Preserving and sharing the story of Shelby County, Missouri for generations to come.

By 1946, H.J. "Jack" Blanton was one of the best-known country editors in America. His folksy "Hints by the Horse Editor" column in the Monroe County Appeal and his "When I Was a Boy" column syndicated in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat had made him a minor national celebrity.

When the Saturday Evening Post set out to capture the quintessential American country newspaper, Blanton and his Appeal were a natural choice. The magazine sent Norman Rockwell to Paris, Missouri, where he spent a few days studying the paper's day-to-day operations before painting "Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor," which ran in the May 25, 1946 issue.

The painting depicts Blanton at his desk finishing a column, with the counter newspaper showing the paper's actual April 12, 1945 edition reporting the death of President Roosevelt, and Rockwell himself walking through the door, pipe in hand, in a cameo appearance. A Gold Star flag on the wall honors Blanton's grandson, Lt. Jack P. Blanton, a B-24 bombardier killed in action over France in June 1944.

That grandson's father, Blanton's son, Edgar P. Blanton, was publisher of the Shelbina Democrat, and Edgar's other son, Carter V. Blanton, served as that paper's co-publisher and managing editor, carrying the Blanton newspaper family into a second generation at a sister paper just up the road in Shelby County.

After his visit, Rockwell sent thank-you gifts of autographed Four Freedoms prints to those who had helped him in Paris, and, as a courtesy to the extended family, to Mr. and Mrs. Carter V. Blanton in Shelbina as well, even though the Shelbina household hadn't been part of the Paris work itself. This print is at the museum on loan by Edgar Blanton's granddaughter, Jackie Blanton Maddox.