<p>Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County</p>
                                <p>Catherine Monk’s farewell column to the Hamlet News-Messenger published in 1995.</p>

Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County

Catherine Monk’s farewell column to the Hamlet News-Messenger published in 1995.

Today we honor a local leading lady that was once referred to as the “Queen Bee”, the mother of all reporters, the moral compass of the newsroom, Hamlet native, Catherine Monk. Born on December 4, 1936, Catherine graduated from Hamlet High School in 1955.

Catherine began her career in journalism in 1955 at the former Hamlet News-Messenger that was acquired by the Richmond County Daily Journal in 1976 with Neal Cadieu serving as the publisher.

Symbolic of her Hamlet home on a corner lot, her weekly column in the journal entitled, “Monk’s Corner”, always included the Richmond Raider football team, her love of the beach, her support of the Community Theater, and people who were not in the news but had made contributions to their community.

Catherine won her first of many N.C. Press Association awards for her writing in February 1977. In 1985, she flew to Chicago to receive an award from the National Federation of Press Women for her article, “A Woman Determined”, that detailed how Rebecca Hatcher Buckley of Hamlet fulfilled her dream to become a doctor.

In 2005, due to illness, Catherine retired after 50 years of journal service in Richmond County. After her death on February 25, 2011, the journal featured a special written by Tom MacCallum, “Beloved community member passes: Monk, 74, dies, leaves behind legacy.” From the memories shared by numerous community members from a variety of scopes, including Abbie Covington, Gene McLaurin, Neal Cadieu, Glenn Sumpter, Ed Ormsby, Bert Unger, David Arial, Sandy Ridley, and others, a common theme among all accounts depicted Catherine’s compassion, dedication, humility, humor, and, most of all, love for others and Richmond County.

Join us today in celebrating this local leading lady who truly inked her mark on Richmond County Women’s History, led the way for strong female voices in the newsroom, and will always be remembered as a journalistic legacy in the community!