Newt Wallace, the “Oldest Paperboy in the World,” helped to put small-town California publishers on the map. He was the publisher of the Winters Express from 1947 to 1983. For decades, Wallace did stories, sold ads, poured lead, ran the press and delivered the paper himself.

Wallace had also delivered newspapers as a boy in Muskogee, Okla. After majoring in history and journalism at Iowa State, Ames, he was news editor of newspapers in Iowa, Long Beach and Upland.

Newt and his wife, Ida, purchased the Winters Express for $13,500, including the building, in 1947. The Wallaces raised five children while running a newspaper. A 1967 documentary from the U.S. Information Agency captured his daily routine, with glimpses of family life and images of

small-town commerce.

Along with all his duties, the many decades of delivering The Express on foot was just what he did, Wallace often remarked. “I don’t hunt or play golf; I deliver papers. I like delivering papers. I get to see the

people I know.”

Wallace served as president of the Winters Chamber of Commerce, was active in the Lions Club and was named Citizen of the Year in 1972. He served on the prison reform commission at San Quentin and was on the Yolo County Fair Board for many years.

During his term as president of the California Newspaper Publishers Association in 1964, Wallace personally visited 104 member newspapers, raised $12,000 to restore the Columbia Gazette and supported the establishment of the U.C. Berkeley School of Journalism.

“I think many folks are drawn to newspapers because they want to make a difference in their community, to help people and to fix things that aren’t right,” said Tom Newton, past executive director of the California News Publishers Association. “With passion, grace and humor, Newt Wallace did all that and more for the people of Winters for more than seven decades.”