My hat’s off to Hatton

At the risk of sounding like I’m writing an obituary, I want to tell you about someone both very special and very important to the Sun Day.

The members of the editorial staff are always the show-stealers of any newspaper. They’re the ones with the bylines, the ones with public credit, the ones recognized “around town,” and the ones people either love or loath to see coming up the walkway for a story. They have stage presence. And although a successful newspaper is a perfect marriage of editorial and advertising, it’s the ad reps who provide the stage for the editorial staff to bounce and tumble.

In the four years the Sun Day has been in operation, we’ve had some amazing ad reps, including our current ad reps Kurt Kuehnert and Carol Baffa who constantly work to add more planks to the stage. And they do it tirelessly. But when it comes to the Sun Day, there’s one person who not only set the stage for all to follow but built the whole arena. Her name is Pat Hatton, and her time with the Sun Day is coming to end.

And she deserves some public recognition and thanks.

If ads were set-off with bylines no different than stories, you would have seen “Pat Hatton, Sun Day Ad Rep” above more ads in the past four years than you can shake a stick at. Frankly, it was staggering. Her success was so abundant I started to worry she was blackmailing prospective advertisers or holding kids for ransom. Really, she was being herself. Her crowning edition, in my opinion, was the second anniversary edition, which was when the Sun Day premiered The Edge section. Pat, along with another ad rep, sold 27 NEW ads in two days. For those of you who don’t know, that’s incredible for about any newspaper…ANY.

Pat’s history with the Sun Day started a few months after its first edition, when she called me one day and asked if I’d consider taking her on as an ad rep. I had someone helping me at the time, but the paper was living edition to edition and puttering forward at a page count of 12.

Sitting in her kitchen a few days later discussing the job, I said what has since turned out to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever said to someone. I looked Pat square in the face, and said, “Let’s give it a shot, but I doubt you’ll be able to do this job.”

That sounds awful to say to someone, I know. Pat told me she’d been a Realtor in the past and had sales experience, and my doubts had nothing to do with her skills or abilities. I wanted her to work out and achieve success. Before my meeting with Pat, I had burned through two ad reps in a couple months, both had a lot of trouble selling for the Sun Day. After the second rep didn’t work out, I started to think I was the only person who could sell ads for the paper. Me, who hadn’t sold an ad in his life and can barely sell food to a starving man.

Well, I ate my words. And ate them. And continued to eat them for four years.

Within a few editions after Pat started, we rose to 16 pages. A few editions after that 20. And after that 24.

What made Pat so special wasn’t her ability to sell. It was her care for the paper, her care for me and my wife, her tenacity, social skills, and no BS attitude…with anyone, especially me. She taught me more about how to manage a business than she’ll ever know.

After three years of riding high, Pat came to my door one day (a door I wouldn’t have in large part due to Pat) and told me words I definitely did not want to hear. She told me she was leaving the paper and moving to Texas to be with her kids and grandkids. She also told me she met someone, and they were in love.

We were sitting on my porch with ice-waters in hand, and I, who doesn’t drink, wished I had something a little stronger than water to calm what I thought might be a premature heart attack.

I knew Pat’s family was in Texas, and we often talked about the time she’d move there to be closer to them, but the reality of it happening fell on me like a piano form a fourth-floor window.

I respected Pat too much to argue, and I really was genuinely happy for her. She should be close to her family, and I wanted her to be happy. At the same time, I wanted to chain her to my porch.

Alas, my better senses and heart won out, and I wished her well. And meant it. She also brought me Sun Day Ad Rep Carol Baffa, so I was, at least, a little more comfortable with the idea of not chaining Pat to my porch.

Since then, Pat has taken a slow, shackle-free exit from the paper, continuing to handle her clients until their contracts ran out. This edition marks Pat’s last ad, Fenzel Motors on Page 3 of the print edition.

When I look back at Pat’s career with the Sun Day, I’m humbled and grateful beyond words. And anything I could say more would fall short of my actual feelings, so I’ll go tried and true with a big Thank You, Pat! My hat’s off to you, Pat Hatton. And, Pat, Happy Trails.

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