Oliver: Here’s to the ‘Mom’ who always took care of our newsroom

Newsrooms often can resemble families. Or at least they did back when I worked in them full time.

Someone always filled the roles of obedient child, rebel child, weird uncle, stylish aunt and the like.

I’d tease the copy editors and reporters I supervised that because I didn’t have children of my own that no doubt they would find me trying to mother them.

However, the mother role in the Northwest Herald newsroom didn’t belong to me, but to JoAnn Smith. She was the newsroom’s go-to person.

JoAnn answered the newsroom’s main number and knew who was working on what story based on who was calling in.

However, that also meant she took the brunt of the angry phone calls. If one listened carefully, you could tell what kind of call it was. Not because JoAnn would ever raise her voice; she rarely, if ever, did that. The good calls usually elicited her trademark laugh.

When I was the assistant news editor, I learned that if JoAnn sent me a call and did not look at me, I needed to prepare myself. Sure enough, there would be an angry or unhappy person on the other end of the line.

In her capacity as the obituary clerk, JoAnn also had to field a lot of calls from unhappy funeral directors. As hard as we tried on the copy desk, sometimes mistakes would happen. JoAnn got to hear about them all.

I always admired how well she handled those calls. Anyone who has worked in customer service knows how unpleasant it is to be yelled at for something you had nothing to do with. But time after time, she’d give them her full attention and do what she could to soothe them. Then she’d do her best to convey to us in a calm tone just how we had messed things up. Bless her, she always forgave us, probably because she could tell that we hated to make her job harder.

Whenever we needed any kind of office supply, JoAnn was our first stop. If the copy editors were running out of red pens or if the reporters needed notebooks, she’d hear about it.

Around elections, JoAnn got even more popular because she had control of the newsroom’s pizza order. She was the one who would take the special requests, and she’d do her best to fulfill them.

On any given day, a steady stream of reporters and copy editors and section editors would swing by JoAnn’s desk just to talk. JoAnn always had time for whatever we wanted to discuss.

JoAnn’s smile was infectious, and her sunny personality drew all of us to her. She loved to talk about her family, particularly her daughter, Shaun. How proud she was of her and of her grandchildren. And she always had something sweet to say about her husband, Jerry.

JoAnn was a giver. She always wanted to help, whether it was finding an old issue of the newspaper or listening to our problems.

Outside the newsroom, she gave herself, too. JoAnn had been very active in Jaycees and in her church.

One of the sweetest things she did for me was ask me to help her pick out some professional clothes. She wanted to focus on her new endeavor with Mary Kay, and she wanted to look the part. I was so flattered to help, but even more happy at being able to spend some time with her.

We had such an enjoyable morning trying on outfits. She’d just beam when she’d wear the things we picked out. She became very successful with Mary Kay, too. That was just JoAnn’s way.

Since both of us were out of the newsroom, we’d been keeping track of each other on Facebook. My heart was so heavy when she lost her dear Jerry during the pandemic.

It’s even heavier now. Our dear JoAnn died Aug. 28.

All her newsroom “children” have fond memories. She truly made a difference.

We will carry her in our hearts forever.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.