Rusk – Cherokee County seems like a relatively rural place hidden behind the pine forest of East Texas. The largest cities in this area are Henderson and Rusk, and surprisingly, over 50,000 Texans live in this county. Although stopping by All Star Bar-B-Q to talk baseball and local politics is a popular pastime in this area, it is not the official news source for this area. Instead, there is a weekly newspaper that has been part of the community for 175 years. “We are proud of the newspaper and we are proud of what it has done over all these years,” said John Hawkins.
John owns the Cherokeean Herald, the oldest weekly newspaper in the state of Texas. “It’s incredible how many people really rely on it,” John said.
The couple, along with his wife Penny, have put their hearts and souls into this magazine and both have struggled with the stresses that come with running this place for a considerable part of their lives. “We’ve been involved with it for 40 years,” John said. “We never threw ourselves into the fire. The previous owners passed away and I can understand why.”
Originally a 4th John, a first-generation Houstonian, moved here in the early ’80s after getting tired of the big city and learning the hard way that moving to Mexico wasn’t the best idea at the time. “I had been living in Mexico to get away from it all, and I came back here with my tail between my legs because I got broke in Mexico, had to borrow enough money to pay for gas to drive back here from Acapulco, and then I just drove around looking for a job, and this was the first place they hired me,” John said. “I never thought I would stay here this long. I mean, this was a job when I came here, $6 an hour, but I needed a job.”
John once quit to advance his career. “Sometimes you have to leave East Texas and make a living,” John said. “I did that. Eventually I worked for some TV stations and came back to work here.”
Then he quit again. “The third time I quit, my boss said, ‘John, you’ll always have a job with me,'” John said. “I said, ‘Boss, this has happened three times now. It won’t happen four times.’ And then I’m ultimately responsible for it. You have to understand that.”
John had just learned the retirement news when he got a breaking news story, and he never expected his name to be on the masthead. “They called me and said, ‘We’re going to sell the paper or close it by the end of the year,'” John said. “I thought, OK, it’s the holidays. Then they’ll have two weeks to find a buyer. And they said, ‘Unless you want to buy it.’ I said, ‘No, that’s going in the wrong direction. We’re retiring.'”
John finally decided he couldn’t pass up the opportunity and didn’t want the paper to fall into the wrong hands. “When we bought the paper, people congratulated us and sent us letters,” John said. “And Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn did that. Ted Cruz, Lance Gooden, Cody Harris. As the saying goes, keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer.”
While the recognition of members of Congress and other politicians is a big part of his office, his affinity for trains is even more impressive. But John’s true passion is the newspaper. “It’s a part of Texas history and I’m very defensive about that part,” John said. “As a native Texan, we couldn’t let that history die.”
When you live in a smaller town, it’s even more important to have local reporters. “I think a local newspaper is really important because we can tell stories about the people going on here. In this week’s paper, we have a story about a young man who lives here and is competing in the World Disc Golf Championship,” John said. “One of the best things about a local newspaper is that it puts a spotlight on the politicians so they don’t let so much get away with.”
Of course, it’s important to cover local heroes and political issues, but the Cherokeean Herald also serves the purpose of preserving the everyday memories being created in Cherokee County. “Every year we do either a graduation magazine or a Lone Star magazine,” John said. “In the graduation magazine, we cover six schools and have all the pictures of all the kids, and parents, grandparents and friends love it. In 20 years, they can look back and laugh at what their hair looked like.”
Finding stories isn’t hard, but finding advertisers can be tricky. “Our biggest problem right now is obviously advertising,” John said. “That’s difficult in these times when we have a weak economy in itself. A lot of people say, ‘Well, I don’t need advertising. I have Facebook.’ And I could name the number of stores that have gone out of business because not enough people liked them on Facebook. So it’s an uphill battle. But the community and certain people and certain banks and, like I said, car dealers have really supported us and kept us afloat. We have a car dealer who buys half a page every week. And has been for years. God bless them.”
Fortunately, the Cherokeean Harold has a solid readership, and some even come into the office just to pick up their print copy. And to catch up on local gossip. “We have regular friends who come by here and pick up a paper every Wednesday,” John said. “They could easily subscribe and have the paper sent to them, but no, they come here sometimes to talk or meet up. Still, we love it.”
Whether in person or through the newspaper, a personal connection with the people of Cherokee County is what the Cherokeean is all about. “We’re not making money,” John said. “I’m sorry to say we really do it for the community, for Cherokee County and for the state of Texas. And we’re proud to be a part of it. Very proud. It would be nice to make a profit. That would be cool. Then you wouldn’t have to eat rice all the time.”
Despite his humor about hunger, John enjoys his job as a man who brings the news to people in his community. “Horace Greeley, the great newspaper man, he coined the phrase, ‘Go west, young man, go west,'” John said. “But he also said, ‘You live, you die, and everything in between is filler.’ Well, I personally decided that I want to have good filler in my life. You want to have fun in life. I think that’s what it’s all about.”
Next time you’re in Cherokee County, check out the local newspaper to get the latest news from this area of East Texas. “We’re just very proud to be part of Texas history, and we’re proud to be able to keep that heritage alive,” John said.
