Former Editor Keith Gillett Speaks on his time at The Herald

By Keith Gillett

I started working at Herald Publications in late December 2004. I remember coming in that first Monday morning and workers were washing the blood from the sidewalk outside the building where one of the upstairs tenants had fallen during the night, hit their head on the sidewalk and had died.

I initially worked on the Scott Flier, but took over as editor of The Herald in September 2005 when Gene Isbell decided to resign, so I had two papers to juggle. I continued as editor until the end of March 2012 and decided to quit working for good and collect my Social Security.

Nothing really out of the ordinary happened under my watch. It was always a long week, with long hours to get both papers put together and off to the printer on Tuesday afternoons.

I always liked photography and I tried to make sure that the front page had a striking, local photo. One of my best-liked photos was taken on Christmas Day 2010. It was photographed in Scheve Park right after a heavy, wet, four-inch snowfall had turned the park into a wonderland of white. The picture I took was of the red caboose and the Pullman car alongside the depot, framed by a tree covered with snow. It ran during the slow news week between Christmas and New Years and was clipped and saved by dozens of Herald readers, much to my surprise. It also earned a first place in the Feature News category in the Illinois Press Association’s newspaper contest later in 2011.

The weather resulted in two exceptional events that took place during my tenure – a severe ice storm in 2008 and an F2 tornado that struck south of town in 2011. The ice storm cut power to many neighborhoods in the area after nearly an inch of ice brought down tree limbs and entire trees. In my Old Lincolnshire neighborhood in Belleville one large tree was toppled and completely split a home in half, but nothing like that happened in Mascoutah.

The tornado started in Shiloh and moved from the northwest to the southeast on a ten-mile path. It was at its strongest as it crossed over Jefferson Hill near the intersection there. One older home was destroyed and several others received severe roof damage.

I also enjoyed covering local sports. For a multi-year stretch the Mascoutah High School Indians made the IHSA football playoffs. One year they lost out on a trip to state when they were beaten by Breese Mater Dei.

The final week of my tenure I was pleased to find out that The Herald had been named the top weekly paper in Southern Illinois by the Sothern Illinois Press Association – with a nice plaque. Always nice to go out on top!

After retiring, I couldn’t completely retire and decided to join Icon Sportswire as one of their 125 regional contract photographers. As such it has allowed me to be a major contributor for them to Getty and Associated Press Images. I cover nearly every pro sports imaginable in the St. Louis area. I have nearly 80,000 images in the Getty archives of which I draw a sizeable monthy royalty check. In that regard the biggest thing that happened to me was covering the college career of basketball star Caitlin Clark at the University of Iowa and having one of the photos I took of her used as a billboard in Times Square New York in March this year by Nike Athletic Wear to honor her record-setting exploits.

Best wishes to Herald Publications on its 140th anniversary!