Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up Week

Posted Friday, May 7, 2010, at 7:30 AM

Southeast Missourian, April 29, 1961

The call for the annual Cape Girardeau community paint-up and clean-up campaign was answered in force by youngsters who worked under supervision of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. The youths painted rural mail boxes in the city, and starting out, from the left, are Bill and Jim Kuss, co-chairmen of the campaign for the Jaycees; Kenny Steinhoff, Joe Snell, Ronnie Brockmire and Herbert Bedell. (Photo by G.D. Fronabarger)

Southeast Missourian, Public Mind, May 4, 1961:

In my capacity of chairman of the Chamber of Commerce 1961 Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up and Beautify campaign, I have been more than pleased with the response to date.

The schools have turned in some unusually good posters which will be used in publicity of the campaign.

The Boy Scouts and Jaycees have painted over 500 mail boxes and are planning on another work day to complete the job.

The city is making plans to get the trash hauled away on May 8 and 9.

A visit to any garden center will show that Cape Girardeau property owners are planting at a record rate. Several citizens have reported that all property in the block where they live has already been cleaned up. Many owners are ready for the trash to be hauled away. Painting is very much in evidence. We are off to a good start.

The community development committee of the Chamber of Commerce is urging every citizen to do his or her part in making 1961 the cleanest yet. With our favorable and widespread reputation for cleanliness and beauty, we must be at our best to justify the good press and publicity that we have received...and bring still more recognition to Cape Girardeau.

Richard Dirnberger, chairman, Cleanup Committee

Editor's Note:

Five years after posing in this picture, Ken Steinhoff would be working with Frony as a reporter and photographer at the Southeast Missourian.

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Holy Cow! I glanced at this photo and cringed because it's the epitome of the kind of photo news photographers used to have to shoot in the old posed-pictures days. You know, give someone some props and then have then pretend to do something in a form or fashion that would never occur in the real world.

When I got down to the last sentence, I thought there HAD to be a mistake. There must be another Kenny Steinhoff in the world.

Nope, I concede that looks like me in those days. (I recognize the shoes.) Even as a pre-photographer I must have done everything I could have to wipe that picture from my mind.

That or Fred is better at Photoshop than I thought and he put my head on someone else's body.

I'm honored, I guess. Just goes to show how your past can come back to haunt you. And, now, the darned Internet is forever.

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Fri, May 7, 2010, at 7:54 AM

Fred Lynch
The posed picture evolved toward reality over the years. I would have made sure the boys had paint on their brushes.
My first real job upon finishing the University was as a reporter/photographer for a small daily newspaper. In the time I was there, I shot more film than I ever knew existed.

One thing I hated were "group firing squad photos", line 'em up in a straight line and be sure to get their correct names left to right. Invariably they would try to cram as many people into the picture as they could.

The change came when I bought my first 35 mm SLR camera. I developed my own style of informal (and frequently candid) shots. My favorite trick was to sneak several candid shots when they least expected it. Then I would line 'em up in a nice row for an "execution shot" which is what they expected in the first place. I rarely ever used the shot. Some of the dear ladies, garden and bridge club types, never quite caught on.

Sometimes I got some very "interesting" candids. I wanted to use them but developed better sense not to.

I'm convinced Fronaberger would have fired me within the first week.

-- Posted by voyager on Fri, May 7, 2010, at 5:08 PM
I am not that old, just 47, but I would bet good money that the house in the background WAS at the corner of East Rodney and Hawthorne Dr just across from the Arena park. If so I had my picture taken in almost the exact same spot when the tree in the background came down in a storm and I was helping the neighbors clean up the mess.

-- Posted by Solelicious on Sat, May 8, 2010, at 2:20 AM
Oh and Kenny, if I am correct about the house, it was owned by Jerry Schweain. When the tree came down anyway. I seen him in a recent article in capecentralhigh.com

-- Posted by Solelicious on Sat, May 8, 2010, at 3:43 AM
Fred's resurrection of Frony's pictures has given me a new appreciation for the man. He wasn't ALWAYS one-shot Frony. Here's a piece I did about my relationship with the man.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/one-shot-frony/

voyager, here is my rant about grip 'n grins and how I got revenge on some of the local movers and shakers who were clowning around.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/students/penzel-and-stone-are-appreciated/

Fred, it might have helped, too, if we were looking at what we were painting.

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Sat, May 8, 2010, at 9:57 AM
Cape4Life,

Is this the Jerry Schweain you were thinking of?

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/capes-not-a-town-its-the-twilight-zon...

My brother-in-law, John Perry, has been friends with him since John was a kid.

I'll run the picture by him for confirmation.

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Sat, May 8, 2010, at 10:02 AM
Kenny, copy/paste = "I seen him in a recent article in capecentralhigh.com"

So yes.

I have know him and his kids all my life.

He lived in the house in the background in the 60's and 70's.

And that would be Mr Schonoffs silo and barn way in the background on the far left of the picture.

-- Posted by Solelicious on Sat, May 8, 2010, at 8:06 PM
Cape4Life, 47 years old?!? Did they even have cameras when you were a kid?

-- Posted by bobby62914 on Sun, May 9, 2010, at 2:36 AM

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