COMMENT re: Sandra Kimball

We sometimes meet a person with a mission we are proud to share.

One such person was Sandra Kimball.

Tuesday we reported that she has “gone late.” That means she has died. But being called dead is not the same thing as going late.

Being called dead is like saying there is nothing more from the one we no longer have with us. Being gone late implies there will always be memories of what that person has contributed in big and tiny ways. It's an old alternative to being called dead, as if the door had slammed closed on what the person did and, so, there's nothing more to be said. Dead vs. Late.

The recently gone late Sandra Kimball, was a woman of traditional build who had a curious faith. A traditional-built woman is big. And she had a heart to match, and a curious faith that it mattered greatly to write as clearly as possible about what the people of Sheboygan Falls did as a matter of public record. She sat through their meetings. She tolerated the indifference, intolerance and ignoble inference which sometimes resulted from her reporting. Kimball demonstrated a traditional strength of local newspaper journalism which was applauded when the people involved were given proper credit, and abhorred when it threatened to pull the rug on their personal agendas.

She came to the job as News Editor of The Sheboygan Falls News in May 1988 when the newspaper needed just such a person. She'd been a newspaper journalist in Wyoming, Maine and Manitowoc as well as a photography and community relations specialist for a Manitowoc hospital. Although getting to know her adopted community of Sheboygan Falls honed her skills, she was a freedom fighter uncommonly valuable to find.

Like most employers, we didn't ask too much about her home life. Her husband was a good guitar player.

They volunteered to both play music and throw out candy from our truck in Sheboygan Falls' parades. They bought a home north of Falls. Then he suddenly deserted her. They had no children.

Devastated, but striving, she pursued a dream: buy a little hobby farm house on the edge of Sheboygan Falls, and keep working. The efforts eventually became too much for a woman alone. Her income wasn't up to the challenge. Her energy eventually became sapped. But, while her honest reporting of public record events in Sheboygan Falls never faltered, the reports upset some people who would have preferred their version to the truth. A self-appointed committee of prosecutors called for her resignation. So we promoted her.T

he drying winds of divorce, loneliness, criticism and age took an obvious toll on Sandra's spirit. She started to rebel, and in the embittering process even lost those of us who admired her. With great reluctance, we chose to close our journalistic relationship in July 2004. She seemed to realize that she had been worn out by her dreams and circumstances.

There was no funeral this week. No obituary. No picture. Sandra Kimball has gone late, and we remember so much that was the good part about knowing her.
By Barry Johanson
Sheboygan Falls News
publisher