Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the June 2008 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
Growing up with the TRIBUNE — editor to share memories
By Lois Eubank
Virginia Nizamoff Surso will give the keynote address at this year’s MPO Convention Grand Banquet. No living person has experienced the history of the MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE quite like she – as the daughter of an editor, as a contributor and as editor.
“This is a huge honor,” she said, deeply touched.
Born in Indianapolis to the late Christo and Slavka Nizamoff and raised in Speedway, her roots run deep in Macedonian culture. As a child, she spent many days “going to work with daddy” at the MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE.
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At the office, she assisted with mailings. Working the Addressograph (now in the Macedonian Museum) was a favorite part of her “workday”. She also learned to make fl our-water paste to adhere the labels to wrappers for papers being mailed overseas. As a teen, she spent many MPO convention nights in hotel rooms packed with girls, but who had time to sleep? Lifelong friendships were forged during these convention weekends. The writing bug hit Surso at an early age. As a fi rst grader, she was a crackerjack reporter for the school newspaper. While at Speedway High School she wrote editorials for the school paper. She also started writing for the weekly Teen Star, published by the Indianapolis Star. Her most prestigious assignment was to interview the late Izler Solomon, conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She continued writing for the Star to finance her college education -- a journalism degree at Butler University, and stayed on after college through the births of her two children. A most memorable day at the Star was Nov. 22, 1963. As she walked past the Teletype, the bell rang three times -- major news was breaking. It was huge: President Kennedy shot! Since it was before the day of instant television, she was one of the first in the country to “read the sad news” and pass it along. |
For eight years, Surso wrote for the Westside Messenger, a publication specific to Indy’s west side suburbs. There her articles on environmental issues garnered her a prestigious Environmental Protection Agency award and helped set the pace for Speedway’s recycling center to be voted “most effective” in the nation.
An award from the Community Service Council of Indianapolis hangs proudly in her TRIBUNE office. It recognizes her for outstanding interpretation of community services or problems, specifically a series she wrote profiling community leaders.
In 1987, she moved to Fort Wayne to work for the MPO at the request of MPO President the late Ivan Lebamoff. Initially she was to work with chapters, to assist their officers in strengthening membership and fundraising activities. She also worked with Lebamoff planning conventions down to the last detail to ensure their success and learned to negotiate hotel contracts.
The first Macedonian Day of Learning to keep Macedonian culture and heritage alive was held in 1988. Chaired by Lebamoff, former TRIBUNE editors Borislav Ivanoff and her father presented historical material to the young people who gathered. From the presentations came the material used to publish the book, Struggle for Freedom -- Refl ections. She researched, wrote or edited it under the guidance of the three editors always asking questions to clarify points that were so familiar to them.
