Column: Jocelyn Sheets: Old-school journalist, big-time fan

A book. A baseball. A bottle of Aleve.

They each tell a little bit of Jocelyn's story, and they all were on her desk Monday as we packed up her belongings for her family.

Jocelyn Sheets came to Cape Girardeau and the Southeast Missourian from Iowa about two years ago. A proud daughter of Kansas, she had been a sports editor in a little town in the Hawkeye State but was looking to transition away from reporting and toward the production side of the business. She'd worked at small newspapers throughout her long career, and because of that, she knew the business from reporting to papers on doorsteps. As luck had it, we needed someone with her skills, talent and experience.

From Day 1, Jocelyn put her mark on our news and sports pages, fiercely advocating for the best sections possible day in and day out and doing whatever she could to make them so.

An old-school journalist, Jocelyn cut her teeth in the days when newspaper managers had no truck with pictures facing off the page or headlines that didn't exactly fill up their allotted space.

Her devotion to the printed word is why she wanted her own new copy of the industry's bible, The Associated Press Stylebook. Instead of using the online repository many journalists use today, she would thumb through the pages, looking for the exact entry to answer her question. Satisfied, occasionally chagrined, back to a story she would go. Confident and correct.

Jocelyn's first allegiance was to her father. (If all children loved their parents as much as Jocelyn loved her dad, the world would be a better place. Each time she told the story, she would beam as she noted the livestock barn at the county fairgrounds back home bears his name. And she told that story fairly often.)

Her second loyalty was to newspapering, and she was good at it. She was good at it because she cared to be and wanted to be.

Her third? Look no further than the purple, blue and red items stacked around her workstation.

Purple for her alma mater, Kansas State University. Blue for the Kansas City Royals — sorry, not sorry, Cardinals fans. Red for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Sports had been a big part of Jocelyn's career, but fandom was an even bigger part of her life. She loved her teams and spent lots of time figuring out the best ways to follow them, but she was a sports fan in general. She tracked lots of women's sports and made sure to share their stories in the pages she put together. Softball was a particular favorite.

Some months ago, Jocelyn came to work one day barely able to walk from the door to her desk.

Gout. It hurt her. A lot.

But, over time, the pain subsided. She changed parts of her diet. She took prescribed medication. She managed as best she could. And the Aleve helped.

The mobility issues that drove her from the press box to the copy desk ebbed and flowed, but day after day, there she was — at her desk doing the job she enjoyed doing and teaching the next generation of journalists the right way. If she needed crutches to get to her perch in the newsroom, so be it. That was her lot, and she leaned into it.

Whatever necessary to get the job done.

That was the Jocelyn we knew and respected, and there is little doubt colleagues from past years and locales had that same experience.

Jocelyn died at home of apparent natural causes.

She had been feeling poorly last week and asked for the day off Friday. Cape Girardeau police, acting on a request for a welfare check, found her Monday in her apartment.

Her family is taking her home to Kansas.

We're thankful for the time we had with her and will remember her dedication to her dad, her craft and her teams.

Rick Fahr is editor of the Southeast Missourian.