Joseph Eppye Debnam

Betty Debnam-Hunt, who founded the children's syndicated newspaper The Mini Page and her grandfather, Joseph Debnam, founder of The Standard Laconic newspaper in Snow Hill, were among those honored Saturday.
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Debnam, 72, who now lives in Washington, D.C., created The Mini Page in 1969 while teaching first grade in Raleigh.The Mini Page first appeared in The News & Observer and addresses subjects ranging from the environment to history to Shakespeare.Today, her work on The Mini Page can be seen in more than 500 newspapers across the country.

Debnam is a 1949 graduate of St. Mary's Junior College in Raleigh and a 1952 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.She holds a master's degree in education from Duke University.

Debnam has won numerous distinguished achievement awards, including more than 20 from the Educational Press Association, a Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Lifetime Achievement Award, a Freedom Foundation Award and many others.She also is a member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.

John Lawrence, whose father, Lewis, was honored, told Debnam he is a fan of her work and remembers when it first appeared in Raleigh."I have some of the first issues," he said.

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Helen Butler, retired Craven County Schools elementary teacher; Diane L. Castle, retired speech pathologist and audiologist in N.Y. state, now living in Beaufort County; William E. Castle, retired dean and director of national technical institute for the deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, now living in Beaufort County; Joseph Eppye Debnam (memorial), first superintendent of Greene County Public Schools; H. Tallie Dupree, World War II veteran, retired coach and teacher from Harnett County; Evelyn Crutchfield Gerdes, retired teacher and administrator from Mecklenburg County Schools; Peggy Monroe Gillis, retired teacher from Hoke County Schools; Gwyn Griffin, teacher and administrator from Union County Schools; Loretta Brickhouse Guard, retired educator from Chowan County Schools; Margaret Blount Harvey, former N.C. State School Board member from Lenoir County; Betty Debnam Hunt, Mini Page Editor, Washington D.C.; Patricia Long, science educator at Onslow County Schools; Janie Bar