Newspaper people often say that once a person gets the ink in their blood, it is hard to get it out.
That statement has never been more true than with the story of Bill Turner, who died Saturday night at the age of 84.
Bill worked for The Stanly News & Press for more than 55 years, more than 31 of that as production manager.
He became interested in the newspaper industry at a young age. After selling and delivering papers for many years, he landed a part-time job at The Charlotte News upon completion of high school.
He was working in the advertising department, he once said, at the same time famed North Carolina-native and CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt was working in the newsroom.
“He had no idea who I was and I had no idea who he was,” Bill said of his time at The Charlotte News during a 2006 interview.
Although he was in training to be a salesperson, he didn’t like the way his career was going. As fate had it, a position in the pressroom came open at his home county newspaper, The Stanly News & Press.
He married his wife Sylvia on a Saturday and began work at the SNAP, his first full-time job, on a Monday — Labor Day 1955.