ANNIVERSARY PROFILE
25 YEARS
Name: Patty Brant
Newspaper: Caloosa Belle/Immokalee Bulletin
Position: Editor
Number of years in the newspaper or printing business: 27 – I started at the CB in 1985 and was in 1987 when INI came in.
Job description: As the only in-house editorial person for these two papers, all hands-on editorial pretty much falls to me. Since LaBelle and Immokalee are about 25 miles apart and in different counties, that can sometimes be a handful. In small towns everybody knows the paper and feels a personal connection with it. The economy may be sliding downhill and taking advertising with it, but folks still want to see their news in their community paper, even though there’s less paper to put it in. Factor in important hard news and juggling may be my chief skill!.
What I like best (about my job): The people! Both here in the office and in the community. And there’s always something to learn, something new even in the constant rhythm of community life.
Most memorable moment with INI: Favorite story: For many years the American Legion has sponsored Boys State, sending high school juniors to take part in a mock government exercise in Tallahassee. A few years back several of these big, gruff Legionnaires brought three of the boys to the office for an interview before the session. One of the boys was a slight, nice looking African American young man with small round glasses. Very personable and very intelligent. The Legionnaires’ chairman mentioned to this young man that there are lots of scholarship opportunities from Boys State, including a full scholarship to any university in the country. The first qualification was that a close relative must have served in the military.
This young man was very skeptical about his chances for such a scholarship, so the Legionnaire ramped up his sales pitch, working to convince this young man that he, too, really could be the winner. The young man said no, he didn’t have any close relatives who served in the military. Several of the Legionnaires joined in, saying surely someone in his family had been in the military. It didn’t have to be his father or brother – an uncle or grandfather would qualify.
Rather sheepishly, the boy kept dodging, obviously not convinced, but the Legionnaires were determined to find a way to help this promising young man. Finally the boy just gave up and said that his grandfather had been in the navy.
“Well, that’s it! He’d qualify!” the Legionnaires told him.
“I don’t think so,” he told them. “He was in the Japanese navy.”
Well, there was a room full of stunned Legionnaires and a few very awkward moments, but one of them finally picked up the conversation and went on.
And that’s what makes this job so much fun. You just never know what might happen.
Hobbies/Interests: I’ve got a book coming out. Fiction. Mystery called Bitter Secrets about a reporter in a hometown newspaper (now where do you suppose that came from?) trying to unravel the disappearance of a family 40 years earlier. A wheelchair-bound Viet Nam vet, a savvy old black man, the diary of a 13-year-old girl 40 years gone and several horrifying spectral faces help her find the truth.
After sending my manuscript to many publishers over the past few years – none of which could see it was the new Great American Novel – I self-published through iUniverse. It should be out in just a few weeks. Polishing up the sequel now.
