Taylor, Kathy

Born in 1946 in a hospital on Fourth Avenue in Caney, Kansas, Kathy (George) Taylor has never left that street, professionally. Today that is where the weekly newspaper, the Montgomery County Chronicle, performs its business under the umbrella of Taylor Newspapers Inc., and where Kathy still maintains her career as a devoted co-publisher of a company that encompasses two other weekly newspapers, Prairie Star and Labette Avenue, which cover three other counties.

Taylor, a fourth generation Kansas newspaper publisher, started her career at an early age in her parents’ newspaper, The Caney Daily Chronicle, carrying her own paper route.

Later in the 1960s, her parents and siblings changed the way they printed their newspaper by becoming the second newspaper in Kansas to ditch the letterpress method and go “offset.” In high school, Kathy advanced to such jobs as opaquing negatives, helping with mailing and assisting in handwriting the monthly customers’ statements. Later she became a Compugraphic operator and says she can still smell and taste the chemicals associated with that monstrous piece of equipment.

Kathy’s family formed Kansas Offset Printing Co., which became one of the leading commercial printers in the midwest. Her brother, Kenneth George, along with a brother-in-law, Jake Freisberg, and two sisters, Joan Paine and June Freisberg, led that company from its infancy.

One of Kathy’s school and church friends was Rudy Taylor who became her lifelong friend and husband. Rudy was a reporter for his local high school FFA chapter and made frequent trips to the newspaper office to deliver his articles for publication.

That early contact with writing led him to earn a degree in journalism and the 53-year career in newspaper publishing which he proudly shares with Kathy.

Kathy studied at Oklahoma Christian College and also took classes at Coffeyville Community College before taking over bookkeeping and billing tasks for her parents’ newspaper. Then in 1970, she and Rudy purchased what was then the Caney Chronicle and began their lifelong journey of owning and publishing newspapers as a family.

Her parents bought the Caney Daily Chronicle 1943, moving from Mound Valley where they published the Mound Valley Times-Journal. Her father came from a newspaper family centered around Altamont, Kan., where they also published the Altamont Journal and Edna Sun.

Her grandfather, Frank George, was a renowned printer and publisher, and even her great-grandfather, William George, worked in printing at the Erie Record.

Their marriage in 1965 resulted in the births of three children:  Matt Taylor and Andy Taylor and a daughter Jenny (Taylor) Diveley. Six grandchildren have now been added.

As a little girl in her parents’ print shop, Kathy loved to place her hands on the ink bed of the proof press. That way, the aroma and black fingers would hang around for an entire day.    So, it is appropriate that her fingers are still deep within the depths of hometown journalism — albeit much cleaner than the old days.

Rudy and Kathy’s children also grew up in the newspaper office, each finding their own niche whether it was writing high school sports, mailing papers or taking pictures. Today, their oldest son, Matt, is Senior Vice President of Denison State Bank in Holton, and both Andy and Jenny are vice-presidents at Taylor Newspapers, Inc., where both are editors and managers. Andy also served as KPA president in 2018-19.

Kathy started writing a weekly column, “Life’s Little Lifesavers” over 40 years ago, and has rarely missed an edition. The column serves as a short accumulation of one line thoughts of the joys of day-to-day living that readers can identify with and contemplate. “This column has become sort of a ministry for me and I think the genuineness is felt by the readers,” Kathy said.

Kathy’s father, H.K. George, set the bar for column-writing in the family, penning his “Happy Corner” for several decades. Husband Rudy has never published an edition in his 53 career without including his iconic “Off the Cuff” column.

Over the years Kathy has written countless numbers of community news stories which included weddings, births, obits, school items, and once in a while, an editorial, but leaves that mainly in the hands of her husband, son and daughter. She still proofs each page every week for corrections for the Chronicle, does all the accounting, payroll, subscription billing and updates for the company plus tries to stay just one step ahead of the checkbook balance.

“When you are a family-owned business, the family does it all - whether it is cleaning the toilets, counting the quarters from the newsrack machines, filing the payroll taxes electronically, letting a customer cry on your shoulder or give you a piece of their mind,” she said. “You just do it because this crazy business called ‘newspapering’ is in your blood . . .  no two days are alike, and I love it,” she said.

Kathy and Rudy keep their spirits high by their involvement at the Tyro Christian Church, and working in their seven flower gardens at home and block-long yard with nine trees and thirty-some shrubs.

Taylor said she is extremely grateful and humbled to be inducted into the Kansas Press Association Hall of Fame for 2023. “When I was notified of this honor, I was completely overwhelmed and mystified why I would be considered for this award – it certainly is the icing on the cake in my professional career.” She now joins her husband and father who also garnered the same same KPA award.