The Clermont Sun is an institution in Clermont County, and a testament to that is the paper approaching its 200th year of serving county residents in 2028.

But an institution like The Sun is not a faceless entity consisting of paper and ink; there are real people making it happen, week after week, both on the bylines and behind-the-scenes.

One of the most important people behind-the-scenes to the success of The Sun in modern times has been Frances Pope. After nearly 30 years at the newspaper, she will be retiring on July 28.

Nobody at the paper has more institutional knowledge than Frances has, more know-how, and certainly, nobody can bake like she does.

Even though I was only editor for five of her nearly 30 years at the paper, I can say without equivocation or hyperbole that Frances exemplifies what we mean when we call The Sun a community newspaper.

She always cared about The Sun’s customers, both those we do printing jobs for, and those who are our readers, and the family that makes up the institution itself.

Tony Adams, former publisher, who had a tenure just a little bit longer than Frances’ — and the silver fox hair to prove it — agreed that Frances was a “dedicated employee,” who cared about the customers and her fellow employees.

“She would work all hours of the day and night to help get the jobs done,” Adams said.

Even more important than who Frances has been as a worker is the kind of person she is; Adams said that not only was it great to work with Frances, but that she is “also a great friend.”

“When I left The Clermont Sun after almost 40 years, it was hard to leave all of my friends and coworkers. We all have spent so much time together. We have seen each other through a lot of hard times across the years, including the passing of family members,” he said.

Adams added, “There will never be another group of people like the ones I worked with at The Clermont Sun. And Frances is at the top of the list; the company will not be the same without her.”

For those who know Adams and his faux-allergy to sappiness, that is quite the statement. And I don’t think he is saying that under duress, even though I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I witnessed Frances (quite easily) bowl him over when he was aggravating her like he always did.

Frances has left her mark in that way, though, on Tony, myself, and countless others involved in the newspaper.

She is the kind of person who made staying late at the office on production nights not so bad.

She is the kind of person who always left us little cards on different occasions just to show she cared.

She is the kind of person who makes a community newspaper work, and it won’t be quite the same without her, as Adams said.

But if anyone deserves to step away into retirement, it is Frances.

I just wish The Sun had one of those pensieves from the Harry Potter books, so we could store her memories to look back upon, and maybe keep some of that necessary institutional knowledge around.

Brett Milam

Former Editor