitely changed since I was hired on in 1993, but it’s been a fun ride I hope I always remember. And all the good people I have met, that have come and gone, we celebrate you. We salute you Dean Applegate and your family. May you rest in peace.