Cordie U. Ragon
This unidentified newspaper article with photo was found in a scrapbook owned by Town Historian Richard Schmal:
HALF-CENTURY PRINTER
Cordie Ragon's cap is worn in the Lowell Tribune shop, on the street, in summer or winter, rain or shine. It goes with him to Crown Point, where he visits old friends at the STAR office; to Chicago, where he goes to hear big-name dance bands; to Indianapolis for Hoosier State Press association meetings; and is no doubt with him right now in Tampa, Florida, where he and Mrs. Ragon are spending the winter. In fact, he never parts with it except on rare occasions indoors and it has become as much a part of him as a pipe to General Dawes. He claims he always wants to be ready to leave in case of fire.Cordie and his cap have been associated for many years, but that attachment is no as enduring as his association with the Lowell Tribune, which started 62 years ago, when he was 13 and his father, H.H. Ragon, and his brother Elmer, were hand setting the infant Lowell Tribune and having it printed at the Hammond Tribune plant.
Cordie became a part owner with brother Len in 1912 and continued until 1949, when nephew Charles Surprise took over. He still helps out a few days a week when he and Mrs. Ragon are at home in Lowell, where their son Howard and a daughter, Mrs. Burrell Belshaw, live. Son John is a linotype operator in Flint, Michigan and Larry, the youngest, is a musician, on the road with dance bands.
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