A man shall be satisfied with good fruit of his mouth: and the recompense of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him. — Proverbs 12:14

I celebrated my 24th anniversary with The Ponca City News this week. That mark was bittersweet for me as I am leaving The News next Thursday to work as an editor at KOTV News on 6 in Tulsa. How can I possibly explain what working here for 24 years was like? Words cannot describe it. I have seen so many changes both to the newspaper industry and the community. When I first started at the newspaper in 1996 I was very young. VERY young. I was only 22 at the time and hadn’t been out of college for very long. After a short stint in Amarillo, Texas, I moved here to work for six months at KPOC and then was hired as the education editor for The Ponca City News. My boss was Foster Johnson. I owe so much of my professional career to Foster. He saw something in me and knew I had the heart and desire to make The Ponca City News the best newspaper it could be. He taught me so much over the years. How to lay pages out, and most importantly, how to write a story. You see I thought I knew everything back then. I didn’t. Foster taught me how to write a story to make it interesting for the readers. As he used to always tell me, if you can’t find something to grab the reader’s attention, they simply won’t read it. When I first started at The News we had an entire newsroom full of journalists, including Fred Hilton, Patti Carmack, Marge Decker, Bob Patterson and so many more. There is one that I haven’t mentioned yet ... her name is Louise Abercrombie. What can I possibly say about Louise? I worked with that incredible woman, an icon in the journalism industry, for many years before her retirement. While Foster might have taught me the ins and outs of the newspaper, it was Louise who taught me how to deal with the public. How you could tell a story that someone remembered and certainly how to do it with such grace and dignity. I owe you so much, Louise. All I can say is this newspaper hasn’t been the same since you retired. I haven’t been the same since you retired.

So many other workers have come through the newspaper that I cannot go without mentioning. David Miller (my rock in the newsroom that helped however he could), Kay Bojorquez, Carey Head, Kevin Kreger, Sharon Rowen, Beverly Bryant, Mike Ellis, Rolf Clements, Sharon Cooper, Robyn Ryan, Beverly Wright, the late Sally Ellis, Mike Seals and current reporters Jessica Windom and Calley Lamar. Thank you for being so easy to work with. Each one of you taught me so many things over the years. Thank you for simply making my time at the newspaper enjoyable.

There is one person I absolutely cannot leave off this list … Tom Muchmore, the former publisher and owner at The Ponca City News. Saying thank you simply isn't enough. It was you that gave me the chance to shine here at The News. It was you that hired me as the managing editor and it was you that gave me the reigns to turn this newspaper into something we were both proud of. You saw me succeed, watched me fail and then start all over again. I miss you more than you realize … even those arguments we often got into when we didn't agree on the future of the newspaper. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

To the new newspaper owners and my current publisher, Josh Umholtz, thank you for seeing what I brought to the newspaper business and for keeping me on here. You have a great vision for the future of The Ponca City News, and I hope the community continues to embrace having a local newspaper.

To my many readers, thank you for all of your kind words over the years. To those that emailed me and challenged what I wrote, I thank you, too. Journalists aren't machines. We are humans and we make mistakes. Part of my learning experience here at The News taught me that it's OK to make mistakes sometimes as that is simply part of the growing process.

Ponca City is a wonderful community and one I'm proud to have raised my son in. Thank you for embracing me as one of your own.

Kristi Hayes

Managing Editor