On December 18, 1941, the Ridgeway Journal published its last edition. The death of Celbe C. Cline, the owner and editor of the Journal due to a heart attack on July 2 shook the community and although his estate tried valiantly to keep the operation going so that Ridgeway might not lose its hometown paper, by November 13, the estate conceded that it was unable to continue to publish the paper.
After that issue, Ridgeway merchants pooled their resources to purchase the printing equipment and attempted to continue the paper. The Ridgeway Journal dropped from 4 pages to only 2 pages and another four issues were published before the paper closed for good. Coming so soon after the attack o Pearl Harbor on December 7, this must have been devastating to Ridgeway area residents.
The last edition included the usual society news on the front page including everyone visiting back and forth, updates from Buckley Chapel and the Ridgeway Methodist Church on their upcoming Christmas programs, and an article about the draft board and that more men were expected to be notified soon for the draft. A large ad at the bottom of the page offered free shows tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday nights and the Wednesday matinee. I have to assume this was for the movie theater — the ad doesn’t specify. The free tickets were sponsored by local merchants who were all listed in the ad.
There was also a notice by the Ridgeway Journal thanking everyone for their support and that the paper would try to keep going; unfortunately this seems to have been the last issue ever printed. Another attempt at a Ridgeway newspaper was tried with the Ridgeway Star, but I haven’t seen any issues of that paper.
