Charleroi native recalls years of reading, good service

When The Valley Independent put out the call for its longest-running subscriber, several Mid-Mon Valley residents responded.

It seems that our 100-year-old newspaper has been read every day for a long, long time by quite a few of you out there.

And, while it's tough to determine who has been getting the newspaper the longest, we did manage to narrow the field to a couple of local residents.

For example, there is Belle Allfree Brutout of Charleroi.

Brutout, 88, says she has been reading the newspaper ever since she was a little girl. Her memories date back to the days of The Charleroi Mail, which was bought by The Daily Independent in 1960.

The Daily Independent then became known as The Valley Independent.

Brutout has vivid memories of reading the newspaper more than 80 years ago when she was a child in Lock Four and Charleroi.

"I lived as a child at 435 Isabella Ave. and, of course, my daily paper was there," she said.

"I lived one year in Allenport waiting for my new home to be built in Maple Creek. My paper was still delivered by my paper boy.

"When I moved from my home after 47 years to Fifth Street, I gave an additional tip to my paper boy for bringing me The Valley Independent up the 18 steps to my door.

"Six years ago, I moved to Crest Avenue Apartments and every day my Valley Independent is under my door."

Brutout remembers knowing several employees of the old Charleroi Mail.

"Jessie Copeland was a reporter for the Mail who lived in Lock Four. I used to meet her at the paper and we'd go to lunch together," she said.

"An editor there, Mr. Macamic, I knew him, too. I had another friend there, Thelma Crawford, who was a writer.

"That goes back to the late 1920s and early 1930s."

Brutout says she still has several clippings from the Charleroi Mail and The Valley Independent.

"When my father retired as an assistant lockmaster at the old Lock Four dam, the paper ran a picture of him and I still have it."

She recalled the paper as looking much different than it does today.

"The earlier paper was not delivered to us," she said. "We used to get it at the corner of the (Charleroi-Monessen) bridge across from the honor roll.

"There was a business there called Kramer's Drug Store. My father went there every day and picked up the paper.

"The paper was only four pages back then. It was nowhere near as big as it is today with so many sections."

Brutout said that even when she was young, the first part of the paper she read - as is the case today - is the same.

"Even back then, the first thing we used to look at were the obituaries," she said with a smile. "But I do read it all. I always did."

She said that when The Valley Independent announced its search for the longest active subscriber, her memory was sparked.

"Your paper being 100 years old has brought back a lot of memories," she said. "There are things I hadn't thought about in a long, long time that came back to me.

"I'll be 89 soon and, for as long as I can remember, I've read the newspaper. I don't know what I would do without it."

Another long subscriber is Kathryn Molluski, 93, of Belle Vernon.

Molluski gets the paper delivered every day and reads it thoroughly, said her daughter, Barbara Webb.

"She loves to read the obituaries," said Webb. "But she reads every article in the paper. Honest. She sees things in there that I never see. And she saves the paper for my son."

Webb said her family has a long tradition with The Valley.

"In the 1950s, when it was the Charleroi Mail, we delivered it," she said. "My brother, Raymond, and I also delivered the Charleroi Shopper.

"We delivered to Elco, Roscoe and Stockdale. We walked with a wagon. We only made a quarter-cent for each one we delivered."

Webb says her mother still enjoys talking about current events she learns from reading The Valley Independent.

"She even reads the want ads," her daughter said with a laugh. "This is her everyday entertainment until bed time."

Webb says her mother's two passions these days are working in the yard and reading the newspaper.

"She works out in the yard all day and reads The Valley at night.

"There were a couple days a few years back when her paper wasn't delivered and she was very upset," Webb said. "But for the last five years, her paper carriers have been excellent. They take the paper right up to the house and leave it in the mailbox.

"She would be lost without it every day."