Dapperly dressed, still there are those of us who see him in our mind’s eye strolling down the long, main corridor on any given newspaper morning or afternoon.
There was something of a glide in his easy gait.
Ramon Yarborough was good to look upon in his gray suit, pink dress shirt and that necktie knot just right. Usually on these days at Fayetteville Publishing Co. along Whitfield Street, the publisher was making his rounds for something on his mind with Dan Currie or Tom Copher in circulation, Jerry Burton in advertising, Grisson Bain in the composing room, Bill Owen in the pressroom, Ken Cooke in the photography department, or Bob Wilson in The Fayetteville Observer newsroom and Tom English Jr. in The Fayetteville Times newsroom.
Or perhaps he was looking for Lattie Faircloth about pruning the hedges or the petunias outside the polished, glass windows of Ramon Yarborough’s executive office, because the always well-manicured grounds of the publishing company were high on his list of priorities at the place where the state’s newest and oldest newspapers were published 365 days of every year. But nothing was more important than the news stories, the advertisers and those more than 85,000 subscribers of the daily press runs.
You didn’t have to be an editor at the newspaper. Or the advertising director. Or the circulation director or a Grisson Bain in the composing room or a Bill Owen in the pressroom overseeing the giant, three-tier printing press.
With Ramon Yarborough, every employee was somebody.
Somebody taking care of an ailing spouse or putting a son or daughter through college. Or watching out for an aging father or mother. Every one of those 500-plus employees had a name, and Ramon Yarborough knew their names. They were not just a number in the bookkeeping department. Not just a number. A name we all knew that Ramon Yarborough knew when we saw the publisher coming our way.
“He was good to everybody,” daughter Virginia Y. Colantuono says. “Not just to his employees. Just everybody. It was just his personality.”
It was just his way.
Just Ramon Yarborough’s nature when it came to others.
‘Many acts of kindness’
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father, which is in heaven,” John Holmes would quote from the Bible’s Gospel of Matthew on this Saturday afternoon when a community of friends and old newspaper employees would join with two sons, a daughter, grandchildren and other family to bid farewell in this celebration of life at St. John’s Episcopal Church downtown. “If ever a man was the living embodiment to Matthew’s gospel, it was Ramon Yarborough.
“Ramon Yarborough was a giant in this community.
“Ramon was, quite simply, the most generous man I have ever known,” Holmes would say. “I had both the honor and privilege of working with him for over a quarter of a century and was a first-hand witness to his many acts of kindness.”
Of those giving ways, so many in this sanctuary could have followed John Holmes to the pulpit to recall on this day and to remember about this good and humble man with ink in his blood, but with such compassion in his heart that was just a part of this newspaper family’s caring ways.
“The Lilly, Yarborough, Broadwell and Fox families are without doubt the greatest family of philanthropists this community has ever known,” Holmes, director of human resources at the newspaper from 1977 to 2005, would say. “Or should I say, perhaps never known, because so much of what they have given has been anonymously.”
No need, Ramon Yarborough would want all of us to know, for all of this pomp and circumstance and remembrance of simply treating others with kindness, because doing right by others called for no plaudits or praise or acknowledgement. Doing the right thing for someone is little more than the right thing to do.
‘On the back porch’
“Ramon was not only generous in big things, he was generous in those small, everyday ways that endeared him to all who knew him,” John Holmes would say. “I could give you hundreds of examples. One day Ramon came in my office to inquire as to the address and work shift of one of our composing room employees. This was a young man with a large family of five, and his wife had recently had to leave her job due to health issues. And this employee was struggling to make ends meet. Ramon never told me why he wanted the address, and I knew better than to ask.
“The next day, I was walking through the composing room and heard this employee telling his co-workers that when he got home from work the day before, he found 10 bags of groceries on his back porch with no note and no idea who had done such a kind and wonderful thing. Now, my friends will tell you, I’m probably not the best keeper of secrets in the world, but I knew to keep my mouth shut because that is the way Ramon wanted it.
“And for over 30 years, every single employee — and we had almost 500 — got a birthday card with a handwritten message from Ramon,” he would say. “Now sending a birthday card seems like no big deal. But in every single article this past week, every person who was quoted mentioned the birthday cards, and in literally hundreds of social media posts, employees mention the birthday cards over and over again.
“Every spring, each employee who had a child graduating from high school got a personal gift. This was the kind of personal touch that made him not just loved, but absolutely revered by his employees.
“So, let’s all take this as a lesson,” John Holmes would remind us. “Take the time, send a card, make a phone call, stop by for a visit. Of such small kindnesses are legacies made.”
‘History in the making’
The son of a state legislator and prominent automobile dealer, Ramon Yarborough took Virginia Lilly for his bride in 1964 in this sanctuary. He joined The Fayetteville Observer in 1965 working for her father, Richard M. Lilly, who was the newspaper publisher. Ramon Yarborough would become publisher in 1971, when the newspaper offices were located on Hay Street by the old oak tree Ramon Yarborough so admired and that was so dear to his heart.
He would be a part of the company’s board of directors led by the late Ashton Lilly, Virginia Yarborough, Charlotte Broadwell, Dohn Broadwell and Ashton Fox, all who would create The Fayetteville Times, the morning newspaper that would first publish on July 2, 1973.
“A large group gathered in the pressroom to watch the first edition of The Fayetteville Times roll off of the press,” Ramon Yarborough, then the 40-year-old publisher, would say in June before the 50th anniversary of the morning newspaper. “Their families and friends. I was very excited to see history in the making.”
Tom English Jr. was managing editor of the state’s newest newspaper.
“It was an accomplishment that few people are allowed to achieve,” English, 81, would say in June. “Ramon gave us the reins of the paper, and we ran with it successfully. I set goals of hiring rising young stars, and we did that, and it showed in the product. There were a lot of them. That was the goal, to build it from the ground up, and we were allowed to do that. We just had free rein from the publisher on down, and without that free rein we could not have achieved what we did. It was just no question about what we were able to accomplish as a result of Ramon Yarborough giving us free rein. It was simply just hiring rising young stars, and that’s what we set out to do. And that’s what we did.”
‘Dear Fellow Employees’
The newspaper would relocate to 458 Whitfield St. in 1978, and Ramon Yarborough and the board of directors would welcome the community to stroll the hallways, visit the newsrooms and all of the trappings of this new $30 million building to later include the state-of-the-art and towering KBA offset printing press that would continue to tell the stories of this city, county and 10 counties beyond. The newspapers would consolidate into The Fayetteville Observer-Times.
The newspaper was thriving at 458 Whitfield St., where the grass grew so green and the spring azaleas blossomed in pink and purple and orange and white underneath those long-legged and swaying pines.
By 2000, Ramon Yarborough’s work as publisher had come full circle. Ramon Yarborough’s work was done.
“Dear Fellow Employees,” he would write by his hand on Aug. 17, 2000. “I will complete my 35th year with Fayetteville Publishing Co. the last day of this month. I believe it is time for me to step aside and take it a little easier. I am grateful for my good health and want to spend more time ‘smelling the roses!’ I will retire at the end of September, at which time Charles Broadwell will become president and publisher. I will become chairman of our company’s board and will remain active in the community as well.
“How can I ever express my appreciation to you for your dedication and support during my years here at the newspaper? You have made my time a rewarding experience.
“I am excited about the next phase of my life,” he would write. “You can expect to see me in the building from time to time. Thank you again for being my fellow employee and friend. Sincerely, Ramon Yarborough.”
Not from our leader.
Not from our publisher.
From, in Ramon Yarborough’s words and by his hand, our fellow employee who thought nothing more of himself or the title underneath his name than he did all of us.
‘I miss my Virginia’
Ramon Yarborough would spend most of his ensuing years enjoying his cabin-like home near Eastover, with sons Sammy Rankin and Ray Yarborough, daughter Virginia Colantuono and his grandchildren. He enjoyed lunch conversations with old friend Jesse Byrd, watching with such pride as Tony Chavonne would become the city’s mayor and publisher of CityView Media.
Most of all, taking care of his beloved Virginia at their Skye Drive home.
He became her eyes when her vision failed. His was her hand to hold and his arm to cling to when her path was dim and her way was hard. Her knight in that shining armor until Virginia Lilly Yarborough’s death at age 86 on Dec. 5, 2021, that broke Ramon Yarborough’s heart.
“He just took great care of her,” his daughter would say about the father she adored.
Ramon Yarborough kept in touch with old employees. He liked making his “Ramon’s Pickles” for family and friends. Drain ’em, he wanted us to know his recipe. Slice ’em. Add some sugar and let ’em marinate a day.
“Hard to believe I am 90 and still kicking,” he would muse on March 26, a day after celebrating his 90th year. “Virginia (his daughter) had a wonderful lunch in Wilmington for the family.”
Still, his nights could be lonely.
“I miss my Virginia,” he would send in an email on Christmas Day of 2021, and so many times more. “Grief is the price you pay for love.”
Ramon L. Yarborough died peacefully on an Aug. 20 evening at his home.
‘The price we pay for life’
“Mr. Yarborough always shared his personal philosophy with me of, ‘Service to humanity is the price we pay for life,’” Tony Chavonne, general manager of Fayetteville Publishing Co. until his 2004 retirement, would say when word came last Monday of Ramon Yarborough’s passing. “He believed it and he lived it. … His fingerprints are on display today through all the organizations and projects he supported, from Methodist University, the Cumberland Community Foundation and countless other organizations where he showed his love and commitment to this community. Through it all, his genuine love and commitment to the employees showed through to everyone that knew him. He was genuinely loved by every person who ever stepped through the doors at 458 Whitfield St. I can honestly say that I am a better man, a better husband and father, and a better person for having the blessed opportunity to work so closely with him for so many years. Our community lost a humble servant and a remarkable hero today.”
John Holmes would be among those on the day Ramon Yarborough died to remember our old publisher as one who stood tall for all of us whoever worked at The Fayetteville Times or The Fayetteville Observer.
“I can say he was the best boss ever,” Holmes would say. “I had an easy job, because I knew he was always going to do the right thing when it came to the employees, regardless of the cost. The stories of his kindness and generosity in big things and small is legendary and the reason his employees not only loved him but absolutely revered him.”
Bill Kirby Jr. was one of those employees, leaving the company after 49 years not long after it was sold to a national newspaper chain.
“If you have the chance to work for Ramon Yarborough, you go work for that newspaper,” Mama told me in 1973. “You will never regret a single day working for Ramon Yarborough.”
Ramon Yarborough rescued my career in 1992, because he believed in me. I cannot tell you the many days he crossed my Mama’s front yard with birthday flowers for Mama. He, along with John Holmes, delivered her eulogy on Dec. 21, 2009. He led her casket out the front door of Highland Presbyterian Church. He was the first to visit when new management of the newspaper gave notice of my last day after 49 years on May 20, 2019.
Epilogue
You don’t forget men like Ramon Yarborough.
“A man who took care of his community, his employees and above all else his family,” John Holmes would say on this day of farewell. “So, today let us all rejoice in a full life so well lived. And I’ll close with a final scripture from Matthew: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of our Lord.”
A daughter would dab the tears from her eyes, and a son would place an arm around his sister’s shoulder in this tender moment.
“Ramon and Virginia are together again,” the Rev. Robert Alves would remind us, “in God’s heaven.”
Ramon Yarborough was good to look upon in his gray suit, pink dress shirt and that necktie knot just right, where he knew not one of us, but all of us, by first name. There was something of a glide in his gait.
“Mourn not for me this day,” all of us only can imagine Ramon Yarborough’s whisper on this day at St. John’s Episcopal Church. “No need for tears or solemn faces. I’m with my Virginia, where I have longed to be. She has been waiting for me. My heart is full. My soul is well. I’m with my Virginia, and she has been waiting for me long enough to be by her side and to hold her hand once more in mine.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
