By Sandy Waldron – Originally published in the 2005 Founder’s Review Magazine
Jim Waldron knew he wanted to be a newspaper publisher after a field trip his second-grade class from McAlpin School took to the Suwannee Democrat, a weekly newspaper in Live Oak, Florida.
He was awed by the linotype machines, the presses, and was amazed by the finished product. Jim began his journey in journalism at Central Florida Junior College in Ocala in 1963 and continued on to the University of Florida. From there, he landed a job at the Taco Times in Perry, Florida, and after working at the paper for a while, he decided he knew all there was to know about running a newspaper and started his own, The Lake City Courier. Well, he made it six weeks before it folded.
The journey continued to the Winter Haven News Chief in Winter Haven, Florida, where he was the sports editor. This is where he met his wife, Sandy. She had been hired by the News Chief to learn to operate the most modern, newfangled machine called a Justo-writer. This new machine would take the place of the old linotype machines and was turning hot lead composing into something called cold type, offset printing.
It wasn’t long before Jim was hired by the Gannett Corporation to be the Prep Editor for its new daily newspaper, “Today,” in Cocoa. The space age had hit Brevard County hard and heavy, and the whole place was booming.
Jim and Sandy were married and moved to Cocoa. He liked covering sports but still had the longing to publish a weekly newspaper. He took out an ad in Editor and Publisher, a trade magazine, stating, “I have no money but would like to own a weekly newspaper.” A gentleman by the name of Paul Paddock answered the ad. He also wanted to own a weekly newspaper and he had money but no knowledge. Mr. Paddock purchased the Mount Dora Topic, which at that time, 1968, was owned by about 12 local businessmen who had purchased the newspaper to keep it from going out of business.
After about a year, Mr. Paddock decided he didn’t want to be the owner of a newspaper, so in 1969, he sold the paper to Jim and Sandy. This is the same year they decided to start the Voice of South Marion.
Jim was familiar with the South Marion area and always thought it would be a good place to start a newspaper. They made a couple of trips to Belleview and went store to store talking to the owners and managers about the need for a local hometown newspaper. The response was somewhat encouraging. So in October 1969, with a total investment of $300, their life savings, the Voice of South Marion was born.
The paper grew over the years, and Jim fulfilled his dream of publishing his own weekly newspaper. His editorial goal was to provide a voice for the community events and concerns and to provide an affordable avenue for local independent businesses to advertise.
In 1975, the first Founder’s Review was published in conjunction with the Belleview Founder’s Day celebration. The Review was founded to preserve local history and to recognize local individuals. Peek Hames, owner of Peek’s Printing, joined the effort by printing the Founder’s Review each and every year.
Back in the early years, before computers and desktop publishing, getting the Founder’s Review out was a tremendous chore. The color photographs for the covers had to be sent away for the separations, and many times they were late getting back. On one occasion, Jim and Peek had to drive to Ormond Beach in the middle of the night to catch a Greyhound Bus that forgot to drop the separations off in Ocala.
There have been lots of Founder’s Days where Jim was passing out the Review at the Founder’s Day Celebration while Peek was at the print shop getting more books stapled and trimmed.
This is the 31st Founder’s Review and the first that Jim hasn’t helped produce. Jim passed away on August 7, 2004. He did fulfill his dream of publishing a local community newspaper for 34 years and 43 weeks, and he loved every minute of it.
The Voice will continue to follow his goal, as he was the biggest supporter of community events and business. Our kids grew up with a sense of community and learned from an early age to shop locally.
Small towns are what make this country such a great place.
