Neighbors step up for publisher

Gwen Lindberg sits in her plush beige recliner, and listens to the news.

Not from the television, or the radio, but from the loud and clear voice of Gloria Wellman, sitting next to Lindberg and reading from the small-town newspaper that Lindberg devoted decades of her life to.

Wellman is one of 10 volunteer readers around West Point – friends of Lindberg who take turns showing up and reading to the 89-year-old once a week. They relay updates and obituaries from the Imperial Republican, Lindberg’s hometown paper. And they read of road closures and Christmas plays and court reports from the West Point News, the weekly paper she and her husband Richard “Dick” Lindberg published together for 23 years.