Staff writer
If you flip to the People section in this week’s Peabody-Gazette Bulletin, you may notice something missing.
Burns correspondent Joyce Kyle has retired.
“There’s some other things I need to say ‘no’ to,” Kyle said. “I don’t mind doing things but it does take time.”
Two things she will continue doing include exercising at the community building and quilting with women in the community.
A quilting project her group is working on is personal.
“It just so happens this time it’s for me,” Kyle said, “because Chris Kyle was my grandson, and I’m supposed to have a quilt to take to their benefit the first part of May.”
Chris Kyle is the Navy SEAL whose best-selling book “American Sniper” was made into a motion picture in 2014. He was murdered in 2013 by a fellow Gulf War veteran who suffered from mental illness.
Kyle started the quilt, originally meant for her son and his wife, 40 years ago.
“I embroidered the boxes and I got so sick of them I thought, ‘I’m not finishing them,” she said, “but then this came up where he wanted me to have a quilt for the benefit and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ and I happened to think of those blocks. They were for my son and his wife, but now if they want it they can buy it.”
Kyle also will spend her time reading, but that can be a problem.
“If I read, then I’m in trouble,” Kyle said, “because I don’t want to put it down until the book is finished.”
Kyle said writing about weddings was her favorite part of being a correspondent because of how excited families were to talk about them. One specific memory stuck out.
“I’d call this one lady and ask ‘Do you have some news?’ and she’d say, ‘Yes, but I don’t want it in the paper.’”
Getting used to not writing a weekly column will take time.
“Tuesday I thought, ‘Oh, you should be getting your news,’ and I thought, ‘Nope, I don’t need to get that anymore,’” Kyle said. “Old habits die hard.”