Editor,
As my employment with the Falls Church News-Press concludes this week, permit me to share this.
When my daughter was a teenager we hosted a French exchange student, Eva, and it happened to be around Halloween time. Eva had never been trick or treating so the girls dressed up and joined the kids going door to door.
The next day we heard Eva talking to her family on the phone and she described it as “you get dressed up in costumes, you go door to door and people give you candy, and at the end of the night you go to the home of the newspaper publisher, and he takes your picture and it might get in the paper.”
Alexis interrupts her and says “Eva, the last part doesn’t happen everywhere; Falls Church is the only place that has a Mr. Benton.”
Truer words were never spoken; Falls Church is the only place that has Nick Benton. For over 30 years, Falls Church has enjoyed free access to their own local newspaper, thanks to the support of many great advertisers, but thanks mostly to Nick Benton, owner, publisher, and editor, keeping its doors open through good times and bad, and creating a significant voice in the community.
As with most significant people there are days when you want to wring his neck, and then other days you want to hug the stuffing out of him, although he’s not really a hugger. But it has been my honor to know him and to have played a small part in his orbit these last few years.
Melissa Morse
Valdosta, Georgia
