The Press: Two Guns and a Weekly

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Old Dan. No deskbound editor. Hicks is constantly on the move gathering stories. His two cars, his office and his home are equipped with police radio monitors and he has a two-way radio hookup with the fire department. At 48, he chases accidents and fires like a cub reporter. He even takes and develops his own pictures. "I never wanted to be anything but a weekly-newspaper editor," says Hicks, "and I've made a career of it. It's a one-man show and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Hicks' father ran the Democrat for 22 years. Then Hicks' younger brother took it over until 1964, when it was sold out of the family. Now it is back, though some readers find it hard to believe it is in the same family. "Never a better man lived than old Dan Hicks," says Madisonville Mayor Henry Veal. "He approached news from a different angle from his son." Dan Jr. agrees: "Dad didn't want to make anybody mad. So he had a lot of friends and no influence." What about himself? "I can be as mean as any son of a bitch in this county."