Remembering Shelley v 2.0
EDITOR: Tempus fugit…time flies! One year has already gone since veteran print and broadcast journalist Shelley Clarke, departed planet earth. Yes, one year has gone so quickly, it appears as though his passing and funeral were just a few months ago, but as the latin term expresses it ‘Tempus fugit’.
Edward Shelley “Zed” Clarke spent the last 35 of his 75 years on this planet as Editor of the THE NEWS. Invariably, it was always the first newspaper to be sold out on a Friday- not to say that the other local papers are not widely read, but there is something about The News that readers gravitate to and even after his passing the legacy of The News still holds strong.
The sad news broke on December 13, 2024 that the editor of The News had suffered from a fatal heart condition and was no more. Social and electronic media came alive to find out, or to confirm that tragic news.
The man whose ‘pen was mightier than the sword’ feared no one, once the facts were available- from politician, pastor, priest or clergyman no one was spared. But in it all, he still gave everyone a chance to tell their side of the story, as my mother used to say, “every story has three sides, your side, my side and the truth”, so he always tried to hear both sides in order to get the truth.
I only became a fairly close associate of Shelley in the last two decades of his life when I contributed to The News under the pen name “Small Axe”. Like Shelley’s pen, my ‘small axe’ was always sharp, so I never had an ‘axe to grind’ with anyone. He asked me several times why I didn’t state my name (although he never told me, I suspect that several persons would have called to find out who ‘small axe’ is, but by right he could not tell them), so eventually I decided to put my name to my articles because most of the comments received were positive.
In the months before his death, he would call and discuss current events. I would describe Shelley and his team as a progressive cohort, always seeking validation before publication, the hallmark of a professional journalist. Since his passing, the The News has maintained its momentum and standard of journalism, a bar set high, but not unattainable. Yes, Shelley has gone one year already, and if I was not reminded by ace cartoonist Maurice Rogers, that anniversary might have gone, forgotten. To his wife and daughter, please be comforted by the memory of this giant of the pen, his words have been indelibly etched into our minds and archives.
Even if I forget in the future, others will remember, as Theresa Daniel stated in her eulogy “he marked the end of an era, and left an indelible impact on the media landscape of St. Vincent & the Grenadines.” The question is always ‘who next and when next’? Be prepared to meet your God.
Requiescat In Pace – R.I.P. Shelley. (Latin phrase for may he/she Rest in peace).
Donald “Small Axe” De Riggs
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