[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3579-3581]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO THE MORTIMER FAMILY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, today I wish to pay tribute to a 
family who has built their lives around the legacy of their heritage 
but has not turned a blind eye toward progress in their pursuit for a 
better future: the Mortimer family of the town of Salyersville, in 
Magoffin County, KY. Doug, his wife Sue, and their son Ritter have 
spent the greater part of their lives investing in the future of their 
local community, to make it not only a better place for themselves, but 
for all of the residents of their beloved town.
  The Mortimer family is active in several different areas of the 
business world, but they got their start in the media industry. Doug 
and Sue were photographers for WSAZ-TV in Huntington, WV, for quite 
some time. But what they found was that Huntington was too far away to 
be covering Magoffin County news. One day when Ritter told his parents 
that he wanted to do something ``creative'' instead of return to 
school, it sparked a crazy idea in Sue. She thought of the potential 
that a local TV news station could have, and she proposed her idea to 
her husband and son. They were sold. And YNT, ``Your News Today,'' took 
off.
  Ritter is the sole proprietor of the 30-minute news show that started 
in 1998. He operates virtually every part of the show that airs every 
weekday. The family has found that the town cherishes their local news. 
Ritter believes its success comes from the fact that the material his 
news show covers can't be heard anywhere else in the world. The show 
covers serious topics such as fatal accidents as well as happier topics 
like Little League softball games, making it really local news for 
local people.
  As the news station continues to grow, so do the other projects of 
the innovative Mortimer family. The family opened up two restaurant 
franchise locations, a Dairy Queen and a Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, 
on the city's new parkway. The location on the parkway was necessary to 
bring in business because of the heavy traffic flow in the area. But 
Doug and Sue remember a time when downtown Salyersville was the place 
to be. The downtown area has been slowly decaying in the town of 
Salyersville as businesses move to the parkway, downtown buildings get 
older, and times change.
  Sue, however, believes that downtown still has a lot more potential 
than one may think. She has headed up a movement called Renaissance on 
Main that is devoted to renovating and restoring the historic buildings 
of the once-popular downtown area. The movement has already made major 
headway in the downtown area, thanks to the superb leadership of Mrs. 
Mortimer.
  Whether it is delivering the news, serving up the day's meal, 
restoring a building to its former glory, or taking wonderful 
photographs, the Mortimers have a driving force behind every move that 
they make, and that force is family. The good of the family is at the 
heart of every decision they have made, the greatest of these probably 
being the decision to stay in the small town of Salyersville despite 
their many chances to move away. Doug, Sue, and Ritter believe they 
have an obligation to stay and serve the town in which they were born 
and raised, and they are saddened when young and talented residents 
move away. The Mortimers are constantly fighting to better their 
community so that young ones are motivated to take a stake in their 
heritage and invest in the future of their hometown.

[[Page 3580]]

  The Mortimer family treasures the past and embraces the future. They 
have come to understand the importance of their heritage and to respect 
the legacy of those before them. They have also realized that change is 
necessary, and if you embrace the future and prepare for it, you can be 
more in control of the changes brought on by time. The Mortimer family 
is passionate about bettering their local community, providing jobs, 
delivering information, and beautifying their surroundings--all things 
that contribute to helping their fellow residents of Salyersville. That 
is why I would like to take the time today to give them the credit they 
most assuredly deserve.
  Mr. President, I would ask my Senate colleagues to join me in 
recognizing the Mortimer family of Salyersville, KY, for honoring and 
preserving the past, as well as preparing and embracing for the future.
  In 2011, an article was included in a publication released by the 
Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that highlighted the many 
accomplishments of this remarkable family over the years. Mr. 
President, I ask unanimous consent that said article be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

        [From the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, 2011]

                The Mortimers--A Good Place To Call Home

       Spending time with Salyersville's Mortimer family--Doug, 
     Sue, and their son, Ritter--is almost like being in two time 
     periods simultaneously.
       Doug and Sue live in the same home Doug's mother's parents 
     lived in, and Ritter lives in the previous home of Doug's 
     father's parents. Doug and Sue have decorated the first floor 
     of their home with the charming period furnishings; they even 
     have a family tree on display they've created from their 
     study of Doug's North Carolina genealogy. They are 
     enthusiastic supporters of the Magoffin County Historical 
     Society and have recently bought two buildings downtown which 
     they are planning to restore.
       Then there's Ritter. Ritter owns his own television news 
     broadcast, YNT (Your News Today), and is getting ready to 
     stream his news show online. The innovative technology of 
     today is something that was not even dreamed about in the era 
     when the homes were built. The Mortimers have seamlessly 
     embraced respect for the past and enthusiasm for the future.
       Perhaps the most impressive dynamic among the family is 
     their obviously deep love and admiration for one another, and 
     not just among the three of them, but towards all their 
     family. When asked why, with their talent and business 
     acumen, they chose to stay in Magoffin County, Doug says 
     without hesitation, ``It's family first--nothing would matter 
     if we couldn't be near family.''
       Sue continues, ``My siblings had left here and when we 
     married, Doug said, `Look, there's not going to be anyone 
     here to take care of our parents when they get older. I've 
     tried working away and I don't like it. It'll be hard, but I 
     think we just need to stay here,''' she laughs. ``Whatever it 
     takes, he's going to stay here.''
       So how did they make it in a small town in eastern 
     Kentucky? ``Sue and I have been photographers for 40 years,'' 
     Doug says, ``since just after we were married. My dad was a 
     photographer, too, so it was an outcrop of that.''
       ``Besides photography, we've been in the restaurant 
     business about 25 years with the DQ and Lee's Famous Chicken 
     on the Parkway,'' Sue continues. ``We've tried the oil 
     business, an outcrop of my dad's business, which was always 
     boom and bust. This whole area has been a big part of our 
     success, especially our photography--it's not just our town 
     and county.''
       Years ago, both Doug and Sue were stringers for WSAZ-TV in 
     Huntington, West Virginia. ``During that time,'' Sue 
     explains, ``if something newsworthy happened here, I'd grab a 
     camera, cover the story, and stick it on a Greyhound bus to 
     Huntington. Then when the bus service stopped it finished the 
     whole thing because it wasn't worth the effort to drive it to 
     Huntington--but we still had those connections. They'd call 
     and say, `We're going to be up there next week and do three 
     or four stories. Can you set something up for us?' Well, then 
     Ritter came around one day and said, `I'm not going back to 
     school. It might sound crazy, but I know I have to do 
     something creative, and I want to stay here.' I thought, `Oh, 
     gosh, if we try something and it fails, he could go into a 
     tailspin and never find his way--that can be typical of young 
     people. What could he do that was ``guaranteed'' to succeed?' 
     Then I thought of the news thing. They both thought I was 
     crazy.''
       Doug agrees. ``We both thought it sounded crazy, but Sue 
     was right. She knew the potential.''
       ``Well,'' Sue explains, ``we had done videos of weddings, 
     so we had a lot of the basic equipment.''
       When asked why he decided to pursue TV, Ritter laughs and 
     says, ``Because my mother pushed me! It really was her 
     idea.'' He continues, ``I had a camera and a VCR and a few 
     pieces of equipment and just started doing it.''
       YNT News, referred to locally as RittTV, first aired on 
     November 2nd of 1998. It's carried on local cable network 
     Howard's Cable, which goes into Magoffin, Morgan, and Johnson 
     counties and averages 3,500 to 3,700 subscribers. The show is 
     30 minutes long and airs at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. every 
     weekday. It is now approaching 4,000 broadcasts.
       Sue says, ``When it started out, the local cable advertised 
     it was coming maybe the week before it started, and people 
     were already like, `When's the new show going to start?' It 
     was the buzz around here.''
       ``I don't really know what got it off the ground,'' Ritter 
     says, ``but I think it's successful today because it's 
     material no one can see any other way. I'll cover a court 
     meeting or a child doing well in school. One family has told 
     us they have a 92-year-old grandmother who lives where she 
     can't get TV cable, so they record the show every night and 
     take it to her so she can watch the show.''
       Ritter does it all--covers and prepares the stories for the 
     air, sells and produces the commercials, everything needed to 
     get the story on and make a living doing it.
       ``No two days are alike,'' Ritter says, ``and that makes it 
     interesting. One day I might do a reconstruction of a fatal 
     accident. I'm also on the rescue squad, so Thursday I was up 
     helping with emergency service. Then after that's over, I do 
     pictures and get back to the news. Another day, I'll cover a 
     city council meeting, an ATV story, the softball championship 
     game, or someone knocking down mailboxes!''
       ``He's very versatile. He's like his daddy--he can do just 
     about anything,'' Sue says proudly. ``All the new technology 
     has made Ritter's station possible. The change from tapes has 
     allowed him to work with less manpower.''
       The Mortimers' devotion to where they live goes beyond lip-
     service. They are very involved with the Renaissance on Main 
     program, as well as personally investing in restoring 
     downtown Salyersville.
       ``We bought a couple of buildings downtown that we're in 
     the process of restoring,'' Sue says. ``When Doug's parents 
     were young, they had the Tavern Restaurant, and people would 
     come and just sit and visit.
       ``Downtown was a hopping little place then. We'd like to 
     see that again. It does make you stop and think about the 
     need to revitalize downtown.
       ``The second floor of one of our buildings is going to be 
     the Mortimer Inn--a B&B without the breakfast. There's no 
     place here at all for families to stay who have sold the 
     homeplace and want to come back for a visit, or whatever 
     reason. Paintsville or Prestonsburg are the closest. So we'll 
     try it and see how it works.''
       Doug explains, ``The first floor in one building is rented 
     to a gas company. The other--which we bought just about four 
     months ago--we haven't done much with yet. We couldn't do a 
     lot with the first as far as restoration, but the second one, 
     we may be able to take it back to the original '30s when it 
     was built; it's in good enough shape, we think, to do a true 
     restoration. It was originally a grocery store--the oldest 
     business in town--run by a woman named Grace Howard for as 
     long as she could breathe. She owned the building and lived 
     upstairs.''
       Sue continues the story. ``Eight or 10 years ago, I put 
     together the local Renaissance on Main group and I guess I 
     took myself too seriously. When we saw the building, I 
     thought, `Oh, we can do something with that.' We put two 
     businesses on the Parkway, but they had to be there to get 
     the traffic. The strip is in the city limits, and the 
     business and restaurant taxes do help different things in the 
     city. Still, we've helped pull things out of the downtown 
     area, so maybe what we're doing now will help bring it 
     back.''
       ``One of the greatest things downtown, I think,'' says 
     Doug, ``is the Pioneer Village, a project of the Magoffin 
     County Historical Society led by Todd Preston. It's just 
     amazing what a handful of people have done. Those are 
     original homes and schools from out in the county that have 
     been dismantled and reassembled. It's very active--open to 
     tourists. At Christmas, we have a beautiful parade, and on 
     that night the cabins are opened up, with fires in the 
     grates, and people come in with banjos. It is really nice.''
       Sue talks further about the Renaissance on Main program. 
     ``Our headquarters are in an old stone building, probably the 
     second location of Salyersville National Bank, and they 
     donated it to Renaissance. They had already made some changes 
     on the first floor added--sheetrock and took out tin--but now 
     we've got it and we're looking at restoring it. We've gotten 
     the money to finish the second floor. Behind the building, 
     there's a garden area that we've had put in using stone from 
     a two-story, hand-carved stone drug store that was being torn 
     down. Renaissance saved

[[Page 3581]]

     all that stone and used it for the garden area and will use 
     the rest for the base of the stage of a theatre.
       ``Behind the Judicial Center, there's a mural you can see 
     on your way out of town. We raised money through donations 
     and picked out some historic locations to have painted on the 
     wall. Renaissance also did a water feature when you first 
     come into town,'' Sue finished. ``We've really worked hard.''
       When looking at the future, it's clear to see that to the 
     Mortimers, the history and heritage of the past is an 
     important part of the future.
       When Ritter is asked what lies ahead for him, he smiles and 
     says, ``I spend so much time getting stories, I don't have 
     much time to look down the road.''
       Sue adds, ``He was offered a top position at a Knoxville 
     station several years ago, but moving doesn't interest him. A 
     regional station called him also--he told them, `You don't 
     have enough money.' ''
       Doug says, ``From all of us, we couldn't imagine living 
     anywhere else--we just wouldn't. Right now, there are lots of 
     changes happening. It may not happen overnight, but 
     Salyersville and Magoffin County are only going to keep 
     getting better. It's easy for a community to lose its way, 
     but I think people are realizing they need to be involved and 
     to claim it. When young, talented people think about leaving, 
     we need to tell them, `You're really going to be sorry if you 
     leave; the bright lights of the big city aren't all they're 
     cut out to be.' They need to understand they have a sort of 
     obligation to stay around and help this region get better. 
     After all, you can travel to wherever you want--you're not 
     that far from Lexington or wherever you want to go--but this 
     is a good place to call home.''
       ``We've taken advantage of opportunities here and we've 
     been successful and happy,'' Sue goes on. ``Take Ritter, not 
     many people his age can say `I love what I'm doing and I'm 
     making a living out of it--and I stayed home.' ''
       Ritter's sisters, Kim and Cindy, live in Atlanta and 
     Birmingham. ``Their growing-up years were in the South, but 
     they and their children share the same enchantment for this 
     area that we do.''
       In the midst of the Mortimers, it is easy to see they're a 
     family with both roots and wings--and very comfortable with 
     both.

                          ____________________