finger on the pulse of the Parsons community and was involved in local LEFT: Top: The Parsons Sun

ons Sun began publishing as a weekly newspaper that came out

projects, including urban renewal, which changed the face of down- each Saturday. Its office was located at No. 1 East Belmont Avenue, which is now
town Parsons in the early 1970s. Central and Belmont, where Belmont Towers is located. W.G. Melville built this in
After 68 years of controlling interest by the Reeds, Harris Enterprises 1871 and presented it to Milton Reynolds, editor of The Sun, from Parsons Town Co.
of Hutchinson bought the Parsons Sun in 1982. as partial consideration for establishing the paper.
In 2008, Harris sold The Sun and The Chanute Tribune to Kansas
Newspapers LLC and the newspaper returned to a morning publication MIDDLE: The Parsons Daily Sun uses a large sign on a car to promote its product.
— five days a week — in July that year. The Monday paper was elimi-
nated during the switch to a morning publication. RIGHT: Martin “Monk” Thomas wrote and edited the Parsons Sun for 50 years,
Printing technology changed over the years, adding more modern retiring in 1982. He continued to contribute to the newspaper periodically after
options such as linotype machines to create lines of type that were ar- that until 1989. He died in January 1994.
ranged in paragraphs and columns.
In 1972, The Sun under Clyde M. Reed Jr.’s direction changed to
offset printing and “cold type.” Machines produced galleys of type on
paper that were waxed and placed on pages. A large camera took a pic-
ture of the pasted-up page and created a large negative that was burned
onto a metal plate, which then had to be bent and attached to the press.
Now, editors build pages and a machine burns the image of that page
onto a plate, which is placed on the press for printing.
The Sun joined the digital age in 1997, adding an online version of
the newspaper at www.parsonssun.com, under editor and publisher
Ann K. Charles.
Today, Shanna L. Guiot serves as publisher of The Sun and The
Tribune.
The Sun has occupied several locations in its history. The first home
was at No. 1 E. Belmont Ave.
Other addresses followed, including the current 200 S. 18th St. loca-
tion, 219 S. Central and then 217-219 S. Central, which was on the west
side of the road and just before Belmont Avenue. The St. Louis-San
Francisco Railway passenger freight station was just across Belmont in
the late 1940s.
At the South Central Avenue home, an ice storm in January 1949
killed power to Parsons and other communities in the county. The Katy
Railroad ran a power cable to the Sun offices so the newspaper could
run its presses.
The Jan. 12, 1949, edition of The Sun had a note of thanks on Page 1.
“This edition of The Sun is made possible because the Katy Railroad
has generously shared its electrical power. Lines have been run to The
Sun office from Katy property, which is getting energy from the Katy
power plant here.”
In 1962, The Sun moved into the former McDowell Auto building at
220 S. 18th St., where it has been since.

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