Rudolph sentence brings back 1996 memories

The news that Eric Rudolph has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 Olympic Park bombing reminded me of yet another one of those young people who worked for me at The Carthage Press and who made that time so enjoyable.
When we heard that there had been a bombing in Atlanta, our first concern was about our teenage reporter Keegan Checkett from Carthage, who was at the event with her family. As soon as she had a chance Keegan called to let us know she was nowhere near the park, but she was able to offer The Press something that few small daily newspapers had that year, live, on-the-spot coverage of an Olympics that was even more newsworthy than usual.
Keegan worked for The Press for two summers, teaming with Lamar's Cait Purinton to provide us with an infusion of young talent during that time. Even after she left Carthage to attend Dartmouth University, she continued for quite some time to write a well-received column.
The last I heard from Keegan, she was back in Missouri. She was one of those former Press teen reporters who did not make the leap into professional journalism, but don't worry about Keegan, we hear that doctors do pretty well in this country, too.