Herald Honors Joe Pickle For 25 Years Of Service To Paper, City

    A cub reporter who went to work "for experience" and advanced to managing editor was honored by The Herald Friday evening for 25 years of service.
    Joe Pickle, managing editor of the paper since 1940, received a scholarship for his oldest son from Herald Publisher Bob Whipkey.
    Sharing the surprise with her husband was Lucille Pickle, also a veteran Herald staff member. The presentation was made at the annual picnic for the paper's employes.
    Attainment of the quarter-century mark put Pickle in a select group. Only three others of the some 50 Herald employes have been on the job longer than the managing editor.
    "If the saying is true that an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a man, and that a newspaper takes on a personality, then, more than anybody else, The Herald is Joe Pickle, and Joe Pickle is The Herald," said Whipkey in making the presentation.
    "This is certainly true in the minds of hundred and hundreds of people, who come to Joe with all sorts of newspaper contacts, complaints and proposals, whether they belong in his department or not."
    The publisher, in siting the parade of people who pass by Pickle's desk, said that Pickle has served in the role of pastoral advisor to many people. "Regardless of how busy he was, I never saw him fail to take time to listen graciously to any person who called on him. I never saw him fail to respond to a request for help."
    Whipkey pointed to the managing editor;s helpful attitude toward all Herald employes, rookies and veterans.
    Also praised was Pickle's great contribution to civic, religious and cultural activities in the community. "I don't know how he does so much," said the publisher. "The amount of time and energy he has given to organizational projects is fantastic, and it would take 20 minutes to read a list of his official connections. For the good things of this community he has given much, often at personal sacrifice.
    "And he has always been steadfastly loyal to the paper, has given it more hours than can be counted, and more devotion than can be measured. And perhaps his greatest contribution has been the quality of Christian grace that prevails in all his thinking, all his actions and all his contacts with his fellowman.
    "Of course there would have been a Herald without Joe Pickle, but it would not have been the same kind of newspaper that it is today."
    Actually, Pickle has been with The Herald a little more than 25 years. He spent one summer with The Herald before he finished Baylor University in the spring of 1932.
    But he's been a "regular" almost exactly a quarter of a century, having started in June of 1932 immediately after his graduation.
    His first pay was entirely in the form of experience. That was during the depths of the depression and jobs were a little hard to come by.
    After some unsuccessful scouting around, Pickle approached The Herald management with the proposition that he would "work for experience" if no salaried positions were open. So he became a reporter.
    It wasn't long, though, until Pickle's supervisors decided that faithful service deserved a reward. His first check was for $5 and the cub soon became "a regular, paid reporter."
    Young Pickle's decision to work for nothing if nothing was available wasn't the first evidence of his determination to make his place in the newspaper world. Apparently he grew up with journalistic ambitions burning in his chest.
    His father, J. B. Pickle, was founder and publisher of the Roscoe Times, and later was a partner in the publication of the Snyder News. Joe was born in Roscoe, on Nov. 28, 1910, and must have gotten some of the ink in his veins there. Later, he probably played around the newspaper office in Snyder before Mr. Pickle decided to get out of the business.
    The family moved from Snyder to Seminole, from there to Lamesa and finally to Big Spring in the fall of 1920
    About that time, Joe's love for newspapers began to show. He started getting out little handwritten "papers," mostly filled with "news" from his own family circle and little features about some of the escapades of his brother and sisters.
    In high school here, Joe took what journalism courses were available, and finally got to be "humorist" on the El Rodeo staff in 1928. He also found time for some football and other athletics, took leading roles in the "STB Club" and the Latin Club.
    Records don't disclose which of his activities won him the distinction of being "most original boy' his senior year in Big Spring High in 1928.
    Pickle went on to Baylor in the fall of '28, studied journalism and held important posts on the university newspaper and annual during his college career.
    As a senior at Baylor in 1932, Joe was honored as "most representative boy" in the school. In winning that honor, he was treading in the footsteps of another Big Springer, Nell Brown, who was Baylor's "most representative girl" the year before.
    Between his junior and senior years at Baylor, Pickle worked from June through August for The Herald as a reporter. So it wasn't' entirely new experience he was getting when he started full time in June of 1932.
    During his first few years with the paper, he also worked as a mailer in the circulation department. He became managing editor eight years later, in June of 1940.
    In a few years, when Whipkey served a hitch in the Navy, Pickle became acting editor-publisher from January 1944, to March, 1946.
    Along with his dedication of the never-finished task of getting out a first-quality newspaper, Pickle has accepted the responsibilities of active citizenship, and has compiled a record of civic service that few can equal.
    He has been a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church practically all of the 25 years he has worked for The Herald. He also has been a deacon in his church since 1934, and served as chairman of the board from 1940 to 1946.
    He became scoutmaster of Troop No. 5 in 1932, held that post until 1942, and has been a committeeman for the troop many years since.
    Pickle has been a member of the Lions Club since 1932 and served as president of the local club in 1936. He has been a Chamber of Commerce director for most of the past 17 years, and was chamber president in 1946.
    He has served many ears on the Red Cross and Salvation Army advisory boards, as a director of the TB Association, and put in all the law allows - nine years - on the YMCA board. He also was YMCA president for one term, and has been president of the First Baptist Brotherhood.
    During World War II, Pickle was a staff sergeant in the Big Spring Company of the Texas State Guard.
    In his spare time down through the years he has pursued several hobbies -- work with boys, gardening, softball and more recently, backyard chef.
    While still a Herald reporter, Pickle fell in love with Lucille Rix, also a member of the paper's staff. They were married here June 15, 1937.
    Now residing in a new home in Western Hills just southwest of town, the couple has three sons. Tommy, 17, graduated from Big Spring High last Tuesday, just in time for the Herald scholarship. Gary is 13 and Wiggy (Paul David), the "No. 3 Boy," is five.

Big Spring Daily Herald (Big Spring, Texas) June 2, 1957
(submitted by Ida Maack Recu)