The headlines screamed "President Roosevelt Dies Suddenly," "President Kennedy Killed By Sniper," "War Is On! Japan Planes Bomb Honolulu - 350 Dead!"
This series of attention grabbers graced front pages of The Pottsville Republican in the mid-20th Century. A Pottsville native with an interest in history had preserved copies and presented them to the Historical Society of Schuylkill County recently.
"We see people bringing in old papers all the time, but they're usually falling apart because they were all folded up. Paper ages. It gets brittle," said Dave Derbes, society president.
But Derbes was impressed how the donor, Robert Gauker, preserved these pages from the past.
"These papers are in excellent condition. Many were laminated. And it's a flexible lamination; really good stuff," Derbes said.
"There are more than 50 laminated sheets. There's some Pottsville Journal sheets in there too," Gauker said in a phone interview last week.
Gauker, a 1958 graduate of Pottsville Area High School, resides in Midlothian, Va.
He dropped off the newspapers at the historical society at 301 North Centre St. on Jan. 13.
"He was one of my students when I was teaching. That was back in 1952 in the Patterson Division. He was in seventh grade," said Dr. Peter Yasenchak, the society's executive director.
"He was a shop teacher back then," Gauker said of Yasenchak.
Gauker said he grew up enjoying newspapers. He said he prefers reading one versus finding news stories online.
"I've been carrying these papers around all my life and about 15 years ago in Virginia I found someone who had a laminator that could do newspaper sheets," he said.
Derbes said papers Gauker preserved included the 75th anniversary edition of The Pottsville Republican published Oct. 31, 1959, and The Pottsville Republican county sesquicentennial edition published Sept. 26, 1956.
Gauker said he's always been fascinated by the advertising sections from these newspapers from Schuylkill County's yesteryear.
"I kept all sorts of ads, showing when the downtown was booming. Back in the 1950s, you couldn't find a place to park on Centre Street in Pottsville. When you went to cross the street, the lines at the crosswalk were three people deep. Everybody went to shop in Pottsville back then," Gauker said.
Gauker is an author. His books include "My Youth Was Another World," a historical autobiography of Pottsville and Schuylkill County, published in 2007, and a fiction novel, "Patriots Along the Schuylkill," published in 2008. Both are available on www.Amazon.com.
Derbes said the historical society will use the newspapers in its displays.
"Some of this stuff is good from a veteran's standpoint, so we might put some of them up on the second floor in a veterans exhibit," Derbes said.
The society may also set up a display for Newspaper in Education Week, which is March 5 to 9, Derbes said.