In the first week of January 1973, I loaded my car in Lake Charles, La., and headed north toward a new home — Little Rock — to work as a reporter at the Arkansas Gazette. It took me several days to get my first byline, shown here, and longer than that to get a haircut.
The 50th anniversary of my work in Little Rock — almost 19 years at the Arkansas Gazette and more than 31 at the Arkansas Times — also marks my retirement, at day’s end today.
I may make occasional contributions in the days ahead. Seven-day superintending of the Arkansas Blog we created in 2004 will fall to the talented crew Lindsey Millar has built since he succeeded me as editor of the Arkansas Times in 2011.
Looking back on my half-century in Arkansas:
I dropped out of grad school in late 1972 eager to chronicle the “New South” at a newspaper with a progressive editorial page and a record as a defender of the rule of law in the dark days of the Central High crisis.
When I arrived, Dale Bumpers was governor of the most Democratic state in the country. As I retire, Donald Trump’s former press secretary is preparing to lead a state dominated by ultra-conservative Republicans. The Arkansas Gazette is no more.
To borrow from what George W. Bush said about the man who handled his administration’s initial response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster: “Heckuva job, Maxie.”
News tips still gladly accepted for referrals. maxbrantley@arktimes.com