By Bill Grubb

ROGERSVILLE - Longtime Rogersville Review employee Mildred Shortt passed away Tuesday, June 30.  She was 87.
    Short began working as the business manager at the Rogersville Review in July 1970 following the death of her husband, Nat, in 1969.  He owned East Tennessee Printing, which was later purchased by Frank Charles, then Frank Cunningham, and is today owned by Jim Egbert.
    In a 2006 article announcing Shortt's return to the Review as a contributing columnist, she recounted her working relationship with owner and publisher Eleanor Sheets.  
    "At the time I joined the Review, there was only the two of us - Eleanor Sheets and myself in the front. There were five other employees. I was the business manager and she was the editor. She didn't have a head for business and I didn't know what she did about gathering news. We both kept to ourselves and that worked out pretty good. Well, I did get snippy now and then when she would come up front and say, 'Mrs. Shortt, you have a customer!' I told her, 'I know I do. I have a line of them and I'll get to them one at a time.' Those days are certainly much different from today," she said.
    "She (Sheets) was a very smart lady. She was a great newspaper woman. She knew what the public wanted and she could call anyone in the state and get any information she wanted," recalled Shortt.  "She was politically-minded, too. It certainly was never dull working with her."
    Mildred Shortt was a member of Rogersville Presbyterian Church.      
    She was preceded in death by her husband, Nathaniel D. Shortt; daughters, Laura Elizabeth Shortt and Martha Grace Shortt; grandson, Jeffrey Reeves; parents, Bernard and Viola Prayter Thompson.
    She is survived by her daughters, Evelyn  McCracken and husband, Billy of Church Hill, Catherine O' Brien and husband, James of Rogersville;  sons, Allen N. Shortt and wife, Elisabeth of Manchester, Gary Shortt and wife, Karen of Kingsport; grandchildren, Laura Gibson, Andrew McElwain, Rebecca Stanton, Thomas Reeves, Christian Shortt, Allison Shortt and Jonathon Shortt; great-grandchildren, Ashley Stanton, Hunter Stanton, Nate Reeves and Caleb McElwain; half-sisters, Debra Hapner of Kingsport, Darlene Edwards and husband, Jesse of Kingsport; half-brothers, Dwight Thompson and Ronnie Thompson; sister-in-law, Delores Thompson all of Kingsport; several nieces and nephews.
    Calling hours will be 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M., Friday, July 3, 2009 at Broome Funeral Home, Rogersville.  Funeral service will be conducted 10:00 A.M., Saturday, July 4, 2009 in the funeral home chapel with the Rev. Don Rose officiating.  Burial will follow in Hawkins County Memorial Gardens.
    Online condolences may be made at www.broomefuneralhome.com
    Broome Funeral Home, Rogersville is serving the Shortt family.