Few people have been as closely identified with a rural daily newspaper as Bill Mardis. He died at 89 in 2021, not long after writing his last stories for the Somerset Commonwealth Journal. A native of rural Taylor County and a Navy veteran of the Korean War, he was working at Somerset's WTLO in 1964 when he joined the paper as it became a daily. He was an editor who set high standards but was also the “Humble Reporter” in a column that shared homespun insights about the people and communities of Pulaski County. He retired as editor in 1998 and returned in 2002, and later became editor emeritus. “Humble,” Editor Jeff Neal wrote, “described his very essence — not only as a reporter, but as a human being.” He won many awards, and he and former publisher George Joplin III were honored with a mural on the newspaper building in 2013.