When I bought the True Dakotan in 2015, one of the first people to stop by my office was Darleen Cuppy.
She looked at me with a smile and asked, “Well, I suppose you're going to stop publishing my news.”
I smiled back and assured her that I had no intention of doing any such thing. “Please keep sending your column every week,” I told her.
Neither of us could have known then that we’d enjoy another 11 years of weekly columns, and the treasured visits that came with drop off or pick up.
In those early years, Dar would drive herself from her home to the newspaper office, handwritten column in hand. When she moved into the Weskota Apartments, my mom, Delia Atkinson, or I would stop to pick up her neatly handwritten pages.
Eventually, Dar moved to Weskota Manor, and another quiet transition took place. Her granddaughter, Becky Bell-Krueger, lovingly stepped in to help. Dar continued doing what she had always done — writing her daily activities and even her meals on the calendar beside her chair.
The way “Cuppy's Corner” reached our office changed over the years, but Dar’s desire to share a little piece of her life with her readers never did.
As I look back now, I realize that “Cuppy's Corner” gave me more than a dependable weekly column. It offered a frontrow seat to the passage of time.
Through Dar’s words, we watched greatgrandchildren grow into athletes and celebrate birthdays. We mourned the loss of friends and family members and chuckled over the meals that so many readers admitted they secretly looked forward to reading about each week. The column chronicled her day-to-day and the seasons of her family’s life. In doing so, she reflected the seasons of an entire community.
Over those same 11 years, the newspaper has changed too.
When I became publisherin2015,Facebook was still finding its footing in the communities we cover. Local restaurants regularly advertised their weekly specials in the paper and businesses relied solely on newspaper ads to tell customers what was new, what was on sale and what was happening around town.
Today, much of that information appears first on Facebook or Instagram, and that’s simply the reality of how people communicate. Communities evolve, technology changes and newspapers have had to change with them. But what hasn’t changed is why people still pick up the True Dakotan every Wednesday.
They still want to know what happened at city council, county commission or school board meetings. Community members want to celebrate the successes of local students and area athletes, view photos of community events, learn about their neighbors and understand the issues shaping the place they call home. The bottom line is that they still want reporting they know they can trust — and I’m grateful for each and every one of our valued readers.
For more than 52 years, our readers also turned to “Cuppy’s Corner.” In her own words, readers enjoyed Dar’s column because it was “comforting.”
As publishers, we often talk about preserving the record of history. That usually brings to mind major events like a devastating fire, a championship title or a difficult vote. Dar’s column illustrated that history is also found in Sunday dinners, visits from family, church activities and even a note about what was served for supper.
Long after social media posts disappear, the pages of a community newspaper remain: a permanent record of who we were, what we celebrated, what challenged us and how we lived our lives together.
Over the course of 52 years, Dar preserved the everyday life of a community in a way no one else could.
Thank you, Dar, for trusting the True Dakotan with your words for more than five decades, and for allowing me the privilege of publishing the final 11 years of Cuppy’s Corner. Your Corner may now be quiet, but the history you preserved will continue speaking well into the future.