A career that made memories

Editor's note: This weekend at the Heritage Festival sees the publication of a collection of photographs by longtime Graphic photographer Frank Kenyon. The book is being published by the Jay County Historical Society and the Graphic Printing Company. This column is the foreword to the Kenyon collection.

By JACK RONALD

Years later, my mother would tell the story. She had waited in the car while Dad had gone into the little house not far from the water plant on Portland's east side.

He'd gone into the house to offer a young man a job. The young man, with his wife and two children nearby, had accepted.

When Dad returned to the car his demeanor had changed.

Now we have to make this thing succeed, he told my mother. We now have an employee with a family to support.

It was November of 1949, and The Graphic was soon to be launched, its first edition coming out on Nov. 17.

And with its launching, Jay County was to find itself in a competitive newspaper battle that spanned a decade.

It was not my parents' first venture into publishing. Hugh and Sara Ronald, with the help of a few friends, had acquired The Redkey Times-Journal from Max Coble in 1946.

But that weekly newspaper was limping along, supported at times by my father's job in management at The Jay Garment Company.

The Graphic would be something new: A photo-oriented, community-focused, agenda-setting weekly that would run rings around a stodgy, boilerplate, complacent daily, The Commercial Review.

To make that happen, a first-rate photographer was essential. That's what Dad knew when he hired Frank Kenyon at that little house near the water plant. Frank was one of the key ingredients - along with Manon Felts, Olive Calhoun, Eldrew Cissel, Quentin Imel, and a handful of others - to making the new newspaper succeed.

And succeed it did. After 10 years of competition, David bought out Goliath, the weekly Graphic acquired The Commercial Review. The two were merged together, at times awkwardly, with supplements to the daily in the early 1960's.

The photographs in this collection span Frank's entire career, from those earliest days in a rat-infested building next to a chicken-plucking operation to the computer-driven era at the end of the 20th century. But it's primarily the photos from 1949 to 1960 that provoke the most nostalgia, capturing the more innocent era of the 1950's in Jay County perfectly.

Those photos were shaped both by the era and by the equipment Frank was using.

Photographers using today's sophisticated digital cameras can only imagine the complexities of 1950's photography. Frank was using a Speed Graphic with 4x5 sheet film that had to be hand-loaded into cassettes in a darkroom.

There were two shots per cassette, and changing film involved an intricate series of steps that could easily go wrong. Automatic exposure settings, auto focus, motor drive, and electronic flash all awaited in the future. The camera was hefty, and it could be difficult to use.

The era, meanwhile, was dominated by the age of the weekly magazine. Life, Look, and - most importantly - The Saturday Evening Post shaped Frank Kenyon's photography. It's no coincidence that Norman Rockwell came to Jay County to paint during the late 1940's. Frank's Graphic covers often took on a Norman Rockwell feel.

Frank's last assignment for The Commercial Review came in retirement. We had taken on an ambitious 24-hour, a day in the life of Jay County project; and it was important that Frank's vision and insights be a part of that.

After dozens of rolls of film shot by more than half a dozen people, the time came to select the best photo for the cover.

It should come as no surprise that it was one of Frank's.[[In-content Ad]]