June 30, 2014

The Des Moines Register | The Daily Journal

Des Moines Register carrier Frank Wheeler died Thursday in Montezuma, Iowa. He was 95, the Register reports.

Wheeler wasn’t the paper’s longest-serving carrier, Kyle Munson wrote last year: “My colleagues in the circulation department tell me that 83-year-old Gilbert Lindberg of Villisca, with 57 years of continuous delivery under his belt, holds that distinction.”

Wheeler prosecuted his rounds with his son Harold, Munson wrote.

The Wheelers deliver to everybody west of the courthouse in this county seat of 1,451, while 80-year-old retired pastor Boyd Sparks and his 90-pound golden retriever-Labrador mix, Charlie Brown, tackle the east side of town.

Marvin Teel, who called himself the “World’s Oldest Paperboy,” died this month; he was 90.

In other newspaper carrier news, a carrier for The (Kankakee, Illinois) Daily Journal rescued Donna Berns, who fell in her kitchen and broke her hip. “I could hear her through the screen door,” Karyn Edwards told Dennis Yohnka of The Daily Journal. “I went in and she said to press the button [on her emergency device]. She wanted to get up, but I knew that could be a problem. So, I stayed with her on the floor until help came.”

Berns told Yohnka that even before this incident she “really loved getting the paper.”

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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