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(5/12/2021)
And they said it wouldn’t last. Fifty years ago, a dynamic and idealistic young couple thought that there was room in Winona for two newspapers. The pair, who were both gifted writers with strong opinions, created the Winona Shopper and unleashed it on the Winona trade area. The first issue on November 3, 1971, featured a musician banging a bass drum on the cover, and the fledgling paper made a lot of noise during the first few months of its existence, even though it dared to compete with the powerful entrenched force that was the Winona Daily News in those days. That was the Christmas season, and almost everybody was able to find some extra budget to try out the new kids in the market. Fran and John Edstrom took a deep breath and relaxed. This was going to be a piece of cake. Then January hit, and the bus on the way to prosperity town came to a screeching halt. As John was often heard to remark later: “If it was easy, everybody would have done
Sara M. Whalen Site staff
MONONA – Sara M. Whalen passed away at age 79 on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 after a short illness. Sara was a maker of wonderful things.
She made a beautiful family with her husband John Whalen. John and Sara met in Beloit, Wisconsin in 1964 on Memorial Day weekend when Sara was teaching 4th grade in Beloit and John was working at the Beloit Corp. They married the next summer and welcomed Anne into their lives a year later. Beloit was where they made their first batch of German Yeast cookies, a yearly Christmas tradition that has been passed down to all of their children. Soon after, Sara and John moved to Janesville where John, their favorite son was born. Sara and John moved to Madison in 1970 and then soon after moved to Monona where they shared a home together for 49 years. There they raised four children, the third and surprisingly fourth, Nora and Ruth, arriving on Leap Day, 1976. Throughout the years, Sara and John’s fam