From your front lawn to your computer screen

The NCSU Libraries extends Betty Debnam Hunt’s Mini Page legacy through “Learning is Fun”

Mini Page memorabilia covers the walls of the decorated studio in Betty Debnam Hunt’s home in Raleigh. Several issues of the weekly feature that was syndicated in over 500 newspapers nationwide, and which Hunt founded in 1969 and edited for 37 years, hang in frames next to numerous plaques and accolades. 

A framed letter from Washington Post publisher Don Graham sits above a signed photograph of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Burger, who graced a Mini Page cover in 1986. Large illustrations of the newspaper’s recurring characters—with descriptive names such as Alpha Betty, Rookie Cookie, and Mini Spy—look over Hunt’s spacious desk. And the paper’s debut issue, tucked within an August 1969 issue of the News & Observer, declares its cover story of the beginning of the Raleigh school year. A youthful Roman Gabriel, arm cocked to hurl a football for the NC State Wolfpack, grins from the back cover above hand-drawn ads for Stone’s Southern School Supply and Pepsi-Cola.

It would be easy for Hunt, surrounded by decades of memories of her unique journalistic endeavor, to dwell on her accomplished past. Instead, she sees The Mini Page as a platform for the future.

“What the The Mini Page did was introduce children (through the newspaper) to subjects they might never consider,” Hunt says. “As a reporter, I would go out on a story and would boil it down so that it would be available and of interest to children, as well as beginning learners of most any age.” 

“Through the years, I realized that something like this would be so interesting and exciting for a university to take over, but didn’t know how it might be done. There are tremendous educational institutions throughout the country. The faculty experts inside universities don’t usually address students who are learning elementary information from the very beginning.”

Soon, however, they will. Through the Learning is Fun (LIF) Fund that Hunt has established with the NCSU Libraries, she plans to build upon her legacy of bringing high-level content to all levels of learners in an easy, interesting, and most importantly, fun format.

Through LIF, NC State professors will be asked to create easy-to-read articles and educational resources about topics in their fields of expertise. With the Libraries’ assistance, the content will be written so as to be understandable and interesting to both beginning readers and the public. 

Professors will respond to a call for project proposals, and those proposals will be evaluated by an advisory committee consisting of librarians, an education faculty member, and a local elementary school teacher. One or two projects will be funded each year and shared locally and nationally through both an online presence and programming such as a lecture series.

The Mini Page serves as the most thorough proof-of-concept ever for the newly established LIF program. Hunt has received piles of mail over the years from newspaper editors, parents, teachers, and young readers thanking her for giving equal access to all manner of topics, and for making learning about these subjects a lot of fun, too.

“Reid loves The Mini Page just as much as getting a new book or birthday presents. Thanks, Betty, for keeping it fresh and fun,” wrote the parent of a young reader. 

“You make it simple enough that anyone who picks it up is going to find it interesting. But it’s not watering it down,” Hunt says. “You’re working with experts who know their stuff, so that should make it correct. And if they have trouble writing at that level, then the Libraries will find someone to help.”

LIF is an exemplary way for a Libraries donor like Hunt to share her passion for education and her professional success with audiences inside and outside the university. And the NCSU Libraries, as a cross-disciplinary hub for the entire university and a skilled outreach organization into the community, is an ideal partner.

A hand-drawn educational revolution

How many of us started our Sundays flopped on the living room floor with The Mini Page, reading about the history of Spain or doing the word puzzles or asking to try Rookie Cookie’s recipes? Hunt doesn’t know, but she knows it’s a lot.

When asked to recall her most memorable interviews over her long career with The Mini Page, Hunt doesn’t hesitate with her number one: Chief Justice Burger.

“Justice Lewis Powell lived in the same building I did, in southwest Washington down near the water. And Justice Powell had seen The Mini Page and he told Justice Burger about it,” Hunt recalls. “One day I got a message from the gatehouse that somebody had left something for me. It turned out to be a book on the Constitution with a note from Justice Burger saying, ‘Please come and see me, I’d like to talk to you.’”

“He asked me to do a series on the bicentennial of the Constitution. When I walked up the steps to interview him, ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ played in my mind. This also led to a series about the Bill of Rights.”

Over the years, Hunt conducted countless interviews for The Mini Page with such luminaries as soccer legend Pelé, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and Charlotte’s Web author E. B. White. “In getting interviews and going out on stories, it certainly helped that I could tell prospective sources that The Mini Page was in 500 papers, including The Washington Post, in the news capital of the world,” she says. “I would say ‘I’m Betty Debnam, the editor of The Mini Page, a syndicated column for kids in 500 newspapers across the country including the Washington Post.’”

“With that last bit, I could get to talk to most anyone I wanted to interview—and it was very much fun.”

Hunt was no stranger to influential journalism growing up; both her father and grandmother were trailblazers in the field working as editors and writers. Hunt’s love of teaching elementary education coupled with her journalism chops were an ideal foundation for The Mini Page, which debuted in 1969 in Raleigh’s News & Observer. It was picked up by The Charlotte News the following year and syndicated in 1972 by MSC Features, Inc. Then, in 1977, The Mini Page went national with Universal Press Syndicate (now a division of Andrews McMeel Universal). Not bad for an essentially handmade publication.

At first, Hunt handled every aspect of The Mini Page, from advertising sales, layout, and design, to researching, writing, and editing every article, to drawing all the art. She was meticulous with every aspect of the paper, holding herself to the same journalistic standards that the reporters in the newsrooms did. Eventually as The Mini Page grew, so did Betty’s staff.

Over the years, Hunt compiled selections from the paper into companion books such as The Best of The Mini Page (1977), The Mini Page Kids’ Cookbook (1978), and—realizing Chief Justice Burger’s wish—The Mini Page Guide to the Constitution (2006). She published a several guides and activity books, too.

In May 2007, Hunt sold The Mini Page to Universal, which continues to publish an abbreviated version of the feature. As part of that agreement, Hunt established the online Mini Page Archive at the UNC Chapel Hill University Library, her alma mater. An online finding aid is available at the Southern Historical Website, or by simply searching The Mini Page Archive online.

Educational from the get-go

Hunt has received many accolades over the years, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Newspaper of America Foundation (now the News Media Alliance); and awards from the North Carolina School of Journalism; the Educational Publishers Association; and the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2013 alongside NC State School of Design Deans Henry L. Kamphoefner and Claude E. McKinney. She has also received honors from the American Library Association, the American Chemical Society, the Engineering Journalism Award from the United Engineering Foundation, and the Department of the Interior. Within her home state, Hunt received a Distinguished Alumna Award from UNC Chapel Hill and St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, in addition to the North Carolina Award from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. But it’s easy to see that the letters from kids and teachers mean a lot more to her. The Mini Page was a personal educational mission right from the start.

“One of the reasons I started The Mini Page was that I had been teaching first grade and was asked to serve on a social studies committee. And I came up with the idea of a mini unit,” she recalls. “We used to get very thick units and most were very dull. If a swimmer was drowning and a teacher had to go by a lesson plan, they would seldom make a rescue”

“What I wanted to do is create something from which the teachers could get the information in a hurry because teachers are very busy and they just don’t have the time to do the research,” she continues. “I had the idea of squishing the unit down onto one page so a teacher could see an interesting introduction that would lead their students to do more research.”

“It didn’t get very far, so I decided to turn the idea of the mini unit into The Mini Page and I approached the News & Observer.”

The idea wouldn’t have gotten off the ground there, either, if Hunt hadn’t come up with an ingenious way to make The Mini Page pay for itself on Day One. She developed advertisements that taught information as well as sold products, starring hand-drawn characters such as Frankie and Frances Furter, who worked for Jesse Jones Hot Dogs. Companies liked the homey appeal of Hunt’s ads and saw their potential to reach new audiences through The Mini Page. 

And the News & Observer advertising manager, Dave Jones (who later became Associate Publisher of the N & O), saw The Mini Page as a project that was worthy of publication. Hunt credits the N & O and Jones, her mentor and main advisor, for giving her the opportunity to launch and keep The Mini Page publishing. 

Hunt got a desk and went to work. Almost a half-century later, she has the same vision for LIF.

“I think Learning is Fun is a good idea,” she says. “I really do feel that there’s a void in the American education system, in a way. I feel that we should do something to make reading interesting and make it fun and easy to learn.”

“This will give professors a chance to write for younger readers, and write elementary-level material that more people will understand. The joy of learning is easier to get if it’s something that you enjoy reading about. You learn to teach yourself if you can learn that skill.”

“I think it is important for kids to have that moment when they realize ‘Gosh, I didn’t know that.’”