Ralph Clayton, former MPA official, dies

Caruthersville, Mo. -- Ralph Clayton, 71, a retired general manager of the Caruthersville Democrat Argus, died Wednesday at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Clayton spent 29 years in the newspaper business with the Democrat, its sister papers and the Southeast Missouri Press Association. He was president of the Missouri Press Foundation from 1989 to 1994. For the last 11 years, he has run the family business, Pemiscot Office Supply, in his hometown of Caruthersville.

MPF president Doug Crews, a former colleague, said that people are telling him how much they will miss the story-telling Clayton who was always ready with a joke to break the ice or relate something about his life.

He was also a keen businessman who held his newspaper and reporters to high standards, said Crews, who cited one MPA column from "Clayton's Comments," in which Clayton wrote about how to detect if reporters produced enough stories.

During his two-term presidency with the SEMO MPA, Clayton also expressed pride in Southeast Missouri by always seeking and recruiting publishers from the region, Crew said.

Clayton was also a long-time treasurer of the Bootheel Antique Car Klub and probably participated since its establishment in the 1960s, said klub vice president Perry Starnes, who was Clayton's friend for the last seven years.

He was so full of life, Starnes said, that the community will greatly miss his presence and humor.

Other community involvements included service as a member of the Sacred Heart Parish and Knights of Columbus and a former president of the Caruthersville Chamber of Commerce. Clayton was a 2002 inductee into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame, a 2005 recipient of the "Friend of SEMO Press Award" and honored in a Missouri House of Representatives resolution.