OZARK, Ark. — Mourners stopped by to receive their last issue of The Spectator after "the death" of their local paper.
On the front cover of Volume 114, Number 7 Issue, The Spectator published a unique obituary: their own.
Lonnie Coleman Turner said he learned to read with The Spectator. He's been reading the local paper for nearly 70 years.
"It's just a way of keeping up. It's a way of keeping up. Except it was a permanent thing. You could lay it up on the shelf and read it two or three times. I still use them as a reference," Turner said.
Mark Martin has been a loyal reader since the '50s. The last issue he'd take home would sit next to the Fort Smith issue of Bill Clinton's presidential victory.
"In this area, people [were] walking the streets, standing on the corner, and talking. There ain't been any of that in 40 years," Martin said. "A lot of people that say, 'Well, so what?' Well, times have really changed, but this here has always basically stayed the same."
Tracy Bevil Kendrick hugged and conversed with The Spectator's readers as they stopped by to pick up their last issue. The local paper was started in August 1911 by Ruben H. Burrow but was taken over by her father, Bob Bevil, in 1967. After his death in 2021, his widow and daughter would continue the presses.
"He poured his heart and soul into it," Kendrick said. "He was so proud of this paper and made us all proud because he was so proud. We did anything to please him. He was a great man."
In the paper's editorial obituary, they cite causes of death as unpaid advertising bills, social media, and apathy from a portion of the community. Kendrick explained that it was the advertising issue that really pushed them to close.
"The stores around here won't buy an ad. And when I do sell an ad to a business, they don't pay so it doesn't do me any good to sell ads if they're not going to pay that," Kendrick said. "There's been a bunch of nationwide stores come in here. Well, they don't advertise locally. It's all nationwide and has to come from their headquarters. And they come in, they put out my small businesses that did buy ads."
Kendrick thanks The Spectator's staff and their loyal readers for helping support the paper. She felt guilty and sad as their loyal readers stopped by to tell her their stories of reading the paper over the years. There will no longer be that 75-cent weekly paper just off Ozark's town square, but for many, that paper will carry a permanent place in their hearts.
"Our schools are going to miss it. Our children are going to miss it, not getting to see their picture in the paper. All that we're losing in the history. It's just like having a diary from beginning to end. So that's the past, but the future we won't have," Turner said.
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