When Sally and Frank Morlan owned the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune, they were affectionately known by their employees as “Mom and Dad.”
“The one thing about working for Frank and Sally, they were husband and wife, they were business partners and they were best friends,” said former OST editor Chris Dorsey. “They truly loved each other like I’ve never seen a couple love each other.”
Sally Morlan, 80, died Feb. 3, 2016, in her home in Indianapolis, Indiana.
She was a business partner with her husband in publishing the Brooklyn Chronicle, Sheldon Mail, Sheldon Sun and Osceola Sentinel-Tribune.
Their newspapers won more than 160 national and state honors, and she and Frank received the first national Edward Jones Golden Heart Award for their efforts to help the less fortunate in O’Brien County.
Sally was preceded in death by her husband, parents and sister Jane Glenn.
“They had a desire and passion to put out a quality newspaper every week,” Dorsey said. “It’s a trait we all kind of picked up on and we fulfilled their plan.”
Dorsey worked for the Morlans for approximately six years starting in December 2001, until the paper was sold to Shaw Media.
'Truly cared'
Ed Buesch helped run the printing press for the Morlans.
“They loved Osceola,” he said fondly. “They loved their employees. We were all treated like family. There were times I probably felt like the black sheep of the family. I mean, they were there for us and they did anything that needed to be done.”
Buesch said the Morlans put out an award-winning paper they truly cared about.
“It didn’t take them long to understand what Osceola was about, and what the people of Osceola were about. They genuinely cared.”
Integrity was the word Dorsey used when describing how the Morlans ran the paper. He said it was important to have it, even when people didn’t agree with you.
Dorsey also recalled how people couldn’t wait to pick up the paper each week.
“Each week, Frank and Sally expected a premium product because people paid for it and they wanted to give people their money’s worth,” he said.
Best memories
Some of Dorsey’s favorite memories of Frank and Sally were working with them on Wednesday mornings to put the paper together with inserts and labelling. It was his best time of the week.
“You would sit there and you learned a little bit about them and their character,” he said. “It’s one of those things, 10 years later, I can still remember them and their stories.”
Dorsey and Buesch both emphasized how family was top priority with the Morlans.
Buesch recalled his youngest son being in an accident when he was 15. He remembered Frank and Sally being at the emergency room almost before he arrived.
“They were there and they said, ‘Whatever you need to do.’ There just was no hesitation on their part. Family always came first with them,” Buesch said.
Perfect team
The Morlans worked best together because they were a team and recognized each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Their employees said, even though Frank was more than 6 feet tall, and Sally came in at about 4 foot 9 inches, she was a real driving force of nature and one of the strongest women a person could ever meet.
“While I’m sad to hear of her passing, they’re together and they’re holding hands,” Dorsey said. “They loved the newspaper business and they loved each other. They made it work.”