Knott retires after 30 years in advertising industry

In 1985, Ronald Reagan took office, the Kansas City Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals in game seven of the World Series, Tina Turner had everyone asking, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”; and a waitress at Mason’s Cafe, Bette Knott, decided to make a career change and began working for the Jasper County Advertiser and Shaw Media.

Mason’s Cafe was a popular downtown diner where numerous people went for lunch including employees of The Newton Daily News and Jasper County Advertiser. Knott had known and became friends with many of the staff who encouraged her to interview for the advertising sales position, despite her lack of experience.

“The only thing I’d ever sold is a cup of coffee,” Knott said.

In the 80s, employees at the newspaper designed the paper by hand, unlike the computer process used today.

Typesetters would print copy and text from a book of various sizes and fonts. Sales executives would find cuts to use from a book of images. Ads were layed out on a fresh piece of paper and waxed. The newspaper, editorial, advertising and all, was put together like a puzzle and then shot by camera, Knott said.

At that time, Newton had a variety of places to shop: Spurgeons, Leonards, Fashionette, Coast-to-Coast, Drug Town, Leutholds, downtown clothing stores and the Newton Mall. With that came a lot of advertising potential.

While at the paper, Knott enjoyed her employers and had nice things to say about Hazel Gildenzoph or E.K. Shaw. She had went to school with E.K. and Nancy Shaw’s two sons Bill and Bob and remembers the family vividly.

“(Bill and Bob) were very, very nice boys. You would never know they were well-to-do, just common. Nancy and E.K. Shaw were just super, super people and raised super boys.”

In the middle of her advertising career, Knott decided to sell cars at a local dealership where she said she learned a lot about cars and people, but she came back to the newspaper business in 2005.

“Sharon Pritchard called and said, ‘Bette, your old job is open and we would love to have you back,” Bette said. “And John DeGrado called just two or three minutes later and said, ‘Bette, you need to get back here. We want to interview you.’”

Knott came back and has enjoyed her experience making friends at work, throughout the community and mainly getting to know people. She enjoyed advising people to the best decision and if a mistake was made, she said the most important thing is to make a wrong a right.

“What makes Bette a great sales person is that she is an all around amazing lady. She listens to customers to know what they want and she has a great imagination to give customers ideas on what/how to advertiser,” said Pam DeBruyn, Newton Daily News advertising account executive. “Bette will be greatly missed at the office because everybody looks up to her and looks forward to her Wednesday Hump Day commercial.”

Monday will be Knott’s last day as a working woman, but then she’ll start checking things off her bucket list, she said.

Knott is looking forward to the leisure of retirement, she said, with plans to travel with her husband, Bob. Upcoming travel plans include road trips to Arizona and then up the California coast.

On Friday, the Newton Daily News will host a luncheon for Knott’s hard work and dedication to the newspaper. Former employees are invited to attend the celebration.

“The paper was a very caring company. Your family comes first. The Shaw company has been a very family-oriented company; but it’s the people, my coworkers, that’s what I’m going to really miss. We’re a family,” Knott said.

Contact Kate Malott at 641-752-3121 ext. 6533 or kmalott@newtondailynews.com