By Bob Deakin
(Updated September 2024 from a story originally published in the Kent GTD August 2003)
“Devoted to the militant practice of independent journalism.”
Such was the credo of the Good Times Dispatch throughout the 30-year reign of John and Jane Greene, which started, officially, 50 years ago last week.
The long-departed former owners and editors of the GTD were there when the paper was founded as the Good Turn Daily in January 1952 as adult advisors to the staff of boy scouts who started the paper.
The Good Turn Daily published 81 weekly issues, poking fun at itself by claiming to be “the only weekly daily in the country.” Advertising was relatively easy to sell, too, as the paper was still a novelty, but that advertising eventually prompted a dispute that would forever change the paper.
The Good Turn Daily and the Scouts
The scouts and the Kent Volunteer Fire Department, who sponsored the publication, started to question whether the paper should allow advertisements by liquor stores and restaurants. The Greenes felt that any business had the right to advertise its wares in the paper, but the statewide scout leaders disagreed.
Mr. Greene wrote an account of the showdown between the three factions in July 1953.
“At the Kent firehouse last Thursday night, Scout Executive Lloyd Noyes of the Tunxis Council asked John D. Greene if he and Mrs. Greene would accept certain limitations on the scope of the G.T.D. Would they dispense with ads from package stores and from licensed restaurants … and would they refrain from printing political news and comment?
“The answer was an unequivocal NO. Mr. Greene stated that a paper operating under such limitations would actually be harmful in that it would stand in the way of any honest newspaper enterprise which some publisher might want to establish in Kent.”
The Good Times Dispatch Is Born
Mr. Greene was asked if he and his wife would take over the paper without the scouts, and he replied that he had already “perfected plans to do so.” The troop committee members thought it would be proper to leave the name of the paper the same, but the Greenes, deliberately keeping the initials for the front cover, renamed it the Good Times Dispatch.
The Good Turn Daily earned about $3,200 in its run, and that money went back into expenses and scout-related activities. The Greenes were involved with every issue but never took any money to run the paper and even spent some of their own. There was no monetary transaction when they assumed ownership of the paper.
In the first editorial in the new GTD on July 30, 1953, the Greenes wrote, “some fierce individual resentments had arisen from the paper’s policy of printing news of vital interest.”
They also explained that the local boards and commissions were not used to having a reporter show up at the meetings. It took some effort to convince town officials that the public had the right to know how their tax dollars were being spent.
“Throughout the history of man, the impulse of those in power has been to silence newspapers, one way or another. Under heavy pressures from many sides, the fire dept. merely decided to drop the hot potato. It is not too hot for us,” they wrote.
A True Team Effort
A look through the old records and minutes of town meetings shows Mr. Greene’s name included among those present at nearly every one. According to co-workers, friends, correspondents and local politicos, he wrote most of the stories and his wife would add the finishing touches. Keeping true to a standard format, they wrote in the third person, almost to the point that the reader might think someone else had witnessed the event.
The stories appeared without bylines unless an outside author penned the article and the emotional touch seemed consistently appropriate for the subject matter. In 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the mood of the stories showed sadness and exasperation followed by optimism as the town looked forward.
When a resident went ahead with plans to build apartments on the former Anne Chapin property in the center of town, now the Kent Hills condominiums, it was reported in the paper that there was some “scoffing around town about the possibility that people will rent them at $200 a month,” a substantial sum at the time. Mr. Greene remarked that the local developer was sufficiently aware of the market trends outside Kent and that it could be a boon to the village.
“Here on the sidelines, in the editorial office of the local newspaper, we visualize benefits. If indeed there are a dozen, or two or three-dozen families who will be able to pump much additional cash into the economic bloodstream of this town. This would add support of existing stores and services and possibly encourage others.
“Offhand, we’d say that the start of the summer of 1968 is one of Kent’s finest hours,” he concluded.
Kent Reacts To the JFK Assassination
The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 brought an obviously solemn tone to the GTD, and a half-page portrait of the fallen president graced the third page with the St. Francis Prayer.
“Main Street was largely deserted. The townspeople stayed home, their eyes glued, in sad fascination, to TV screens. There was some excitement around town Saturday when the accused assassin said he wanted John Abt for his attorney. Mr. Abt at his Skiff Mountain home, made it clear to the wire services and the TV networks that he was not interested.”
A Sense of Duty to Kent, Connecticut
Throughout most of the Greene’s tenure as editors, they were the only paid staff, though they had a lot of help stapling the paper together, and explained their simple approach in an editorial:
“Aware of the basic economics of the publishing business, we determined never to get big enough to have to hire help. The two of us would share all the work reporting, of writing, of creating layouts, of making offset negatives, of burning the images onto sensitized aluminum plates.”
It was the same sense of duty that initially inspired Mr. Greene to put a challenge to the local scouts to start the paper. Tote Walker, a former Kent School master who, along with George Nelson, was on the KVFD committee that sponsored the Boy Scouts, asked Mr. Greene, a former Eagle Scout himself, if he would be a scoutmaster.
The experienced journalist who worked for the Associated Press, United Press International and Hearst newspapers was still working for AP, and declined the invitation but suggested the scouts start a newspaper, and he would help put it together.
Kent’s Kids Make It Work
When the first edition of the Good Turn Daily was published, Robert Casey, brother of Suzi Williams, was the editor, and she was one of many reporters who each had their own beat — usually the neighborhood in which they lived.
“I covered Lane Street and Tommy Coons covered Flanders and Lee [Dotson] covered Macedonia,” Ms. Williams said, running down a list of some of the kid correspondents, most of whom were not scouts.
Lee (Dwy) Dotson worked as a correspondent on the first issue of the Good Turn Daily, covering the Macedonia area from the Eads family to the park. She continued into her high school years and stopped soon after.
“You just went around to your neighbors and got the news,” she said. “So-and-so went here and this one visited that one. It gave the kids something to do. That was the kicker with the whole thing.”
Other young correspondents included Marjorie Baum in East Kent, Mrs. Raymond Rockefeller on Skiff Mountain, Edna Peet in North Kent, Bob Ward from Kent School, Judy Devaux and Barbara Johnson from Kent Hollow and Blanche Drobish from Johnson Road. Robert Oliver wrote the weekly weather report, Allan Rundall was the advertising manager and Ditto Andrews the business manager.
It All Begins On a Honeymoon Trip To Kent
It was on their honeymoon trip from New Rochelle, NY, in the autumn of 1950 that John Donovan Greene and Jane Miller Greene first laid their eyes on Kent, according to Lynn Mellis Worthington in a tribute she wrote as editor of the GTD shortly after his death.
The couple stayed at the old Kent Inn, which once stood where the Patco (gas) station now does, quickly made friends with Eugene Bull, who lived across the street, and decided to become residents soon after. Mr. Greene was writing radio scripts for AP at the time, which allowed him to live outside of New York City.
They rented a house overlooking the Housatonic on Bluff Road, owned by artist Bob Nisbet. That house eventually became the newspaper office, and a cramped one, according to Mary Grusauski, who became friends with the Greenes and sometimes helped put the paper together.
“The paper used to come out on Thursday and they would literally be up all night Wednesday putting it together,” remembers former First Select Woman Maureen Brady, adding that they didn’t miss a beat in town. “It was a 24 hour-a-day commitment for them. He would go to all around the town checking in and seeing what was happening.”
The Ice Watch
John Greene was credited with creating the annual Ice Watch on the Housatonic River, benefitting the fire department. He’d apparently seen a similar contest in Alaska when he worked there as a reporter in the 1930s.
Anyone could buy a ticket and guess the exact time when the winter’s ice would break. The closest guess won the pot. According to the 1988 New York Times article, In Kent, All Eyes And Bets Are On A Frozen River, the earliest the ice broke was on Feb. 16, 1984, and the latest, March 18, in 1978, the first year of the contest.
In 84’ the ice broke before the clock had officially begun.
“That year, we threw all the guesses in a barrel and had a lottery,” Mr. Greene recalled. “So everyone had an equal chance, no matter how stupidly they had guessed.”
The Ice Watch has continued since, although the Housatonic no longer freezes every year, to the disappointment of many beyond Kent. For years, people from all over the U.S. and beyond would make it a point to get their ticket and have fun guessing the time.
“Massive Boondoggle” in 1979
Kent’s current town registrar, Marjorie Wells, said that many years ago the Greenes published the party residents were affiliated with, prompting a long tradition of Kent voters registering as unaffiliated. They were both active in the town’s Democratic Party, and didn’t hesitate to let their feelings be known when they felt it appropriate.
In February 1979, they referred to a proposed renovation of a local barn for recreational and housing purposes as a “massive boondoggle” after residents spoke up against the project, calling it unnecessary. In response to the state grant awarded to the town for the work, the Greenes published the following:
“It is our money, just as surely as if it had been collected locally; but it came from the bottomless well which is Washington.
“Bureaucrats have control of billions. Their job is to pass out the money to accomplish objectives which have been outlined in general terms by congress. If they don’t dispense all the funds on hand they’ll be at a disadvantage when they ask for as much or more, in the next budget.
“So as work proceeds on the [barn], we can watch how the fires of inflation are fueled.”
Upsetting Apple Carts Along the Way
The GTD was the subject of a 1981 New York Times profile titled Keeping 30 Years of Good News by Laurie A. O’Neill. In the story, John Greene attested that their paper maintained a warm relationship with the town’s residents, despite “the proposition that public business is everybody's business — even if some apple carts are upset along the way.”
He asserted that while it never shied away from covering legitimate news, the paper has never featured a police blotter or “given a line of space to private scandal.” At the time, the 72-year-old John Greene and Jane, 66, were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the newspaper.
“We don't just report the news, we carry on conversations with our readers,” said Mrs. Greene in the article. The couple met while both were reporters for The Associated Press in New York City.
Their Work Was Their Life
The Times article provided an effective window into operations at the GTD.
Mr. Greene, who calls himself the paper's senior editor, is chief reporter, photographer, editorial writer and advertising manager. His wife answers the telephone, does the typing and copy editing and runs a small offset press in the G.T.D. newsroom, located off the couple's kitchen.
In the basement of their home is a darkroom and storeroom where three local women collate the 16-page, 9 1/2-by-12 1/2-inch paper by hand each Friday morning. The paper is officially issued by the Kent Publishing Company, which is owned by the Greenes, who also fill small printing orders.
Classified advertisers are charged 75 cents per line, but the system is based on honor; no bills are sent out. “We trust users to figure out what they owe us and pay us when they can,” Greene said, estimating 95 percent of the advertisers pay their bills. “The rest,” he added, “probably just forget.”
No Shortage of Notable Contributors to The GTD
Some who did write regular or occasional stories in the GTD throughout the Greenes’ years were Lorraine Budny, Phil Camp, Bob Conrad, Dell and Greg Eads, Emily Hopson, Bill Hyde, Senator Abe Ribicoff and many other local leaders and teachers. Some of them knew the Greenes and some did not.
“We didn’t go to the same parties,” Ms. Budny remarked recently.
She said she only met the Greenes a few times but enjoyed what they were doing with the paper.
The Green Reign Comes To An End
The Greenes held the reins until Ed and Laura Rapp purchased it in December 1981. Mr. Rapp worked in the advertising department for Reader’s Digest and later at a major daily newspaper in Puerto Rico. Mr. Greene held the title publisher emeritus until his death and wrote editorials from time to time.
In the Nov. 26, 1981, issue of the GTD, the Greenes announced that they were selling the GTD and that they would gladly assist in the transition. Kent First Selectman Robert Ward submitted a letter printed in that issue commending them for their years of work.
“On behalf of the people of Kent, I convey to you our good wishes and our gratitude for your years of loving dedication. A town without a paper is like a ship without a sextant or a compass.
“Jane and Johnny, you have watched the seasons change in Kent more than 120 times and our public and private weather has been better because you — and your GTD — called the changes to our attention.”
John and Jane Greene Created a Legacy With the Kent GTD
Facing retirement and sale of the newspaper, Mr. Greene wrote:
“It will be some time, we imagine, before the phone stops ringing here on Bluff Road. It is going to be difficult to answer just ‘Hello’ instead of ‘GTD.’ We’re keeping our typewriters and probably will become increasingly busy at writing, hopefully for publication. We’ll stay in Kent and we love you!”
The Rapps owned and ran the paper until 1984. That year, they put it up for sale and Paul Fitzpatrick/Atlantic Publishing bought it for $80,000. Mr. Fitzpatricl later became head of C-Span and assigned the management to a few local residents. When the GTD failed to publish twice between late 1987 and early 1988, Housatonic Valley Publications acquired it from Mr. Fitzpatrick.
The End Of An Era
Mrs. Greene died in December 1986 and Mr. Greene would sometimes pay tribute to her in his continuing editorials. In 1988 it was reported that Mr. Greene had given $26,000 worth of Exxon stock to the KVFD. He also served on the Zoning Board of Appeals until 1989.
He moved to Florida briefly in 1990 but returned not long after for health reasons and died in September 1991, survived by a daughter and two grandchildren.
One of John Greene’s last official duties in Kent was submitting his letter of resignation to the Zoning Board of Appeals on Dec. 5, 1989, with the conclusion that he had “lived in Kent 39 years, published GTD for 30.”
The End of an Era, But Not the End of the Story
The Journal Register Company purchased the GTD from HVP in 1998, and it continued with a staff of two until 2009, when the final issue was printed.
Through the advent of internet publication, corporate buyouts, and a frequently changing staff, the GTD maintained the small town charm (what choice did it have?) that the Greenes created, albeit with an overtly corporate look in later years.
That said, it was always led by dedicated editors and reporters, receiving consistent input from Kent residents. Whether it was a story about a Christmas light display in the home of a resident of the senior center, or the ongoing attempts by the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation for federal recognition, the GTD was there.
The Kent Good Times Dispatch Returns
In 2022, Karen Chase, Carl Raab, Deb Schlee and a handful of others opened a discussion about bringing the GTD back to life. The obvious questions of financing and producing an online news publication came up, and of course, they wondered if anyone would want to read it.
In 2022, Kent News, Inc. was incorporated, and by that summer had raised $30,000 in donations and grants. It received 501(c)(3) designation in January 2023.
The first edition of the modern incarnation of The Kent Good Times Dispatch was published on October 12, 2023 with Kathryn Boughton as editor and Lynn Mellis Worthington as copy editor. Both are former editors of the GTD, Lynn in the late 80s and early 90s, and Kathryn in the 2000s. Each has decades of experience as reporters and editors, as well as years of public service and close ties in their communities.
A Local Newspaper?
John and Jane Greene created a legacy with the Kent GTD, one that continues today. In a world of conglomerates, especially in journalism, the founders and staff of the new GTD find themselves in select company publishing an independent news source.
Even in a digital world, the people of Kent have a local news source once again. There will always be challenges, and with a little luck, a group of dedicated souls prepared to report and a captive audience there to listen.
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