Haynes, Cynthia Desilet

Cynthia Desilet was born and reared in Concordia in a family that subscribed to two dailies and a weekly newspaper. While she took no journalism courses in high school or college, she did help a neighbor boy deliver the Concordia Blade Empire.

She read the Salina Journal and in college spent a lot of time hanging around The University Daily Kansan and The Kansas City Times with her boyfriend, Steve Haynes.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1971 with a degree in pharmacy, she and Steve married and lived in Kansas City, Kansas, where he got his on-the-job training and she helped pay the bills as a pharmacist

In 1980, the couple started looking for their own newspaper and eventually agreed to buy The Mineral County Miner and South Fork Tines (not a typo). In November, they sold their home, packed up their cars, houseplants and children and headed for Creede, Colo., elevation almost 9,000 feet, winter lows down to -40.

On arriving in Creede, they had no jobs, having not signed the final papers for The Miner, and no place to live, as the house they had agreed to rent was still occupied. They stayed in a one-bedroom guest cabin with their three children, Felicia, 6, Lindsay, 3. and Lacy, six months. The kids all came down with chickenpox that month and most of the houseplants died.

But, the couple dug in and, too foolish to know any better, made a go of it.

Cynthia learned to keep the books, sell ads, run the typesetter and slowly became a journalist, covering news and sports and writing her own column, Open Season, which, after more than 40 years, still runs in several northwest Kansas papers.

When the publisher of a small paper in their part of Colorado gave up and walked away, the local daily was ready to snap up the legals. Cynthia, however, found out that if the paper immediately published it could keep its postal permit and legal status.

Putting the front page of The Conejos County Citizen up to the her office window, she whited out the mailing label that partly coverer the flag and used a black marker to draw in the missing pieces. There wasn’t much news or advertising at first, but the paper was afloat. Months later, the Hayneses purchased rights to The Citizen, which is still going today.

Soon the couple joined forces with other owners to form the San Luis Valley Publishing Co., which had six papers and an area-wide shopper. However, the merger caused unexpected tax consequences, so after years out of the drug store, Cynthia went back to the pharmacy, eventually becoming the head pharmacist at City Market, a Dillon’s affiliate. At the same time, she was working full time for the newspapers as a writer, photographer and the bookkeeper.

However, in 1993, the papers were sold and Steve was unemployed. While he and the children hit the road to find a new home, Cynthia stayed in Colorado and counted pills so they could use the cash from the sale to buy another paper.

After searching through Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, the Hayneses purchased The Oberlin Herald, The Saint Francis Herald  Bird City Times from Randall and Roseanne Braden. Cynthia again retired, or at least mostly retired, from pill pushing.

The couple soon expanded their group, adding three small dailies, The Colby Free Press, The Goodland Daily News and The Norton Telegram.

While Steve, who had served as president of the Colorado Press Association, went on to do the same for the Kansas Press Association and the National Newspaper Association, Cynthia manned the home front and often drove the car so he could edit copy on the way to meetings.

With another economic downturn, it looked like layoffs would be the only way to keep Haynes Publishing afloat. However, Cynthia had other ideas. She gave up her salary and went to work in a nearby pharmacy while continuing to put the Oberlin paper out. That lasted about three years before she could fully return to the paper.

While she still does relief work at pharmacies in northwest Kansas, that was her last regular stint behind the counter.

When the Atwood publishers decided to retire, they tried advertising, almost begging for someone to take on the Rawlins County Square Deal, the only newspaper in the county. No one did, so they closed the doors.

After two weeks, Cynthia pushed Steve to make an offer for the paper, and it too was able to keep its postal permit and legal status and is still publishing.

The Hayneses’ lawyer wanted to know why they were buying another paper when they had already put theirs on the market.

“She never could see a stray dog or newspaper beside the road without stopping,” Steve said.

Cynthia and Steve sold their newspapers in December 2002 and retired at age 74.