The First 100 Years: A History of The Salt Lake Tribune 1871-1971 by O.N. Malmquist

21 "Mr. Tribune" Appears THE ROUTINE employment of a secretary in the spring of 1913 turned out to be the most important action Thomas Kearns ever took with respect to the future of The Salt Lake Tribune and the perpetuation of the controlling ownership of the newspaper within his own family.

The new secretary was a 26-year-old railroad employe then stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had lived for a short time in Salt Lake City three years earlier, liked what he saw and had developed a desire to return. A special attraction of the city was a young girl, Eleanor F. Crawford, who became his wife in 1914. He apparently met and talked with former Senator Kearns when he was stationed in Salt Lake City with the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad and he had been recommended by Senator Clark of Montana. On May 26 he received a letter from Kearns inquiring about his availability and promptly responded with a formal application for employment, written on the letterhead of the Pere Marquette Railroad Company, which then employed him.

The letter, dated May 26: Dear Senator: Thank you for your kind favor of May twenty-third, which came in hand today.

Not only am I a first-class stenographer, thoroughly 267