A Rural Newspaper Editor’s Passion for Ragtime

I spend a lot of time blowing the dust off of old newspaper clippings, especially articles about the ragtime festivals in Sedalia over the years. Most, of course, are from the Sedalia papers and I have written about many of those jottings. However, perhaps the most complete accounts of Sedalia’s more recent annual ragtime festivals are to be found in the Monett Times each year. Monett, Missouri, population about 9,000, is located almost one hour southwest of Springfield, Missouri, on Highway 60 or about an hour and a half northwest of Branson. Monett itself has little in the way of ragtime history or notoriety. However, thanks to the avid interest of news editor, Murray Bishoff in classic ragtime music, Monett Times readers get a detailed report about the Sedalia festival each year in a Midweek Edition, in less that two weeks after the event. At this point I would like to ramble off on a lengthy dissertation about the value of rural newspapers and the distinguished careers of rural editors I have known or read like William Allen White of the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette. However, I will employ a great deal of restraint and now focus my praise on Murray Bishoff’s writing. Murray is the news editor of The Times and that title gives him reign over not just the news of southwestern Missouri but an opportunity to report on a wide range of cultural events he and his wife, Julie Wae