Bertha Toftey surrounded by her children at her 100th birthday party Saturday, November 22, 2008 at the Care Center: Joan Schroeder, left; Sue Hildebrand, right; and Tom Toftey, rear.
When Bertha Kretzschmar married Adolph “Ade” Toftey at the Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel Church in Gaylord, Minn. in June 1937, she probably didn’t realize she would become the matriarch of a small town newspaper on Minnesota’s North Shore. Bertha Toftey assumed the role with grace and style and worked alongside her husband for over 35 years publishing the Cook County News-Herald. Bertha died on Tuesday, August 13 at the North Shore Care Center in Grand Marais at the age of 104.
Bertha attended Winona State Teachers’ College and received a diploma in elementary education and she taught elementary school for a little while, but the Cook County News-Herald became her life. According to her children, Bertha served as bookkeeper, proofreader, reporter, and columnist for this newspaper.
Those who worked with Bertha remember her tenure at the News-Herald fondly. Current writer and ad manager Brian Larsen worked part-time at the News-Herald when he was in ninth grade, writing sports off and on until he left for college. Larsen remembers that both Ade and Bertha were very encouraging to him as a young reporter.
“Bertha was always very nice,” recalled Larsen this week. “I don’t think the public realized how hard she worked. She wrote half the paper. Her Shoreline column took her hours and hours each week, with endless calling.”
Years later, Larsen said Ade and Bertha would humbly say it was a small paper, but Larsen said, “They put in tons of man hours to print it.”
Lou Terrizzi, of Colvill, who worked primarily in the printing side of the business—churning out menus, rate cards and invoices on the press in the building that is once again home to the News-Herald on First Avenue West—said Bertha did much more than Shorelines. He said of course she spent a great deal of time at the El Ray Café (which is now Blue Water Café), getting all the local news items. She also spent a great deal of time compiling information from correspondents throughout the county, staffing the front desk, answering the phone and doing whatever else needed to be done.
But one of the jobs she took the most seriously, said Terrizzi, was proofreading. Terrizzi can clearly remember working with master typist Dick Gilbertsen, setting type to create galleys. The galleys were created with a brayer, a small hand roller that inked a single page for proofing. “Dick would hand it to Bertha and she would carefully look it over. She had all these clean proof marks. She would hand it back and Dick and I would change the line,” said Terrizzi.
Terrizzi also remembers that everyone helped out on “paper nights,” when the printed sheets had to be folded and labeled for mailing. “It was kind of a social event,” said Terrizzi.
Eleanor Waha, of Grand Marais, was a member of the paper night crew. She too, recalls that there was lots of visiting going on while working. And, she added, “There were always good snacks,” thanks to Bertha and another staffer, Alma Olson.
“She was a great lady,” said Eleanor, noting that Bertha was very patient with folks like Walfred Backlund, who would come to the News- Herald office before the folding was finished to get the latest news.
But always, those who remember her say, she was a stickler for excellence in writing and speech. Even in her final days at the North Shore Care Center, Waha said Bertha was a grammarian. “If a nurse answered, ‘yeah,’ instead of ‘yes,’ Bertha would admonish her to use proper grammar.”
Terrizzi said he didn’t doubt it a bit. “Bertha was meticulous!”
Bertha was also active in the community, serving many roles at Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Sunday School teacher, superintendent, founding member of the “Bookies” book club and as president of the women’s group. She was also involved in the Grand Marais Garden Club, Symphonions and the Cook County Historical Society. Along with Ade, she was a major supporter of the Grand Marais Art Colony.
Bertha and Ade Toftey’s legacy lives on in the community and at the Cook County News-Herald. Ade Toftey died in 1991. The current News-Herald staff is very proud to carry on the tradition of a local paper focused entirely on local happenings.
Memorial services were held Friday, August 23 at Bethlehem Lutheran—a very fitting day as that is when this issue of Bertha’s beloved newspaper the Cook County News-Herald is available to pick up at the office.
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