(12/28) The paper that you hold in your hands at this moment would not exist had it not been for inspiration provided by Jean and Bo Cadle. Jean Douglas Cadle, founder and editor of the News-Journal’s predecessor, the Emmitsburg Dispatch, died on December 1 in Creve Coeur, Missouri at the age of 90.

For those of you who knew Jean, she was warm and gracious and had an infectious laugh. Dianne Walbrecker, a writer for the Emmitsburg Dispatch, captured Jean beautifully when she said, "Jean had an amazing ability to see the glass half full, to look at a situation and see the positive aspects."

In Frederick High School she was known as "Jeannie with the light brown hair," her effervescent smile, which graced anyone who met her, shined brightest for her crush in high school, William "Bo" Cadle. As fate would have it, she married Bo 40 years later as a widow, and together they began the Emmitsburg Dispatch. Dianne said, "Both Bo and Jean were inspirations to me, illustrating community service in a small town and really making a difference in people's lives."

Jean also created welcome packages for new Emmitsburg residents, gave time and energy to the Emmitsburg Presbyterian Church, and volunteered wherever needed. One parishioner said that "Jean was probably the kindest, most grounded person I have ever known."

Jean Read Douglas was born on January 31, 1934, in Passaic, New Jersey to George and Corrie Douglas. They moved to Frederick where she and her family lived in a "great house on the hill," and generations of Douglas’ spent so many wonderful hours together. After graduating high school, Jean attended Wilson College in Chambersburg, for one year, where she was voted class president.

She married Howard Streeter in 1953, and they lived in the Washington, DC area where her husband served as a television news correspondent and their 5 children were born. In 1962 they moved to St. Louis, Howard working as a TV news director and anchor, while Jean was an extraordinarily loving and involved mother to her five kids.

Howard died suddenly in 1975, and in the years following, Jean’s incredible compassion and strength shone brightly as she raised the children alone and went back to school completing her bachelor’s degree and then her master’s degree, leading to her work as the curator of the Charles Lindbergh Collections at the Missouri Historical Society.

That role prepared her well for the years she and Bo would run the Emmitsburg Dispatch, getting to know the community they loved so well. Jean loved the readers and all of the volunteers who helped to make their vision a success. She loved collaborating with Bo out of their warm home by the creek, where their office was fitted with a special fold up table so they could lay out the newspaper each month in painstaking detail.

Jean tended the newspaper as she did people, with warmth, compassion, and always, an open heart and mind. Jean and Bo were so touched by the way people came out to support them. It was the culmination of a dream to bring a community together, and what a dream it was, a dream still living on today in the writers and staff of the Emmitsburg News-Journal.

Editor's Note: Bo Cadle died January 21, 2020