Terré McCue displays the final issue of the Party Line, a newsletter she produced for over 33 years. The first issue was in February of 1990.

The city of Delavan has not had their own newspaper since the early 1900s when the Delavan Herald published their final issue.

However, the tiny town of less than 200 people found other ways to make sure the residents of the town and the surrounding area stayed informed about the happenings in the area.

“I began working for the Delavan Telephone Company in 1983,” Terré McCue says. “Soon thereafter, I became known as the ‘information operator.’ I would get numerous calls, mostly from rural individuals, asking about school activities, Legion Club activities/brunch schedules, etc.”

Eventually, McCue shares, she began obtaining information about local events and activities one month prior to their happening.

“I included this information with the phone bills when they were mailed out,” she comments.

McCue called her newsletter “Party-Line.”

“In the 1930s and 1940s, a party-line was a shared phone service for multiple subscribers,” McCue explains. “There was no privacy and it was possible for people on the same party-line to listen in on other people’s conversations and/or gossip. But, it was also a way to learn about what was happening in the community. So that was the basis for the naming of the newsletter.”

McCue produced her first Party-Line newsletter in February of 1990.

After Bevcomm purchased the Delavan Telephone Company and closed the local office in 2014, the mayor of Delavan at the time, Kevin Walker, asked McCue to continue producing the Party-Line and have it mailed out with the city’s monthly bills.

“Gail Ottesen made copies of the newsletter for rural members of Faith Lutheran Church to pick up on Sundays,” McCue says. “That is how people not living in town would get the information.”

Now, after publishing the newsletter for nearly 34 years, she enclosed her final issue of the Party-Line with the bills which were mailed out for December.

“There are many other ways to obtain information now,” McCue offers. “It was time to finalize the Party-Line.”

McCue recalls that the first Party-Line produced in 1990 had only three items.

“Before long I was using one quarter of a page on one side of the paper,” she says. “Then, it became a full-page on one side and eventually a full page on both sides of the paper.”

McCue believes the need and desire for a way to get information occurred when Delavan High School closed.

“The last graduating class was in 1989, and although there were still elementary students at the school, the community lost an information center,” she says.

In the early years of the Party-Line, McCue used a typewriter to produce the newsletter.

“That was a lot of work,” she admits. “If there were any changes, whether it was the time of an event or the date, it took time to edit things.”

Then, she got a computer.

“Editing and changing items in the newsletter became much easier when I got a computer,” she comments. “It also became easier to gather and share information.”

As for what information went into each newsletter, McCue laughs and points out that could vary a great deal from month to month.

“In the early months of the newsletter I would list special church suppers and bake sales, what was going on at the Legion Club and when the Community Club was meeting and other items like that,” McCue explains. “Pretty soon I had farmers calling me and asking if they could advertise an old wagon they had for sale.”

Special church services and meetings along with City Council and Delavan Fire Department meetings were always a part of the information McCue was able to share with the community.

“But it evolved into more when we started having people move into retirement homes,” McCue comments. “I began including people’s new contact information in the newsletter.”

Sharing people’s birthdays and anniversaries also became part of the monthly information she would pass on to others.

“Then, if I had room, I began including some Minnesota trivia when I could,” McCue notes. “One time I included the history of the gangster era in St. Paul.”

Another bit of trivia she shared was how a young Fidel Castro tried out for the Washington Senators, the team which would eventually become the Minnesota Twins.

“He apparently showed some promise as a left-handed pitcher,” she remarks. “But, he could not throw a curve ball over the plate with any consistency and he was cut before he could play a regular-season game.”

She would also, from time-to-time, include bits of Delavan history.

“The house known as the Murry house was originally ordered through Montgomery Wards. They used to sell houses,” McCue says. “Also, there are three people with Delavan addresses who were adopted off of the Orphan Train.”

In fact, McCue seems to know much about the city she has called home since 1968.

“I grew up on a farm between the cities of Wells, Matawan and Freeborn,” she comments. “I was actually living in the Twin Cities when I married a farmer and moved here.”

Living in the Delavan community has enabled McCue to have a good idea of what is important to community members and made her aware of how others have supported the city.

“I began mentioning some businesses in the newsletter,” she explains. “For instance, I knew the Clothes Closet in Wells had made a donation to the Delavan Fire Department so I have mentioned them in newsletters. The County Butcher Shop in Easton is another business I have mentioned.”

McCue also includes information about the Delavan Library and the Muir Library in Winnebago in the newsletters.

McCue says she looks back at her time of producing the newsletter with fond memories.

“First, the newsletter existed because of the people,” she says. “People made it easy for me because they sent me the info. But, there is just not as much going on in town anymore.”

But, McCue acknowledges it will be different come January of 2024 when she isn’t writing a newsletter.

“I will miss the routine,” she concludes. “People in the country and the city wanted something to do and because they shared information with me, I was able to share it with the community. It has been fun.”