If I look back on over 45 years in the newspaper business, I couldn’t begin to remember all the interesting personalities I have worked with at several publications.
I feel fortunate to have many people I can call friends from starting as a sportswriter in 1973, working in newsrooms for many years, heading a LaPlace newspaper as a publisher for four years, and now 13 years as editor and publisher for The Slidell Independent.
My earliest years began at the former Slidell Daily Times on Third Street when my mother got me hired as a typesetter, which quickly led to the opportunity in the newsroom covering sports. While I initially worked in what they called the production area there was an older couple there who I became very good friends with. Their names were Cary and Dolores Eleser.
Cary headed the press room, and as things went at any small paper, I eventually was helping there as well, while Dolores was a proofreader who also handled what we called “cut and paste” to correct the copy before it was put on a page. They were two of the sweetest people ever, and were really like a second mom and dad to me. I was the young hippie kid, and I think they got a kick out of me working back there since we all had a lot of laughs and good times.
In the early years of the Independent I suddenly noticed an obituary come in one day telling me Dolores had passed away. In the years after that, Cary was apparently getting my paper and seemed to enjoy it a lot. He was somewhere near 90 years old, but would call me on occasion, always with one thing to say—how much he loved the paper, and how proud of me he was for what he saw I had done.
Cary and Dolores knew me quite well. When I came to work at the paper I had quit college after only a semester, with an obviously uncertain future. The newspaper saved me, so for Cary to watch a career of mine somehow proceed to a place that my wife and I started The Slidell Independent, essentially bringing Slidell’s community paper back after the former Times and Slidell Sentry-News had folded, was something he probably understood and appreciated more than most people.
Over the past 10 years I would get a phone call or message from Cary every year or two. It was always the nicest thing ever. And it was only a week ago when I heard from him for the last time. Here was the message he left on the newspaper phone after I wrote something in my column about my mother, Pat Chiri:
“Kevin, I remember Pat from when I was a kid, even though I’m 97 years old now. Thank you so much for all you’ve done with your newspaper. You’ve done so well for someone coming out of high school at 18 and getting a newspaper with no college. You’re a very smart guy. I enjoyed working with your brother and your mother. He cut his finger and I wrapped it up and I brought him to the hospital. Take care of yourself. You’ve done so well. You deserve everything you’ve got. Happy new year. You have a nice family. Good luck on the rest of your life and your newspaper. Thank you.”
Then this week I got the obituary notice that Cary passed away last Wednesday, Jan. 19 from a stroke. The man was still going strong, I believe, until God decided his days on Earth were over, and it was only a couple of days before he died that he took the time to call me with such a nice message.
What a lesson for us all. I always remember Cary and Dolores as positive, happy people. You can see that it carried over into his life for many years later and should remind us about a few things—one of which is to be kind to others. If you see someone who deserves a pat on the back then you should say it. We all appreciate any level of appreciation or approval.
It certainly was a sad feeling I had when I saw the obituary on Cary. Obviously, I won’t be getting any more of his phone messages, but I will certainly remember how kind he and Dolores always were to me and my family.
It’s something I hope I can learn something from.
My condolences to his family, which included nine children, nine grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
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Hope to see many of you at Mayor Greg Cromer’s prayer breakfast this Friday morning at the Slidell Municipal Auditorium. If our country ever needed prayer from its citizens, I think we know this is the time.
Doors open at 7 a.m., with the event beginning at 7:30. I talked to the mayor just this week and there are still openings for the breakfast, so you can contact his office at 985-646-4333 to register.
Tickets are also available online at: Eventbrite.com
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.