Former Southeast Missourian managing editor dies

Joni Adams Bliss, who was the first woman to serve as managing editor of the Southeast Missourian and who is credited for building Southeast Missouri Hospital's Web site into a major source of medical information, died Tuesday after a battle with ovarian cancer. She was 51.

Bliss was remembered Tuesday by current and former colleagues as a competitive journalist who recognized early the potential of the Internet as a source for news and who used her position to promote computer use.

She also built a following by promoting an annual "Random Acts of Kindness Week," pushing the community to reach out to family members, co-workers and strangers.

"Joni was to me an unending source of energy," said Joe Sullivan, editor of the Southeast Missourian. "She energized the people around her."

As Bliss fought the disease, she reached out to the community again to promote awareness of the signs of ovarian cancer and the potential for the disease to be mistaken for more common disorders such as gastric disorders or menstrual pains.

"You've got to listen to your body," Bliss said in October at an ovarian cancer awareness program. "You've got to be your own medical advocate."

When Bliss graduated in 1978 from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in mass communication, she was already a working journalist. She began her career at the old Cape Girardeau Bulletin-Journal, owned by Rust Communications, moving to the Southeast Missourian when the two companies merged in 1986. She became managing editor in August 1988.

The "Random Acts of Kindness Week" effort began in 1990, and Bliss came up with the idea of distributing stickers to participating businesses and organizations. In the first year, Sullivan said, 20,000 stickers were distributed. By the time she left to join the hospital, the number exceeded 100,000, he said.

After deciding the Internet would be a source of growth for readership, Bliss put together the first version of the Southeast Missourian's online edition. She conducted classes in computer usage that were wildly popular, Sullivan said, and even sold advertising on the site. "Joni put us a couple of years ahead," he said.

Bliss joined the hospital's marketing department in 2000, serving as the webmaster and supervisor of Web tools. "She has made a huge difference with marketing with our Web site," said Sally Owen of the marketing and communication department. "Since she came on board, it has grown from 3,000 page views a month to half a million page views a month. She took our Web site from its infancy to one of the best in the state."

The dedication to work did not distract her from emphasizing her family, Owen said. She took one of her daughter's Girl Scout troops to Memphis, Tenn., and bunked out with the girls at the zoo to see a panda, Owen recalled.

"Throughout this whole thing, to a person in this department and in this hospital, we never heard Joni complain," Owen said. "She took a bad thing and a challenging thing and was determined to turn it into a positive experience that would help others."

Adjectives that best describe Bliss are professional and dedicated, said those who remembered her.

"Always professional, she brought a passion for news into the Southeast Missourian each day," said Jon Rust, publisher and co-president of the Southeast Missourian. "She carried those interests — and her talents for writing and online media — to the hospital. She will be missed by many people all across the region. Joni was one of those people who never failed to make an impact for the better, wherever she was."

She married Mark Bliss in 1980. They have two daughters, Rebecca Minette Bliss, 16, and Bailey Caitlin Bliss, 12. An obituary appears on page 7A.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126