Former Publisher, Owner Passes Away
Rogers Hewitt, former owner and publisher of the Shelby County Herald, passed away on Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
William Rogers Hewitt, a nine-pound boy was born to W. C. (Cres) and Grace McKethen Hewitt on January 12, 1930.
Hewitt graduated from Shelbyville High School in 1947 and went on to earn in 1951 a B.A. degree in Economics from Westminster College-Fulton, where he joined Beta Theta Pi National Fraternity.
Rogers Hewitt grew up in the newspaper business, knew first-hand the challenge of publishing a weekly newspaper and gave the county a strong report on the activities of local and state governance.
Hewitt was President of the Northeast Press Association, 1961-62 and then, in 1980, was elected President of the Missouri Press Association. In fact, the Hewitts were one of the first father-son teams to have both served terms as President of the Missouri Press Association.
In 1992 W. C. Hewitt was posthumously inducted into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame. Rogers received the same distinction in 1996, becoming the first father-son combination to receive that honor.
Hewitt was very active in the Missouri Press Foundation for which he served as President for three years and therefore, had the privilege of being part of the process for getting all the bylaws established. The Foundation acts as a tax arm of the Missouri Press Association, sponsors scholarships for journalism aspirants and sponsors Newspapers In Education.
After he graduated, he joined the United States Air Force, serving a tour of duty from 1951 to 1955 as a staff sergeant.
He returned home to continue working at the newspaper.
He always lived in Shelbyville, and after meeting his wife, Jerri, they continued to call Shelbyville their home. They were married for 68 years.
In an article published in the Herald on January 12, 2005, Rogers spoke about the changes a newspaper would see on the forefront of the newspaper world.
“Newspapers will have to keep fighting to keep their subscribers and advertisers. I can remember when we thought television news would take over,” said Hewitt. “People still demand to see written work. Even people who live away from here appreciate the paper because they may have lived here or still have relatives living here. Newspapers will have to conform to the times to survive though. The whole world is getting so much smaller. Locally, there have always been three newspapers. The Shelby County Herald has been the only one of the three to carry news from the whole county.”
He added, “Should a fourth be established it would require so much from the reading public and the advertisers that it would be hard for all four to survive.”
The Hewitts sold the Herald in April of 1997 to the Williams Communication Group.
