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 Dec. 4, 1936, Monk graduated from Hamlet High School in 1955. She 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.
Monk 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 54 years of journal service in Richmond County.
After her death on Feb. 25, 2011, the Daily Journal featured a special piece 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 Monk’s compassion, dedication, humility, humor, and, most of all, love for others and Richmond County.
Monk was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Hamlet.
Many of Monk’s columns are featured on this site: http://ourhamlet.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=27&sid=45fce24aed4ee91ada55f12b33dd8cda and also on fultonhistory.com.
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!
Meghann Lambeth is executive director of the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority. Republished from visitrichmondcounty.com. Throughout March, Visit Richmond County will feature a local leading lady in honor of Women’s History Month.
