The Last Cuppy’s Corner

For more than 50 years, every week without fail, Darleen Cuppy invited readers into the everyday moments of life in Wessington Springs. Next week, for the first time in more than half a century, there will be no new “Cuppy's Corner.”

With her death, the True Dakotan loses far more than a longtime columnist. It marks the close of one of the newspaper’s longest-running traditions and the final chapter of a style of community journalism that once connected nearly every township and rural neighborhood across South Dakota.

Long before Facebook updates, text messages and social media groups, there was country correspondence.

Known in many communities as “coffee news” or “society columns,” volunteer writers faithfully chronicled the rhythms of everyday life: church suppers, birthday celebrations, visitors from out of town, doctor’s appointments, ballgames, family dinners, crop reports, and afternoons spent with neighbors. These were never meant to be headline stories, but simply snapshots of a community, preserved one week at a time.

When Cuppy began writing in 1974, the True Dakotan published numerous correspondence columns from communities throughout the area. As the decades passed, many disappeared as lifestyles changed and new ways of communicating emerged.

Yet “Cuppy’s Corner” endured. Former True Dakotan publishers Duke and Craig Wenzel nearly saw the tradition come to an end themselves.

“When Craig and I started the True Dakotan, we talked about discontinuing the country correspondence, sometimes called coffee news,” Duke Wenzel recalled. “Cora Neumeyer kept sending us the coffee news from the Alpena area and we also had a column with local news called Foothills News. When the other columns slowed down, Dar continued to send in her news and it never stopped. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a good fit anymore for the paper with just one coffee news.”

But over time, the Wenzel brothers came to realize that their readers were following it.

“As the years passed, people were looking for and reading Cuppy’s Corner. It became something special for hundreds of readers each week to see Dar’s life unfold,” Duke remembers. “And those readers will truly miss our last correspondence writer.”

For Craig, one of the highlights of publishing the True Dakotan was the Wenzel’s regular Monday morning greetings from “Grandma Dar.”

“She always had a smile, her hand written weekly City at the Foothills column, time for a brief visit and sometimes homemade treats for the newspaper staff,” Craig remembered fondly.

When Kristi Hine purchased the True Dakotan in 2015, Cuppy wondered if her time as a columnist had come to an end.

“I’ll never forget the first conversation we had,” Hine recalled. “She came into my office and said, ‘Well, I suppose you’re going to stop publishing my news.’ I smiled and told her, ‘I have no intention of not publishing it. Please keep sending your column every week.’” Neither woman realized that conversation would begin another 11 years of press production days together.

Nearly every week since, Cuppy’s familiar column arrived for publication, its simple observations becoming one of the most anticipated features in the newspaper.

Readers followed along as grandchildren and greatgrandchildren grew up, church activities came and went, neighbors stopped by for coffee, birthdays were celebrated and sporting events filled the calendar. Many admitted they especially enjoyed reading what was on the menu for Dar across breakfasts, lunches and suppers that week.

In a 2024 interview celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Cuppy’s Corner,” Cuppy laughed as she recalled receiving a note from one faithful reader.

“One time I received a note from a guy who said, ‘Dar, I missed your Cuppy’s News lately. I especially missed knowing what you had to eat that day. It always makes me hungry.’” The comment perfectly captured what made the column unique. There were no dramatic headlines or sensational stories. Instead, readers found comfort in the ordinary.

Even in her later years, Cuppy’s commitment to her readers never wavered.

For decades, her writing process remained remarkably consistent. Each day she carefully recorded appointments, visitors and community events on her calendar, along with one detail readers had come to expect — what she had for breakfast, lunch and supper. School activities, especially those involving her great-grandchildren, found their way into her notes, and she always ended each week’s column with an uplifting saying, many of them sent to her by family members.

As age made her handwriting shakier and memory less certain, Cuppy refused to let the tradition end.

Her granddaughter, Becky Bell-Krueger, quietly stepped in behind the scenes, helping transform Dar’s handwritten notes into the familiar column that continued appearing each week in the True Dakotan.

“She would write her daily activities on her calendar along with her meals,” Bell-Krueger said. “As her handwriting became shakier and her memory faded — she would say ‘her thinker wasn't working very good,’ — I used the activity calendar and meal sheets listed at the Manor to help me write the details of her day.”

Together, they made sure “Cuppy’s Corner” remained authentically Dar’s. The stories still came from her calendar, her conversations and the moments she wanted to share. Becky simply helped ensure her grandmother’s voice continued reaching readers every Wednesday.

Outside of writing, Cuppy lived a life rooted in service to others. She and her late husband, Howard, raised eight children. She operated Auntie Dar's Day Care for 30 years, decorated cakes for another three decades, remained active in church and extension activities, performed throughout South Dakota with the Singing Flag and faithfully sent birthday cards to each of her 47 great-grandchildren.

Looking back during her 50-year anniversary interview, she marveled at everything she had accomplished.

“I’m 90 years old now and don’t do all that much,” she said with a laugh. “Looking back, I think, ‘I did all that?’” Cuppy often compared today’s social media to the old rural party lines she remembered growing up, where neighbors shared news, caught up on daily happenings and sometimes indulged in a little gossip.

“We know things progress, and it should,” she said. “It’s just a different time. I enjoy Facebook, but I look forward to the True Dakotan every week, and people tell me they also look forward to my news.”

Even after half a century, she never fully understood why so many people loved reading about her life.

“I think people think it’s kind of a special memory type thing more than flashy news,” she said. “A comforting column.”

In many ways, the final years of “Cuppy’s Corner” became a quiet collaboration between generations. Dar continued to observe and record the moments that mattered, while Becky helped preserve her grandmother’s voice for the readers who had become like extended family. Their teamwork ensured that a tradition spanning more than five decades continued right up to the end.

“Cuppy’s Corner” was far more than a column about Darleen Cuppy’s day-to-day.

It became a weekly reminder that everyday life is important. Small moments like a visit from family, a moving church sermon, coffee with a neighbor, cheering on grandchildren at a ballgame or even what was served for supper, are threads that weave a community together.

In an age of the 24/7 news cycle and endless scrolling on social media, her column quietly preserved something increasingly rare: the simple act of paying attention to everyday life.

For over five decades, she faithfully showed up every week to tell those stories. This week’s “Cuppy's Corner,” started with Becky’s help before Dar's passing, will be the last.

Next week, the corner will be quiet. But anyone who knew Dar is well aware that she wouldn’t want us to dwell on the silence. She’d want us to keep telling stories and finding joy in the everyday moments that make a community home.