The Grapevine Sun

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: the story of a small-town paper and the family that wouldn't let it go. Now, nineteen years old is young to start just about anything worth startin'. But in 1895, a young man named Benjamin R.

Wall walked into Grapevine, Texas, and launched a newspaper. The Grapevine Sun. He was nineteen years old.

Just nineteen. Wall held onto that paper for two years before selling it in 1897 to a man named James E. Keeling, a native of England who'd made his way, somehow, to the heart of North Texas.

James Keeling ran the Sun, and then something happened that you don't always see in the newspaper business, or any business for that matter. The paper stayed in the family. In 1912, James's son Ed took over as editor.

And Ed didn't do it alone; his wife Grady was right there beside him, helping publish the paper week after week. The Sun ran mostly encouraging news for its readers. Not scandal, not sensationalism; encouraging news.

You get the feeling Ed and Grady knew their neighbors, and their neighbors knew them. Ed Keeling published that paper for decades. Then, in 1953, Ed died.

And here's where the story could've ended. The press goes quiet, the type gets cold, the Sun sets for good. But it didn't.

Ed's daughter Zena Keeling Oxford stepped in as editor. And her husband Gene became the typesetter. The family kept the ink running.

But all things do end, eventually. When Zena died in 1976, the Sun was sold. And with that sale, eighty years of family connection (three generations, from James to Ed to Zena) came to a close.

Eighty years. One paper. One family.

That's not just a publishing run. That's a dynasty measured in column inches.

What the marker says

Benjamin R. Wall (1876-1955) started the Grapevine Sun in 1895 at the age of nineteen. It was sold in 1897 to James E. Keeling (1847-1925), a native of England. His son Ed took over as editor in 1912 and published the paper with the help of his wife Grady. The weekly printed mostly encouraging news for its readers. When Ed died in 1953 his daughter Zena Keeling Oxford became editor and her husband Gene was typesetter. The sale of the Sun following her death (1976) ended the family connection which lasted 80 years and spanned three generations. (1980)