JOUNALISM LOSES A GOOD ONE

Today's edition includes a death notice for Diana Dickinson. In this rare instance, the obituary's author is also its subject. Diana Dickinson was a newspaperwoman in Perryville, and a good one. Her colleagues will miss her.

Diana's name won't show up in a Pulitzer Prize directory, nor would it be recognized by the nation's top newsmakers. Instead, Diana was a journalist like many in small communities, practicing her craft at a grassroots level, taking in every meeting from school board to zoning commission and usually encountering her sources, for good or ill, on the street each day. Along with her friend and publisher Randy Pribble, she edited a fine newspaper that Perryville can take pride in.

As a newspaperwoman, Diana conducted herself with grace and good humor. It was with these same attributes that she accepted her sudden illness. She was 44. Our profession is diminished with her death.