SENTINEL, OKLAHOMA — This week’s high school graduate tribute paper is out.
A scheduled city council meeting article appears below the fold with the fire department and cemetery fund notices.
We found Jolene Wolfenbarger and Martha Sullivan already talking about next week’s issue of the Sentinel Leader.
They’re a two person newsroom.
Jolene does the writing.
Martha types up menus for schools in town and in Rocky, the next town over.
“I had to learn to turn the computer on,” she laughs.
They both bought this newspaper together back in 1999.
Mother and daughter have run this little office ever since.
“I guess since day one,” says Martha.
Jolene continues, “We just tell about the hometown news and things going on in town.”
Mom and daughter are neighbors in Sentinel, and they look out for each other on those busy days when the deadline draws close.
Jolene mimics her mother’s advice, “Go home. Go home and eat! When are you eating lunch?”
An office visitor asks Martha, “Are you the boss?”
Martha laughs and says, “Hardly.”
The old layout boards are still here, now packed with family history, and town history too.
You can find the old football team here, even though Sentinel has always been a baseball town.
“We cover lots of school activities,” says Jolene.
The most carefully clipped items include kids and grand kids who played ball or took part in one of the many 4th of July parades.
Jolene’s own daughters help out with the paper too.
One helps with the books.
Another daughter, Tara Smith, used to write a column about raising kids.
She’s an English teacher in Binger, Oklahoma now.
This May she’s getting ready for 8th grade graduation.
“It’s been fun,” smiles Jolene. “So just jump right in.”
Top news stories for the year so far, a couple of gin fires, a drouth, another senior class moves on.
Jolene and Martha monitor comings and goings from this little office on Main Street.
“The two of us work well together,” says Jolene.
They are a true ‘Mom and Mom’ operation in a town that clearly reveres its American institutions; free speech, baseball, and the Leader’s leaders, moms all the way.
The Sentinel Leader has a circulation of around 1,000.
The paper usually comes out on a Wednesday.
To see the latest issue go to www.sentinelleader.com
