The Superior Express -

This has been a week of both rejoicing and sadness.

Thursday morning got off to a sad start when Craig Barfknecht called to report his mother, a longtime employee of this newspaper, had died.

Irene was the last living member of the crew that helped Howard Crilly produce this newspaper prior to the arrival of the three Kansas kids in May of 1970.

Irene was a lifelong resident of Nuckolls County and I think she questioned if anything good come out of Kansas. She was loyal to her newspaper and fiercely clung to the standards set by her former boss. As proof reader, she tried to shape up the newcomers.

Irene had a phenomenal knowledge of who was related, how they spelled their names and where they lived. She demanded we use given names and not nicknames. For example I couldn’t refer to my friend as Dick Winebar. When writing about him, I had to call him Richard Winebar. Stan Sheets was to be Stanley Sheets. I didn’t write much about my father but even though he advertised “Gas with Bus” and had Bus or Bussie embroidered on his gasoline station shirts, she would accept nothing but Roy.

Irene was slow to accept change. She would have nothing to do with computers. She kept a manual typewriter on her desk and used a manual adding machine to tally the daily bank deposits. She wanted nothing to do with the electric versions. In my early years here, I wanted to replace the old Burroughs cash register that still sits on the front counter. Irene opposed the idea and made sure the old machine continued to work.

Irene wasn’t a writer but she was a good sleuth. She regularly suggested stories that should be written. She was a Nelson High School graduate, attended the Salem Lutheran Church which is closer to Nelson than it is Superior and before moving to Superior had lived in the vicinity of Abdal and Bostwick. She often ate breakfast and her noon meal out, attended school functions long after her boys were out of school and missed few community functions. Whenever, she was out in the community, she was listening for possible newspaper stories.

If we got wind of something that deserved a story but didn’t know who to call, Irene would suggest possible sources.

Even after retiring at age 88, she closely read The Superior Express and the Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette. Many weeks the ink was hardly dry before Irene was pointing out our errors.

The Monday prior to her death she was commenting on a misspelled name. And I’ll confess, we committed a cardinal error, we had misspelled her name when reporting on a birthday party held at the Victorian Legacy.

You could count on Irene being to work on time. During winter storms, she often walked the nearly 5 blocks from her home to the newspaper office.

She was one on three Express employees to receive the Nebraska Press Association’s “Golden Pica Pole” award. The award is earned by working 50 or more years for a Nebraska newspaper.

Irene’s funeral was held Saturday afternoon at the Salem Lutheran Church.

During her years at The Express, she was the proof reader, a friendly face at the front counter, and a key employee in the circulation department. Before the conversion to computerized record keeping in 1986, she embossed the metal plates used to address each subscriber’s newspaper. After the conversion to computer generated address labels, she continued to shepherd the subscription list, but remember her dislike for computers. She never touched the circulation computer. Instead she gave instructions on what to do,

A telephone operator in the days before the Superior exchange was converted to dial, I was surprised when she acquired a cell phone. She kept a rotary dial phone on her office desk.

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And now for a sad story with a happy ending.

I’ve written before about the stray cat that adopted this editor and his wife. The cat had four kittens earlier this spring. They were only a few days old when one was stolen one from it’s mother’s nest, taken out in the yard and killed.

The other three are now about 3 months old and quite playful and entertaining. Tuesday morning when I left for work all three were setting in the yard licking their left front paw. Their mother has been quite protective and has tried to instill in them caution. I didn’t recognize her signal but I’ve watched her order the kittens into hiding when a dog was approaching. But kittens are curious and they don’t always obey their mother.

When the auditorium is busy I’m sure their mother is as worried about their safety.

The auditorium was packed Saturday night and an estimated 90 vehicles were parked in our neighborhood. We expected the cats were having a bad night but when Rita and I stepped out of our house before going to bed, mother cat and her kittens were delighted to see us. We petted and talked to them.

About six Sunday morning, I looked out the back door to check on the cats and was surprised to see the one we call Fluffy making his way out of a tree. The decent could not be called graceful but the kitten did make it safely down. Blacky and Mother soon joined him for breakfast but Twotone was AWOL all day Sunday. We looked around expecting to find a flat cat that had tangled with a car but found no evidence of the kitten.

Monday morning I posted pictures of the AWOL Twotone on social media websites. It was a pretty sad around the editor’s house as we watch Momma Cat, Blacky and Fluffy in the back yard. They seemed to be subdued and missing the playful instigator we have called Twotone.

About 7:30 Monday evening, the doorbell rang and Rita went to answer. When she returned to where I was drinking my after supper tea, she announced the good news. Twotone was back.

Seems one of the wedding reception workers was finishing up about 2 a.m. when she heard what sounded like an injured cat crying in the park-like area across the street west of the auditorium. Being an animal lover, she went to investigate. She found Twotone in a tree. By climbing into the tree, the woman was able to rescue Twotone and took the scarred kitten home. Sunday and Monday the kitten enjoyed the attention grandchildren. Though the dog thought Twotone was okay, the kitten remembered its training and tried to stay away from the 150-pound dog.

Monday evening, my social media post was read and the kitten was returned to Superior.

It was fun to watch the cat family be reunited.

With all the family present, the kittens wanted to play but mother was intent on giving Twotone a bath. I was afraid Twotone might be hairless before mother was satisfied with the clean up but the kitten looked normal at Tuesday morning breakfast. Howver, mother was still getting in a few licks.