Saying goodbye to one of our team members

Ken & Louise.

When you have a small business, the people you come into contact with become friends and a part of your lives.

When you lose one of them, you feel a loss.

We here at the River Town Times are feeling a loss.

For quite a number of years – so much so that we’ve lost count of how many – we’ve had a pair of drivers named Ken Pritchard and Louise Francis. 

They’ve been at the River Town Times longer than I have and both have roots at my previous stop of The Amherstburg Echo as well. 

We received some incredibly unfortunate news from Louise Sunday morning. It was difficult to hear and undoubtedly far more difficult for Louise to pass along – Ken passed away suddenly of a heart attack last Saturday night while they were away on a camping trip. 

He was 68-years-old.

After the newspaper gets printed in Wyoming, Ontario, they are trucked back to Leamington where Ken and Louise pick them up at the Southpoint Sun office. 

They haul them back to Amherstburg and start delivering to stores and newspaper boxes but it was their weekly deliveries to our office is how we got to know them.

Over time, Ken and Louise started dating and were married in June 2024. They went from being friends who delivered newspapers to husband and wife. Both Laura and I saw how happy they were together over this past year.

We were privileged to attend their wedding at Holiday Beach Conservation Area last June. 

They were kind enough to invite Laura, Dominic and I and we were very pleased to see the joy they brought one another.

I checked my phone, saw several missed calls from Laura and texts from both her and Louise. I knew something was wrong so I called Laura back to find out what was going on. Fighting through tears, she told me Ken had died. Laura had already spoken with Louise and did her best to console her.

After discussing it with each other and trying to make each other feel better, it was my turn to call Louise and offer my condolences. 

Understandably shaken and devastated by the turn of events her life had taken all of a sudden, Louise told us she still wants to be a driver for us and Laura and I certainly have no problem keeping her on board as long as she is ready and willing to do so.

Despite her world being turned upside down, Louise still wished me a good day and, admittedly, that brought a tear to my eye that she would even take the time to make sure I was having a good day despite what she is going through.

We’ll miss Ken’s smile as he came into the office every Wednesday as we just chatted with him about the job, life’s events, what’s going on at the paper or whatever the topic of conversation was that day. I’m sure those who came into regular contact with Ken will miss him as well. He was just a genuinely good man.

Ken recently passed along a social media post from the Marsh Historical Collection from days gone by about grocery prices from the 1950s. He (and Louise) wanted me to see it for the sole reason that they thought I’d get a kick out of it and I did.

Louise will still be a member of our team and we are going to support her as best we can. We have some ideas on how to further help her out and I know Laura has some irons in the fire as it relates to giving her the aid she needs at this difficult time. 

When plans are finalized and news can be shared, we will certainly do so.

It’s not going to be the same having the Wednesday newspaper delivery without Ken, but we know he’s in a better place. Rest in peace and thank you for everything.

Saying goodbye to one of our team members