Sessions, Charles

Charles Sessions died in Topeka on Christmas Day, 1942, after 54 years of newspaper work. He had been managing editor of the Topeka Daily Capital since 1919, except for three years when he was postmaster at Topeka. His column, “Topeka Tinklings,” had many contributions from his thousands of Kansas readers, and other editors frequently quoted from it.

Sessions came west from Wood-stock, Ohio, where he had been born February 1, 1868, and began his newspaper career in 1888 as a reporter on the Kansas City Times. In 1892, he joined the staff of the Kansas City Journal; from 1906 to 1908 he was the Journal’s Washington correspondent. In 1921, he set up the organization of the Kansas City Kansan.

Gov. Payne Ratner said in tribute, “Mr. Sessions not only was a first-class newspaper man with rare executive ability, but he also instilled into his paper the high ideals which were part of his personal character. He was a human editor. He liked to talk to people on the streets....He liked to learn their viewpoints, to write humorously of their foibles, and understandingly of their problems.”