We recently connected with Connie Clements and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Connie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I hope our subscribers will say I was an ethical, honest, unbiased reporter and my Connie’s Corner opinion column was informative and challenging as well as entertaining. I hope everyone I’ve interviewed feels respected, accurately quoted or represented in my articles and that my features on people of interest provided “lagniappe” – a little something extra!
I’ve done my fair share of genealogy research and it’s exciting and meaningful to find articles in books and old newspapers about my ancestors. I’m proud my work for the Examiner may serve as a link to the past for someone in the future.
IAs for my personal legacy, that’s my family! I’ve been a mother a lot longer than I’ve been a newspaper reporter. I hope they see me as a positive role model as they become older citizens themselves. I want them to know that age alone is no excuse for not stepping out of that comfort zone.
I hope my late-in-life, second wind career and new relationship after my husband’s death serve as a living testimony that no matter how hopeless things look or how much the heart hurts, don’t ever consider checking out! We have no idea what great things or great loves await us right around the corner!
Connie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m usually the one asking the questions, so this is a little awkward for me. I’m a freelance writer, primarily writing news, features and an opinion column for the Navasota Examiner,
My journalism experience consists of 2.5 years on the Reagan Statesman newspaper staff at Reagan High School in Houston, 1962-1965. My dream was to go to the University of Texas, major in journalism and get hired by a newspaper but I made some life choices that didn’t mesh with that dream! I have no regrets – I married, raised four children (now grandmother to 10) and rejoined the workforce.
Ironically, it was a feature story in the Houston Chronicle around 1989 that inspired me to enroll in community college. The article was about a grandmother who was graduating from Texas A&M University. At the age of 42, I enrolled in the second summer session at Houston Community College. Working fulltime, with a husband and two busy high schoolers at home, I continued my studies at HCC and Wharton County Junior College making the Dean’s List multiple times for about the next five years. I truly valued education so much more at this stage of life than I would have out of high school. The government course was instrumental in helping me determine which political party most represented MY values and probably influenced some of my activities today.
Night school ended when my dad had a debilitating fall and then I had my first grandchild. We moved to Grimes County, and I took up quilting in my spare time. My retirement goal was to spend the rest of my life in a muumuu quilting till I died! But I can honestly say that the seed for self-improvement was planted by that Aggie grandma grad. It’s a shame I have no way of letting her know how much of an impression she made on me.
Things don’t go as planned in life and my husband was diagnosed with emphysema in 2004. He died after an 8.5-year long illness. During that time, I had bariatric surgery and nearly died myself. I came home after a month in the hospital to my husband going on home hospice care for the next nine months. I was lost when he died but my own surgical complications and hospitalization made me realize I was STILL alive and there were things I wanted to do – I just didn’t know what they were yet!
I knew only four people in Navasota at that time, but I joined a woman’s political organization, and I started attending city council meetings to learn about my adopted hometown. THIS decision was the turning point in my life! After the meetings, I’d post comments about them on Facebook. Nine months later, then-publisher of the Examiner, Scott McDonald, asked me if I’d cover’ city council since they were short-staffed, and I was there anyway – and they’d pay me! I was scared to death but told myself I’d never get another opportunity like this at my age (66) so I said yes!
News writing is entirely different from posting on Facebook, and I was clueless about how government worked. The city manager, Brad Stafford, was always willing to explain processes, terminology, whatever questions I had. I truly believe that what I learned in my high school journalism class is superior to what is taught in colleges now and has served me well. I have learned more about city and county government than I ever dreamed and can truthfully say that after sitting in 10 years of meetings, I know more than many of the people who run for office…lol!
Sick of what was seeping into national newsrooms, I was committed to leaving my opinion out of my news articles and I have worked hard to establish credibility and trust with not only my city and county elected officials, but the state and federal elected officials I’ve come to know through my work and political activities. There are times I have interviewed people whose political opinions don’t align with mine, but I check my politics at the door – because it’s not about me. It’s about the person I’m interviewing, and they get 100% of my best effort.
I grew up in the era when the entire family watched the news together. Our sources were limited compared to today, but you knew where the buck stopped. Now people get their news from Facebook where no one is accountable. Those of us who write for community newspapers like the Navasota Examiner are the last of a breed of truly accountable reporters – our readers know where to find us. We have to be able to back up what we report. We’re in church, in the grocery store, at the Little League game with our readers – trust and credibility are essential. We ARE the news source for our county, and I’m committed to keeping our readers informed of what their elected officials are doing and how their tax dollars are being spent. On the other hand, I have no problem taking our readers to task in my opinion column for not turning out to vote.
As a journalist, my two most important accomplishments are my Texas Press Association Best Newspaper first place award in Column Writing a few years ago and being the editor of the very first Navasota Magazine in 2016. It was distributed statewide and helped make Navasota the destination place it is today. I was stunned to be named Citizen of the Year by the Navasota Grimes County Chamber of Commerce for my efforts. The magazine was a labor of love and the catalyst for even more work to come with the Examiner. In 2023, I contracted with the City of Navasota to provide extensive content for their tourism website.
I turn 77 this year but age is just a number. I think my community involvement keeps me young at heart and active. Writing keeps me tuned in to our county’s changing landscape and demographics, and it keeps my mind and memory sharp. I have interviewed some of the most fascinating people right here in our county and that would not have happened had I been in my muumuu quilting!
In addition to writing, I serve an election judge and a Grimes County Republican Party precinct chair, as chair of the Navasota Zoning Board of Adjustments, past president of Grimes County Crime Stoppers, past board member of Keep Navasota Beautiful and in 2023 was appointed as a representative from the Brazos Valley to the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature which advocates for legislation protecting the rights of older citizens.
Sometimes when my calendar is full and I feel overwhelmed by deadlines, I wish I lived a “normal’ retiree’s life, but in reality, I would not trade my life for anything. I truly believe this second chance life I have is a “God thing.” He gave me a talent and way to use it and there’s no way I could have planned it any better!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
April 30 is the 10th anniversary of my first article in the Navasota Examiner and the most rewarding aspect of my work is the people I’ve met these last 10 years. While I enjoy writing about local news, the features are special. These folks allow me into their lives for interviews and trust me to tell their story. In several situations, just sharing it in print helped their businesses with just the boost it needed. My life has been enriched and bonds have been formed with people I might otherwise not know if I were not writing.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
After my husband died, I attended city council meetings for nine months as a private citizen. City officials got to know me and freely talked to me. The first few meetings I walked into after being hired to report for the newspaper, a few of those same officials suddenly became guarded, I’ve been committed since day one to reporting news events without personal or political interpretation. I’m not a kiss & tell reporter. I respect “off the record.” When I talk with department heads, elected officials, business owners, etc., who may also be my friends, they know when they’re talking to the friend or to the reporter. What is said as a friend doesn’t make its way into a news story.
I also had to overcome my predecessor’s reputation for misquoting people. This had tarnished the reputation of the newspaper as well. I record my interviews for both of our sakes and what is said is what is written.
I’ve worked hard to earn the trust of the people I write about, and I learned these principles 60 years ago in Mrs. Sandra Struesand’s high school journalism class!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.navasotaexaminer.com/
Image Credits
Navasota Grimes County Chamber of Commerce Navasota Examiner Kenny Graves with Willy 1550 AM/98.7 FM