Historic Laredo

Tish’s hand was on the editorial rudder, but he
had a history of hiring good newsmen like Lloyd
Hackler, Jim Johnston, and Larry Jackson to keep
company with the Times lifers, pulse-of-the-city journalists
like Jim Parish, Tom Green, and Juan Vasquez.
Tom Green wore a Fedora. Jim Parish wore a
guayabera. Mabel Cogley Wall, the society editor
and Mr. Tish’s mother-in-law, wore pearls and took
her news near the front door with brides and
mothers of brides. Carmina Danini, who would,
over the next decades, enjoy a career of excellence
in journalism and many professional accolades,
was one of the Times’ proofreaders.
In more ways than one, The Laredo Times made
journalists out of eager upstarts and dedicated
employees with a nose for news. In more ways
than one, the presses roared back then.
In those politically incorrect days, cigarette smoke
hung thick in the air at The Laredo Times, and soda
vending machines were scarce in the building, a reality
that necessitated a trip next door to the Bender
Hotel for a cold ten-cent Coke or a cup of coffee. Jim
was kind and nurturing, a man who called attention
to good work and had distinct views on bad work or
bad behavior. He was ever ready with consoling
words after a new reporter had been called into the
publisher’s office for a little attitude adjustment.
“You did good, Kiddo,” he would say, allowing
the implicit possibility that an upstart reporter
might make the cut and be doing this word -
smithing as a grown-up, too.
Through all the evolutions a newspaper can
experience, through the move from private ownership
to corporate ownership, the revolutionary
changes in computers and communication, the
merging of two newspapers into one, the sale of the
paper from one media group to another, changes in
management models and communication theories,
the constant at The Laredo Times for many decades
was Jim Parish, among the most genial and
dependable members of Laredo’s news community.
Jim Parish’s dedication in a lifetime of
newswriting were much admired. His public generosity
and his generosity of spirit were evident
when he took the most humble of news events—
the news in someone’s life—and made it substantive
and credible in print.
Many remember his work ethic. He will be remembered
as a trooper, a prolific writer, a writer not only of
competent adherence to grammar and spelling, but an
honorable newsman who wrote the plain truth.
This native son of Eufala, Oklahoma was born
on January 4, 1922. A student of Latin American
history and government, Parish was a graduate of
the University of Texas. After graduation, he
worked in Ft. Worth for the late Jack Danciger, a
Texan who promoted Pan Americanism between
the United States and Latin American countries.
Parish served in the U.S. Navy during World War
II from 1942 to 1946. He taught in San Ygnacio
and Zapata, and while in Zapata, he began to write
for The Times a series of Reporter’s Notebook
accounts about the life and times of the people of
the region.
When downtown was the heart of the business
community, Jim, a longtime resident of the
Hamilton Hotel, was highly visible covering the
events that moved and formed our city and this
shared border.
Jim Parish was a man of this world, a traveler, a
man for whom rivers and language marked no
boundaries, a selfless man of immense kindness.
CARMINA DANINI,
WITNESS TO HISTORY
“I always thought I would be in this business,”
said journalist Carmina Danini, a writer for the San
Antonio Express-News. “I was a bookworm who
loved history. As a reporter, you see history as it is
happening, whether it is live at the roadside scene of
an accident or a shooting or an interview with the
president of Mexico. You are not watching history
on TV, you are witness to it and you will write it and
your story becomes a footnote to history,” the native
Laredoan said.
“The truth, the substance of your stories, can
make people uncomfortable. It is something you
finally learn to stop worrying about as a writer. If
it’s a problem to hold people accountable for their
actions, then just sell ice cream. That makes everyone
happy,” Danini said. “When you write those
discomfiting stories, you can’t hide. You have to be
accessible to hear from those who hated what you
wrote and those who want to tell you how much
they appreciate the story,” she continued.
“In writing, inaccuracy is the worst sin,” Danini
said. “You won’t be sued because the grammar is
bad, though it is also terribly important because
much credibility is lost when the writer can’t spell
or use correct syntax,” she said.
“We all have a story,” Danini said. “Most people
have a history about them, either personally or
❖
Jim Parish, once a school teacher in
San Ygnacio and Zapata, offered
readers in Laredo a lifetime of service
as a writer for The Laredo Times.
Parish, a native of Eufala, Oklahoma,
was known to many Laredoans not
only as a journalist, but also as a
selfless man of immense kindness.
Chapter II ✦ 21