Town connected to publisher Hearst

ST. CLAIR, Mo. --Here's a piece of Missouri history trivia.

What's the state's connection to famed publisher William Randolph Hearst, who was unflatteringly represented in the movie "Citizen Kane?" Hint: There's a Hearst-financed community building just outside the Meramec River Valley town of St. Clair.

The answer is the buccaneer publisher's parents -- George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst -- grew up in the homespun society outside St. Clair, in Franklin County.

And since Phoebe Hearst dominated her brilliant, prodigal son, some say the press lord owes a part of his character to his parents' Missouri roots. The contemporary Hearsts regularly visit and support the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Park and community building.

"We got $100,000 to build the building, and we've got a maintenance fund, and every year we report our expenses to the Hearst Foundation," noted Helen Reed Ely, 85, president of the memorial's board of directors.

This month, the St. Clair Historical Society debuts an exhibit about Phoebe and George Hearst's years in the area. And Phoebe Apperson Hearst Park celebrates its 40th year.

Kathryn Hearst, who visited St. Clair two years ago to research her doctoral thesis on Phoebe Hearst, believes the social support system that Phoebe experienced in the Missouri farm country left her always indebted, a woman who would give to the common welfare.

"She learned to value people for something beyond their income tax returns," said Kathryn Hearst, who is the wife of Austin Hearst, son of William Randolph Hearst Jr.

George Hearst left Missouri for the California Gold Rush, and struck silver in the Comstock lode. He returned to Missouri in 1860 and married Phoebe Apperson two years later in Steelville, Mo..

The couple left for New York, and from there took a steamer to California. She was pregnant with the son who would be their only child.

Phoebe Hearst would come back to St. Clair only one more time, wearing a Paris gown and riding in a private railroad car.

But neither she nor George ever got free of Missouri; they carried it within them. George Hearst remained incurably regional all his life, cussing and drinking and taking bets on the diameter of his bald spot even after being elected a U.S. senator from California.

When he died of cancer in Washington, a procession of politicians escorted the widow and the body back to California.

Meanwhile, Phoebe became a great Victorian lady. In the building in St. Clair hang pictures of Phoebe riding an elephant with Teddy Roosevelt, marching for the war effort and entertaining in Washington.

As the sole heir to her husband's estate, she funded libraries and schools in Western mining towns. In 1895, she co-founded the National Congress of Mothers, now known as the PTA. From 1897 until her death in 1919, she was the first woman regent of the University of California. She also took young women into her home and helped them get educated and meet the right potential husbands.

"The values from Missouri, Phoebe brought those with her -- hard work and giving back to the community," Kathryn Hearst said. "People helped each other in St. Clair. When things got bad, they didn't let each other starve, and she witnessed that on a very real basis."

In St. Clair, families feel close to the long-gone Hearsts.

"I'll take care of it till I can't anymore," Helen Ely says of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst memorial. "She's practically family, after all."