Iowa newspaper publisher saved Lincoln mks

On By Pranco

Phoebe Wall Howard
| Special to the Detroit Free Press

When Douglas Burns of Carroll, Iowa, purchased his 2013 Lincoln MKS, it marked the culmination of a storied career as a fourth-generation newspaper publisher — just before his life fell apart.

He looked at the consolidation of the newspaper industry. Other Iowa businesses struggled. His family lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in property and savings. He had to sell his mother’s house to pay off his debts. Ultimately, he lost ownership of the Carroll Times Herald.

The sedan stayed with him through dark days he could never have imagined.

But with every turn of the odometer, he knew he could keep going.

Now it stands at 326,997 with no repairs other than basic maintenance.

A miracle actually.

He thought about the factory workers who built the car. He knew that if he could put aside thoughts of self-harm, knowing that it would take years for the bad to get better, he would survive. In this Lincoln he carried the factory workers with him.

“I was struggling,” Burns said. I had to get advertising revenue for the newspapers, trying to scrape together a living. I woke up in the morning very depressed. Sometimes I thought a lot about suicide. I was so isolated and depressed. The car gave me a physical sense of the word I needed: momentum. I woke up in the morning and said, “Doug, you just need something small today, an interaction with someone that would bring joy or positivity.” ”

He drove that Lincoln 175,000 miles, then 200,000 miles, then 275,000 miles. He marveled at the mileage and began to think about the many components of the car and the many people involved in designing and installing them.

“For me, it was about who put this incredible vehicle together when everything else around me was falling apart. The car wasn’t. It gave me a physical sense of momentum that I needed emotionally and mentally,” Burns said.

“I started to get the feeling that those workers were in the car with me and were supporting me a little. I felt this connection with people I hadn’t met yet and felt like we were all in this together. It gave me the strength to fight through the pain and suffering. I thought, if Detroit could stand up, I could stand up.”

Never too late to show gratitude

Burns, now 55, asked me if it would be possible to find factory workers who built his car to thank them for saving his life. I contacted Ford Motor Co. and tracked down two Ford employees who worked on Burns’ car all those years ago.

When factory worker Marvin Jones heard the story, he was speechless.

“It’s a blessing, it’s really a blessing. I need to be able to give that to God right away,” Jones told me. “I’m at a loss for words to hear something like that… I’m shocked, you know. I can’t believe anyone would have such a struggle and think about a vehicle we made for them. I hate to hear that anyone is having a hard time.”

Jones, now 52, ​​built the Lincoln at the Chicago Assembly Plant, where he worked for three decades. His job in 2013 was team leader on the metal line, ensuring the vehicle had no dents, dents or defects. He worked for a while at the Ford Pilot Plant in Allen Park, which also does research and development. He said he has seen Detroit up close. “They take the job seriously and I appreciated what they showed me.”

As for Doug Burns, Jones paused for a moment. “I just want to tell him to keep his faith, keep his head up and keep his car – keep driving and be happy.”

Jones is a father of three and a second-generation factory worker. His father worked at Ford until he passed away in 1989. “He had 21 years there.”

‘It almost floated. It drove so well.’

Factory worker Douglas Matlock, 58, of Plainfield, Illinois, echoed Jones’ thoughts. Matlock, the son of a truck driver and a beautician, is an internal plant auditor at Chicago Assembly, known as a quality control systems coordinator. He spent 31 years solving problems and training others.

As someone who stands 6 feet tall and 275 pounds, Matlock remembers the 2013 Lincoln MKS as large and comfortable. “It was a pleasure to drive that car. He was almost floating, he drove so nicely.”

Knowing that people are spending their hard-earned money on the cars — and hearing that they have been reliable from a customer like Doug Burns — makes UAW members feel valued, Matlock said. “It makes me very proud.”

Lose everything but the Lincoln

Doug Burns realizes he can never sell the car. It will be part of his life forever.

Looking back helps him realize how far he has come.

Just before things turned bleak, the fourth-generation publisher won the Iowa Newspaper Association’s Newspaper of the Year in 2013 — against about 300 newspapers.

The small newspaper in a county seat of 10,000 had to rely on Champion Ford Lincoln in Carroll, one of its largest advertisers, to keep the local publication afloat.

Burns, co-owner and vice president for news, sat at the surplus World War II metal desk inherited from his uncle and grandfather before him. They also drove Lincolns.

“We were an ensemble of designers, writers and advertising people,” Burns said. “I was 43 and thought: I earned a Lincoln. It was a performance purchase that I had wanted to own since childhood. This is what a newspaper publisher in rural Iowa should do. It had to be American made.”

He added: “We had the first presidential caucuses in the country and I followed them for a quarter of a century. Different figures came to our community,” he said. “This was a distinctive vehicle that allowed me to not only help put the best foot forward for our newspaper, but also allow people to tour our community in a respectful and dignified manner.”

They survived the crash of 1929 and beyond…

The memories flow fresh, just like yesterday.

His grandfather James W. Wilson had run the newspaper since 1929 and survived the Great Depression. He passed the newspaper to his son James B. Wilson and then to his grandson Douglas Burns – along with his mother Ann and brother Tom.

Ultimately they had 15 employees.

“In Iowa, you had more distinctive brands and reputations for rural communities,” Burns said. “It meant it would be something like Carroll or Algona or Storm Lake or Centerville or Oskaloosa. Now we’re seeing this explosive suburban sprawl in Des Moines and the metropolitan area continues to gobble up rural space. You have this incredible growth of soulless suburbs that have no past whatsoever and exist entirely in the commercial present. They have no heritage or rich history tied to their schools, communities or services in the wars. They lack the character that made Iowa what Iowa is.”

The family sold the newspaper in the heart of western Iowa, approximately within the triangle bounded by Sioux City, Des Moines and Omaha, Nebraska, to Iowa Information based in Sheldon, Iowa.

“We didn’t put it in the hands of a hedge fund or an out-of-state owner,” Burns said.

“We have always viewed our family as temporary stewards. That worked for the better part of a century. Then the model started to fall apart. We accrued debt and ran it like a public utility rather than a private company. We held on to the building we owned and didn’t fire people fast enough.”

In the last days the circulation had shrunk from 5,500 to 3,000.

Now Burns is wondering if he wants to buy a new car after driving it to Denver and back. A friend said no, that it’s an extension of who he is now.

The car doesn’t die and there is still a story to tell

Now, Burns is an active journalist working with La Prensa Iowa and Black Iowa News while helping launch a nonprofit newspaper in Ames, home of Iowa State University.

“Ultimately, my love for Iowa and its people is intact. I feel responsible because community newspapers remain the last bastion of collective reality. We have to keep hanging in there,” he said as he drove home from Storm Lake.

“Luckily my laptop still works and I have a Lincoln with 326,000 miles that still gets me by. I never believed in immortality until I owned this Lincoln. There’s just something immortal about it. The car won’t die.”

A Ford employee asked me if Burns would consider sharing his story on video so it could be played to factory workers.

Here’s what Burns said when I shared the idea: “I always thought being in the Oval Office with President Obama would be the most important event of my life. But if I stood in front of 57,000 (Ford) United Auto Workers and told them how much they mean to the country and to me personally, that would be surpassed even further.”

Phoebe Wall Howard, Free Press auto reporter for nearly seven years, covers cars, culture and sailing on Substack at phoebewallhoward.substack.com Contact her at [email protected].

Editor’s note: The International Association for Suicide Prevention wants you to know that if you are feeling suicidal, you are not alone and there is help for you. You should call emergency services such as 911 or 988, talk about how you are feeling and consult a healthcare provider.