Milford chronicle., 1953-02-27
Star ''Girl'' Reporter
On Job At Y
By BEVERLY P. WOOD
AP NeMsfenfnres Writer

AA NDWDADAutAAC9 WIAuCE
HARRISON, Ark. - One Of tho
country's best-loved "giri" report
ers who has hit the haif-century
mark in the newspaper business
Is Miss Iona James, who has trav-
eled outside her native Boone
County, in Northwest Arkansas
only twice in her 70 years.
Miss Iona dictates, from mem
ory, about six columns OF type
every week, according to J. E.
Dunlap, editor and publisher of
the weekly Boone County Head
light.
"LOcals, by Miss Iona James,,
are filled with brief items about
the trips, parties, illnesses and
events Of the lives Of the some
5000 persons who live i'm this
county scat in the Ozark Noun
tainS.
Dunlap says Miss Iona knows
more than 500 telephone numbers
which she calls during two days
a week, debating her stories twice
daily.
She can make no notes, nor can
she ~cOVer' any StOries-beCausq
Of her impaired vision. She can
barely distinguish between night
and day.
Il can see the sky, the sun and
the mOOn," Miss Iona says, "but
/ can't see the pitfalls"
She feels her Way carefully down
sidewalks, swishing a worn home
made cane for obstruction. She
says her sight started failing about
10 years ago.
To Miss Iona, her work is one
of the major enjOyments Of her ex-
istence. Says she:
I've led a sorta isolated life |
l didn't make friends easily. some |
way or other but I enjoyed seeing
people and talking to them and !
knowing what was going on. / |
didn't start out to be a reporter
but I believe it fits my nature bet
ter than anything else"
Miss LOna's life and her news
paper career are interviewer with
the history Of Harrison.
: She was born in 1880, when the
town was only 10 years old. Miss
Iona ays it still was smarting
from the War between the States
plagued by bushwackers, caught
in the midst of family fueds and
resenting outside intrusion.
When she was graduated from
high school, Miss Iona wanted to
be a teacher but because of a dis
pute between her fOrefathers and
others in the town, she said, she !
was unable to get a school.
She and her mother raised and ,
sold flowers until 1903 when she I
vas offered job with the Boone !
a now defunct weekly I
newspaper, as a hand type setter. !
l was a tOlerable fast hand" 7
ne remembers, "and in my spare I
ime I started getting locals"
Two years later she started :
work on the Harrison Daily Times
md eventually was promoted to a
ull time reporter.
She covered the shooting Of v
henry Starr, an Oklahoma badmaD $
Illied while trying to rob a Har. {
,lsOn bank, while working on the
Times.
Miss Eona' said the oCIaremore.
)kla., outlaw ''herded the cashier
nd all the people in the bank into :
vault.
He didn't see the bank presi-
ant, W. G. Meyers, who had a gun
nd simply dropped Mr.. Starr. d
They called me at home from
e paper and I went to the iaiI d
Id interviewed him before he
ed.
He told me he wasn't related to q
slle Starr (another Western ban =
u and that he got started on his e
reer when he was@ent to the pen
a young boy for a crime he :
1nt commit" h
Miss Iona doesn't think Starr :
as a "bad mamie had a had
putation, but they said he would
kill unless he had to and 7 nm u
rstand that on the way to rob
e bank he helped a woman fix .
r car" n
The elderly reporter. said several
ars later she was fired from the =
mes-again because of a family
5pute-and started working for =
e newly organized Boone County
eadlight.