Mrs. R. J. Hering - Born Agnes Brown
" Of homesteader parents,Mrs.R.J.Hering was born Agnes Brown,in a dwelling somewhere
near the headwaters of Verdigris Creek,Nebraska.However at some stage of her young
life her family upped and moved to Wakonda in South Dakota.Mrs.Hering raised five
children one of whom became the singer known as Jeri Southern. "
The following text is from the Publishers Auxiliary - September 12th,1964.)
Mrs R. J. Hering, of the little community of Royal, recently retired when she became an octogenarian,
after more than 65 years in newspaper work. The meaning of her "retirement" is however somewhat
qualified, since she will continue to write Hering's Scrapbook for the Norfolk (Neb.) Daily News,and
do research and writing of pioneer tales and feature stories for the 75th anniversary edition of the
Osmond (Neb.) Republican. Mrs. Hering apparently did a lot of soul-searching before she finally
decided to retire as Royal correspondent for Associated Press, Omaha World-Herald, Omaha Station
WOW, Norfolk Station WJAG, Norfolk Daily News, Lincoln Journal, O'Neill Frontier and the Creighton
News. She had read that the mind will not deteriorate if kept active, so she kept postponing retirement
because she was terribly afraid of what would happen if she quit. Now she feels her planned post-
retirement writing activities will show "there is still some hope for me."
Starting her writing career in the sixth grade at Woonsocket, South Dakota, her "compositions" were
published in a children's corner of the local paper. She was soon writing school news for the paper
and continued through her high school days. After graduation, she taught school and coached elocution classes for 40 years or more. Competing
in declamatory contests, she won four medals At first, Mrs. Hering wrote only for Woonsocket,
Artesian and Letcher papers in South Dakota and the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader. Following her
marriage in 1910, and her new residence in Royal, she became a one-woman central news and feature
agency. By the 1920's, she was covering not only AP with both news and pictures, but many Iowa,
Nebraska, and her own county, papers. Meanwhile, she was teaching school and dramatics,
organizing PTA's, Red Cross Chapters, WCTU units and contributing articles to the children's comer
of the Grail of St. Meinrad, Indiana, edited by her brother. During World War II, she organized a
volunteer community group and sent treats and local papers to all the hometown boys in the armed
services.She also edited a special publication for the boys in service, containing letters to and from
them, with pictures. The material was also used in the Norfolk and Orchard papers. After the war
ended, her group erected the first county memorial, with all the boys' names on it.
With a background of having learned to hand set patent-medicine ads in nonpareil and a record of
two columns of straight matter a day, she also tackled feeding the old kick-power job press, solicited
subscriptions, collected bills and "met the trains for news." One old man she interviewed said,
"you can ask more questions that any damn lawyer I ever saw!"
The story she wrote that brought the biggest laugh from all over the AP wire circuit, was the protest
of a man in her community who wore a pair of shoes for 25 years without needing new soles, and
then wondered if the charge of $2.50 for the new soles wasnt too much!
She said that the feature story that brought her the best results was the one about "Santa Claus
dark," who built a 75-mile telephone line in the rural community of Page, using fence posts, trees and
barbed wire. He started with $200 capital and was able to service 45 patrons for $13 a year each,
if the subscriber could afford it. and nothing was charged if the subscriber was hard up.
Dubbed by one daily as "an inimitable feature writer," what pleased her most was the fact that her
stories were used verbatim most of the time. Other correspondents were told by their editors to
watch for "Royal datelines." An amateur poet, she wrote verses for bridal showers, engagements,
births, obituaries, welcomes and responses for students. A local merchant said, "If you want
anything done, get Mrs. Hering to do it!" For years, she led the solicitation for Red Cross, Polio and
many other drives.
Her oldest son was pressed into service as an assistant reporter and after he had learned the thrill
of having the news he dug up appear in the AP wire and hit the front pages all over the nation, he was
the perpetrator of the one and only hoax of her career. One day he ran breathlessly into their home
saying, "Mother, I've got a crackin' good story for you. Lou Linder put a pool ball in his mouth and he
can't get it out!" She doubted it at first, but when he said, "Swede Chart told me," she thought it must
be true, and immediately phoned it (or the AP wire. "Lou received many letters and much advice from
all over the country on how to get the ball out of his mouth, and it was quite awhile before I found
out it just wasnt true," she said ruefully. "After that, you can be sure I checked and double-checked
the questionable tales!" Another unusual accomplishment for a newspaperwoman is her ability to
paint, especially as she became an artist at the age of 70, with no previous knowledge of the subject.
Since then she has completed more than 800 pictures,including many murals.
In retrospect she says, "I do not wish to lay down my pen,as long as I can keep moving.I never leave
the house that I do not look for "news" and I hope to keep at it in one form or another.I have made
many friends and possibly a few enemies - though I hope not - and I have loved every minute of
this reporting business!" ( From Publishers Auxiliary - September 12th,1964.)