William Arthur SIDLINGER

Hutchinson News, Oct. 25, 1972, p. 1 News District Editor Dies Bill Sidlinger, 54, Hutchinson News district editor, died at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at a Medicine Lodge hospital. Sidlinger, who had recovered from open-heart surgery in 1969 and won a national award for a series of stories on his own operation, suffered a massive heart attack Monday afternoon. He was directing the Southwest Kansas Straw Vote team, and was with News staffer Randy Attwood when the attack came. "I've just had a heart attack. It's time I went to the hospital," Sidlinger calmly told Attwood in a Medicine Lodge cafe. His family was called to his side. A former Reno County Democratic chairman, Sidlinger was an insurance executive turned newspaperman. Long before he came to work at The News in August of 1967, he could be found peering over the shoulder of an editor — correcting copy —at all hours of the day and night. He came to work at The News as a proofreader, but itched to get behind the business end of a typewriter. He got his chance exactly one week after he started and admitted it was something he should have been doing all his life. Sidlinger's column, "South By Southwest," has been a regular Sunday feature in The News. And when he wasn't roaming the Southwest, or writing about it, he could usually be found peering over some editor's or reporter's shoulder at The News —correcting copy. No editor escaped his probing for accuracy, and his love of the English language. One of his happiest moments came a couple of years ago when he got to correct the New York Times on a story from Kansas City. Sidlinger's open-heart surgery came in 1969, after many, many years of living with the fear of death. The surgery, in Houston, Tex., was successful. Two valves were placed in his heart. His American Heart Association Award (the Howard W. Blakeslee Award) came in 1970. He won it in competition with newspapers from all over the U. S., went to Atlantic City to accept the $500 prize, and returned shaking his head. "Those guys with the big papers only have one story a week to do. I think that would give me a bad heart," Sidlinger said. Born June 5, 1918 in Hutchinson, he married Inez L. Zirkle, Dec. 5, 1942 in Webster Grove, Mo. He was a lifetime resident here and a member of the First Presbyterian Church and the Rotary Club. Survivors include the widow; sons, (ed.-living); parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Sidlinger, of the home; and a sister, Mrs. John Foster, Hastings, Neb. Funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the church; Rev George A. McCall. Burial will be in Fairlawn Cemetery. Friends may call from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m Thursday at Elliott Chapel. The family suggests memorials be made to the Heart Association.

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