Thursday, June 18, 2009
Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life here at KARE 11. We received news that our senior executive producer was leaving us.
Lonnie Hartley worked at KARE 11 for 21 years. For all of those 21 years, he dedicated his himself to make us a better newsroom and he succeeded. He taught us how important it was to get the news out to people but he also taught us how important we were to each other as a staff.
The best way to describe Lonnie would be that he was the pulse of our newsroom. He knew every crook and cranny of this newsroom and he knew it well. He was hard on us but it's because he wanted to make us better and he did.
Whenever I had a question, the first person I went to was Lonnie. But more importantly, he cared about the people in our newsroom like we were his children. There are not many bosses like that in any industry.
Lonnie could overcome any obstacle that came in his path. But the one obstacle he could not stay away from was this economy.
I'm just so honored that I got to work with him for the last fourteen years of my life. But there is no doubt in my mind that he will be sorely missed.
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)