Monday profile: A keen observer of the human parade

Longtime journalist heads history society

The Daily Inter Lake

As a young reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jackie Adams used to sit in municipal court on slow news days and watch the parade go by.

Prostitutes, drunks, runaways, neighbors who couldn't get along - it was a parade of humanity, up on various misdemeanor charges. To a girl raised in a suburb of Milwaukee, it was a glimpse into a segment of society that she'd rarely come across before.

"It was a fascinating look at how some people live," recalled Adams, 75.

During her almost 50-year career, Adams, the former owner of the Whitefish Pilot and a retired Daily Inter Lake reporter and city editor, had innumerable opportunities to peek behind society's curtains as she covered the daily tragedies, comedies and news stories that make each community unique.

In part because of her long familiarity with Whitefish and the Flathead Valley, Adams recently was named head of the Stumptown Historical Society. She also served on the Flathead Museum Board, as well as the Glacier Symphony and Chorale Board, and has been a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity for several years.

"Once you retire, these groups descend on you," she said, trying to downplay her community spirit - but in the next breath she launches into a discussion of the Stumptown Society, describing how the group refused to let the Whitefish train depot be torn down and raised $850,000 for the building renovation, which "proved to be the key to all the other improvements that have since taken place at the north end of Central Avenue."

Adams' choice of journalism as a career was both spontaneous and predestined. Her father was a freelance writer who produced safety bulletins and other commercial copy for businesses around Milwaukee, as well as whimsical poems that charmed his daughter.

She also served as editor of her high school paper. However, "it was so much work I got fed up with it," she said. "When I started college, I really didn't know what I wanted to do."

Adams attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was only about 80 miles from Milwaukee, but she rarely went home because she was enjoying herself so much.

"It's still one of my favorite memories," she recalled. "It was just a fun place to be, and academically challenging. This was a time when a lot of World War II veterans were still taking classes, so the place was bursting at the seams. They were more than happy to flunk you out."

At the end of her sophomore year, she decided to major in journalism almost on a whim. Her mother opposed the choice, thinking Adams was too shy to be successful, but she ended up being named the Outstanding Senior Woman in Journalism, earning a $25 award.

She went to work for the Star Tribune in 1953, two weeks after graduating.

"I started out working nights and weekends," Adams said. "I was there for six years. The last year and a half, I covered all of the state, federal and municipal courts in the area. I always thought that was a great beat. Covering a jury trial is like sitting through a play. There are these very dramatic moments, and you don't know the ending."

In 1958, she married 3M publicist Dick Adams. Dick had always dreamed of owning a weekly newspaper. While visiting Whitefish on a ski vacation one winter, they learned that the Whitefish Pilot was for sale. They went for a second visit and bought the business in 1959.

"We took all the money we had, borrowed some more and moved to Whitefish," Adams said. "All our friends thought we were nuts. After a few weeks, we thought so too. Maintenance on the press hadn't been kept up and things broke constantly. We worked ungodly hours. Dick sold the ads; I did most of the writing.

"I look back on it now and wonder how we did it. I think the only reason we didn't quit was pride; we couldn't stand the thought of going back to Minneapolis and telling our friends they were right."

At the time, Whitefish was a very different community from what it is today.

"It wasn't very prosperous," she said. "It was still a railroad town, and the railroad was beginning to scale back. There were only two families that had any money, but everyone socialized together. It didn't matter whether you had money or a college degree. Everybody just worked hard to keep the community going."

The community pulled through, but her marriage didn't. Adams was divorced in 1976. Dick kept the paper and she got the house, staying there with their two children.

After a couple of years scraping by, she went to work for Sage Publishing, which had recently purchased the Whitefish Pilot and the Hungry Horse News. She covered county government for both papers until 1983, when she switched to the Inter Lake.

Two years later, with her son out of college and her daughter in college, Adams decided to go back to school herself. After earning a master's degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Minnesota, she returned to Kalispell in 1985 to take over as city editor for the Inter Lake.

"I'd grown up near big cities, but by the time I left Whitefish, I missed it," Adams said. "The day I packed up my car and headed back west was the happiest day I'd had in two years."

She retired as city editor in 1997, but continued to work part time until 2001, writing business stories and profiles.

"One of the reasons I always loved journalism was because you never stopped learning," Adams said. "Every day there was something new. There were times when I'd interview someone and could hardly wait to get back to the office to start writing - but what really energized me was finding some piece of big news before anyone else. That would make my whole week."

Although reporters are frequently confronted with evidence of human weaknesses, vanities and cruelties, she said covering news stories and watching that human parade over the years never made her cynical.

"I was lucky to work at a job that was so much fun," Adams said. "But I also learned never to be surprised by anything I hear about someone, no matter how well I think I know them."

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com