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This collection of columns from "The Cub's Corner" is a testimony of respect for Marty McGowan Jr. as a journalist, father, local business man, state legislator, man of faith, and public servant. He called his column "The Cub's Corner" from his early years as a "cub" reporter for the Appleton Press. Marty felt he was never more than the second best journalist in Appleton, or Swift County, or Minnesota, or rural America, for that matter. He was favorably compared to his father, Martin Sr., who for years wrote the "Martinis" column for the same Appleton Press.

In 1955, Marty Jr, his sister Ellie, and her mother Elizabeth, memorialized Martin Sr's column with a collection of some of his best. This collection celebrates Marty's 75th birthday by collecting some of his best work from "The Cub's Corner" on the 40th anniversary of the "Martini's" collection. While he may not have thought he measured up to his father's writing skills, we now know through time and the lessons of life that greatness is but a fleeting thing. Just some of Marty's best moments are captured here in this collection.

"The Cub's Corner," chronicled the growth of Marty's family, which from the 1940's through early 1960's grew into a typically large Roman Catholic family. Marty Jr. was born on October 28, 1920. His mother, Olga Wilhelmena Vieg, was taken by tuberculosis while he was an infant. The McGowan's had settled in the Kerkhoven area in the 1890's and the Vieg's had come up from Iowa. Marty's aunt Gertrude, some of whose great deeds are chronicled in "Martinis", provided the maternal influence until Marty's early teens. Martin Sr, married again, to Elizabeth Kelly and their union produced Ellie McGowan Simcoe, when Marty was 14. Ellie can recall the benefits of being a teenager in high school with an older brother who could drive her and her friends to the out-of-town games. She is now willing to admit how handsome he was. There were some well-remembered photos of class plays with Marty as "the Sheik" as played by Valentino.

After Appleton High School, Marty attended Notre Dame and graduated in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1942. World War II was aflame and while a health deferment curtailed a military career, a shortage of men to work the newspaper curtailed Marty's chance as a big-city political "cub" reporter. Returning to Appleton in that war year, he met Elizabeth Jane "Betty" Nolan, youngest of seven herself, from Brainard, via St. Cloud Teachers College (now St.Cloud State University). Betty was a new teacher at the same Appleton High, where a few years before, Marty had distinguished himself in tennis and drama and while if not in basketball, at least as a reporter for a state tournament team. Marty and Betty were married on July 3, 1943.

The family grew to nine children, mostly in three groups of three, between 1944 and 1961. Marty and Betty are modestly, but justifiably proud of their children's accomplishments, with four programmers and/or engineers, a homemaker and business partner, a university administrator, a banker, and last, but not least, two lawyers. In chronological order, they are Marty III (Mick), Dan, Meg, Vince, Kev, Sean, Brendan, Maureen, and Michael. When Mike was about five, he was overheard to ask: "Dad, how come there are so many of us?", to which Marty's sure reply was, "Well Mike, if there weren't so many, you wouldn't be here, too." This fine family was made possible because Betty, who had edited the St Cloud campus newspaper, had sacrificed one of her principles, to "never marry a journalist."

A quick time-line of Marty's (and Betty's) accomplishments:

Marty inherited the mantle of "Western Minnesota Democrat" from his father. Political meetings had moved from the back room of Eddie Pederson's clothing store out on to Main Street, railroad stops, and city parks in Appleton and the surrounding towns. When Hubert Humphrey or Gene McCarthy would bring their campaign to town, Marty was the one to show them around, introduce them to folks, and (with the school conductor's help) strike up the band.

A high water mark for the Appleton Press came early in 1962, when it was selected as the "Best Weekly Newspaper" in Minnesota by the state editorial association. Marty, as his father before him, had won awards for editorial excellence, and for individual sections of the paper. This was the crowning achievement. Possibly the highest compliment was given by a member of the political opposition, Paul Waldon, described in a St Paul Pioneer Press article as the "cigar-chewing president of Waldon Wholesale Grocery Co.", who said of Marty, "'No sir,' he said, 'I don't like most of his editorials. ... This is a Republican town and he doesn't represent us on the editorial page. 'But when you talk about the rest of the paper, then I'm like the judges of that contest. I'd vote Marty's a fine newspaper ... Tell you why. It looks nice. Clean. Interesting layouts. His column [The Cub's Corner] is swell. Frankly, I read that first. And I feel we get all the news even when it steps on somebody's toes.'"

Marty practiced stepping on toes with tact. One time while preparing for Appleton's "Crazy Days" celebration, he described one of the committee members as "one of the more rotund merchants in town," a description well-understood by the community. Besides expected laudatory comments in the Pioneer Press article from former Governor Elmer Benson, another quote which came from "Maj. Gen. Robert Miller, ... sums it up: `You know, Marty's office wall over there, It's pretty well covered with plaques. If this award had been a bolt out of the blue, we'd have called it a fluke, But he's been working up to it.'"

The "Press Office", for those who remember it, can recall the Norman Rockwell quality of the place. A moment frozen in time, with the wood paneling, a painting of FDR, the Truman photo hanging, the copy-boy scurrying through, Royal typewriters clacking, the smell of hot lead, a couple of the local business men and farmers hanging out in the lobby chatting with the receptionist.

Marty reprised the Cub's Corner in the Blue Earth (Minnesota) Post in the years 1971 through 1978. Those years are also represented here. Blue Earth was at least as conservative as Appleton. The Post's support for former congressman Tim Penny's first run for elective office, to the State Senate against a former mayor of Blue Earth, cut into the good will of the community, and eventually led him to sell the paper, thus retiring from newspaper publishing.

Marty's great civic accomplishments centered around his tenure in the state legislature as the representative from Swift County. When A.I. Johnson, Speaker of the House and representative from Swift County stepped down, Marty was elected in his first race for the seat in 1958. He successfully defended it in 1960, 1962, and 1964, continuing liberal representation of rural Minnesota. When he retired from the newspaper business, and with the good will of his days in the legislature behind him, Governor Rudy Perpich appointed Marty to serve on the State Ethical Practices Board. In that role, the board kept Minnesota politics a little cleaner, making sure the money was green, not laundered, who it came from, and who it went to. It isn't a high-visibility position, but one of those things making the quality of life in Minnesota what it's recognized to be.

In their retirement, Marty and Betty built their home at Pelican Lake on a piece of the Nolan property that came down to Betty. While he has struggled with medical problems these last few years, they haven't kept him from enjoying the woods and the lake. He uses his time to keep the ham radio waves warm and remind the Twin City papers that liberal politics and human values are intertwined, and need remembering, nurturing, and promoting.

We, the members of his family hope you can take some of our family values from this collection. As we "go to press", a list of Marty and Betty's grandchildren would be safe to call their greatest accomplishment: Sarah (White), Natalie, Emma, Nolan (Sinkler), Chip (Marty IV), Maura, Katie, Erin, Allison, Liz (Elizabeth), Jonathan, Michelle, Cullen, Courtney, and Matthew (McGowan).

-- Marty III