OverTHE YEARS A look back at 75 years of Rural Missouri by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop O n a frosty day in December 1947, the presses at the Drover's Journal in Kansas City cranked up and didn't stop until more than 100,000 copies of the fi rst Rural Electric Missourian were printed and headed to mailboxes across the state. It marked a new era in communications between Missouri's electric cooperatives and their member-owners. Flash-forward 75 years and the presses will again roll just up the road at LSC Communications in Liberty, where this issue of what is now called Rural Missouri will go into production. This time more than 583,000 copies will come off the presses with color photos and everything printed on glossy stock. At the same time our website and digital edition will go live. We've come a long way over the years, but the mission envisioned by those fi rst editors will go on for future generations. We continue to champion rural living, rural people and the electric co-ops they own. And thanks to the cooperative concept that everything is cheaper by the dozen - or hundreds of thousands - electric cooperatives can communicate with members through the local pages of Rural Missouri for signifi cantly less than the price of a postage stamp. Talk of establishing a publication for Missouri's electric cooperatives began in 1945, when Boone Electric Manager L.L. Anderson pitched the idea after seeing similar publicaFrom left: St. Louis native Homer Hill was the fi rst editor of the Rural Electric Missourian. He left in 1962 to join the staff of the Rural Electrifi cation Administration. John Oidtman shot many of the iconic images that became a trademark of the publication. George Laur, Sara Seidel and Steven Glensky proof stories during the 1980s when they were still pasted to fl ats. Editor Don Wood came to Rural Missouri from Ozark Electric Cooperative and was instrumental in dramatically increasing the circulation. 28 RURAL MISSOURI | JANUARY 2023