PDA

View Full Version : Spreading the news



thedrifter
12-31-06, 09:53 AM
Spreading the news
December 31,2006
ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Just like a lot of people of his generation, Otto Taylor remembers where he was on the day President John F. Kennedy was shot in November 1963.

“I was delivering newspapers,” Taylor said.

Taylor, who was 20 years old at the time and a newspaper carrier, actually delivered the Daily News twice that day. Once the news got out that Kennedy was assassinated, the Daily News, which was an afternoon newspaper in the 1960s, printed a second edition.

It’s the headline that Taylor, who retires today after working for the Daily News the past 50 years, remembers most during his years on the job.

The day that Cassius Clay — now Muhammad Ali — won the world heavyweight boxing championship after knocking out Sonny Liston in February 1964 also stands out.

“The Marines were excited to read about it,” said Taylor, who spent many years transporting about 20 kids to Camp Lejeune to hawk newspapers to service members eating in the chow hall.

“The newspaper was the quickest way to get the news back then,” Taylor recalled. “The Marines just swamped us. I think I sold 2,000 papers that day.”

He’s still proud of those numbers and the fact that in 50 years, he never called in sick. After all, for the 62-year-old Taylor, delivering the Daily News was simply a way of life.

“I figured out that I have driven 2 million miles delivering the paper,” Taylor said.

In 1956, Taylor’s father was in the Navy and moved the family to Camp Lejeune. On his first full day in town, a couple approached Taylor about delivering the Daily News. At 50 cents a day, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Four years later, he was hired full time at the Daily News and he worked in the mailroom for eight years where he bundled newspapers by hand — a machine does it now — and got subscriptions ready.

In 1968 after the base carrier route became vacant, Taylor decided to deliver papers on Camp Lejeune until a replacement could be found. On his first week on the job, Taylor and the 20 paperboys he brought along upped the circulation on base from 300 newspapers to 1,000.

At the time, the Daily News cost 10 cents. The kids selling them made 3 cents a newspaper, the Daily News made 3 cents and Taylor made 4 cents. Bringing in $40 a day was good for those days, Taylor remembered, so he asked to keep the route.

He’s handled it ever since.

“I just loved working with those kids,” Taylor said. “By taking those kids on base every day, they made about $7 a day after school and could eat a meal at the chow hall.”

Taylor, who picked up the paperboys after school, also liked the idea that they always had something to do so they would stay out of trouble.

“It meant they had adult supervision all day,” said Taylor, who always made sure the kids had at least $10 in change because often Marines would buy a newspaper in order to get change for the soda machine.

Taylor always tried to read the news before he left the Daily News’ parking lot. It made good business sense.

“I always got the question: What’s in the paper? If you had a good answer, you would probably make a sale,” Taylor said.

But the business eventually changed. The Daily News switched to a morning newspaper in 1991, which meant that kids were no longer able to deliver it. Soda machines started offering change for a dollar. And when 24-hour cable TV news stations gained popularity, chow halls installed televisions. Marines no longer looked to the newspaper as their first source for news.

“A lot of things happened to put the paperboy out of business,” Taylor said.

Taylor just changed how he did his job and continued to love it. His dedication to the work — and flawless attendance record — left an impression on many of the people who worked with him.

“There is not a day that I can recall that he wasn’t there to get his papers,” said Bobby Williams, who worked as the circulation director for the Daily News for more than 37 years before he retired in 2005. “It was unreal. We never had to run his route for him. Those kinds of people you don’t find anymore. He was a hardworking man, loyal, honest and you can trust him with anything.”

Williams was often awed by Taylor’s determination and willingness to get the job done.

“There were times he and the kids would sell 1,500 papers in a day,” Williams said. “He’s done a lot for the paper. He’s one of the best individuals I have ever seen.”

Don Wilson, the current circulation director, said Taylor will be impossible to replace.

“I’m afraid that good people like Otto Taylor are a dying breed,” Wilson said. “Someone who is reliable, dependable and has a good work ethic — you just don’t find that much anymore.”

Many people know Taylor through his work with youngsters in the community. He has spent many years running Grant’s Creek Nursery All-Stars, an organization that teaches basketball to kids and instills values.

Taylor estimates that about 1,500 kids have benefited from the program since it started. At one point, 97 percent of the kids graduated from high school and went on to college and 77 percent had some kind of scholarship.

Taylor’s sons, Benjy and Jermaine, and daughter Stephanie, also benefited from their father’s basketball lessons. Benjy, who played basketball at the University of Richmond, is now an assistant head coach at Tulane.

“When I think about Otto Taylor, I think about everything he does for the community particularly for the young people,” said Elliott Potter, associate publisher of the Daily News. “He goes about it really quietly. But if people like Otto Taylor weren’t around, you would recognize the difference.”

Potter has worked with Taylor since 1979 and remembers how well he worked with kids when the Daily News was an afternoon paper.

“He had a connection with young people that’s unmatched,” Potter said. “The best thing for us now is that Otto will have more time to do the good things he’s always done. We’ll miss him but at least the community still has him.”

After delivering the newspaper seven days a week for so long, Taylor is ready to retire and spend more time with his wife, Linda, and the rest of his family.

“I want to spend some time thinking more about them than work,” Taylor said.

But he’s not sure he’ll be able to stay away from the Daily News for long.

“If I can’t sleep, I’ll get in my car and ride down here and see what they’re doing,” he said.

Contact staff writer Roselee Papandrea at rpapandrea@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, ext. 238.

Ellie