Dear Mr. Liggett:

I am the daughter of Dan Warner, a former member of the Beacon Journal staff. My dad  started at the BJ as a reporter, and left in 1969 as ME. I was not yet born when my father began working at the Beacon-Journal and only 9 years old when he left it to move to Lawrence, MA in 1969. He returned to what had by then become the Knight-Ridder chain in 1970 to assume the role of Night ME of the Philadelphia Inquirer. After about 3 years of that nonsense (12p - 12a, with Sundays and Mondays off and a commute that included 52 stoplights each way), the story is that he and my mother decided it was no way to raise a family. So he returned to the Lawrence (MA) Eagle-Tribune where he was again their ME, then their Executive Editor for roughly the next 40 years, gathering many local prizes along the way. Eventually, the paper scooped up their first Pulitzer for the "Willie Horton" story - known by local Republicans as "The One that Sunk Dukakis!" and by local Democrats in pretty much the same words, but with a decidedly different tone to their voices.

Now, sadly, I'm 52. What can I say? Shit happens. I tried to stay 4 years  old, and as cute as I was when Ben Maidenberg searched his desk and came up with a can of sardines that he gave me for Christmas; or even 5, just like when Tom Suchan came to Mrs. Seachrest's (sp?) Nursery School and took my picture as I sat, very wiggly and tousle-haired, next to a classmate holding out one of our newly-hatched chicks, but - no luck. (I've attached a couple of photos just in case someone on your list wants to see if The Kid looks like her Old Man. I included the one Mr. Suchan took. I'm the kid on the left in that one.)

My dad will be 76 on 8/16. I'm contacting you because I'm trying to put together as many of my dad's  old columns and stories as possible to put on discs and CDs so that he and my mom and brother and I can have them to read and enjoy over and over again (cue the announcer!), and somewhere in the piles and piles of 'stuff' in my "special treasures" drawer there was a clipping from www.acorn.net/bjretireees/pranks.htm.  That particular clip details the "God willing" and "stick this slug up your ass" pranks. I love 'em both! I figured that whoever was behind that website had to know something about my dad, and I had to find that person. Your name was at the head of the list.

Anyway -  The last time I checked, the BJ didn't have anything collected on or by my father. Not even on paper, forget about on computers. They suggested I go to the Akron Public Library and flip through their microfiche files to put things together. I've got at least one day already booked to do that (8/9/12). I know it will take more than one day. Especially since I know so little about exactly when and what my dad did when he was in Akron. 

Any help your group could give me would be extremely appreciated.  I would be very grateful for any  memories, stories, or clips that anybody on your list has and is willing to share with me. I will be in Ohio the 2nd and 3rd weeks of August at the very least. I know that I'll be spending 8/9 in the Akron Public Library copying things from microfiche that my Dad wrote when he was at the Beacon Journal. So far I haven't figured out any other way to get them. If anybody knows anything about what day of the week his column usually ran, or anything that might help me narrow down my search, that would be incredibly helpful. Otherwise, I'll be scanning each paper day-by-day and year by year for every year he was there. Looking on each page for his byline. If anybody remembers a specific story that he covered and/or what year it was, that would help hugely! For example, I've heard that he covered the stories below, but I don't know where or in what years to look for them:

an execution by electric chair (?mb the last one in OH that was legal before they were declared unconstitutional?? IDK)

an* horrific* train crash - (It may have been on a Saturday, because I was  in the office with him when the call came in. I was only with him on that
day because he always went in on Saturdays to judge a children's coloring  contest that ran on Sundays)

Race riots - we got called back from a vacation in Canada because Akron  erupted. I'm guessing this was the summer of '68. But don't know for sure.
All I remember is that we drove all night and stopped at a truck stop for  the best cheeseburgers I've ever had in my whole life. (The memories of
one's children are rarely the same as those of their parents.)

columns about my brother being born (7/14/65) while my father was having  knee surgery to repair a torn cartilege in an entirely different hospital across town. Danny was born in St. Joe's - IDK where my father had his knee surgery done.

columns about quitting smoking or dieting (these could have run every other  week! - I'm just trying to jog memories.)

A Chirstmas story about a woman who was given money every year by an anonymous donor who shoved money into her hand while she was window shopping at a downtown department store. I can't remember the name exactly, but it was "????? mother" that she became known as.

I'm sure there were a blue million other stories that I've not heard anything about. The above are just a few that are either family stories, things I've seen references to in later columns he wrote, or things I remember being at (like the train wreck - I never saw the carnage, but I remember getting chocolate ice cream sodas afterward.)