The Collegian

Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jan Wanek & Will Clayton Library Circulation Director Mary "Squeak" Barnett bought a newsstand after her brother died, and ran it for four years before working for libraries.

Library employee Rose Reilly, a freshman, describes Library Circulation Director Mary "Squeak" Barnett's cute, sarcastic sense of humor and a sweet demeanor.

"She sends out these really cute and corny e-mails during the holidays for employees," Reilly said.

Would it surprise Reilly to find out that Barnett once owned a comic book shop?

"It would," Reilly said. "But it'd make sense because a lot of the things she sends us are comics."

Barnett bought the Jonesville Newsstand after her brother, Terry Barnett, died in a snowmobile accident at the age of 23 in February 1976.

Her father saw an ad for the newsstand in the Jonesville newspaper, Barnett said, and he thought buying it would help her cope with her brother's death.

"He said to me, 'This would be a good job for you, Squeak,'" Barnett said. "And so we went down and looked at it on Valentine's Day, of course the store was full, and we decided right then and there that we'd buy it."

She didn't have to wait long to own the store in downtown Jonesville, next to the Jonesville Bakery. The former owner of the newsstand needed money for a heart operation and quickly sold it to Barnett. She took over the newsstand on March 1.

"We went in, and we did it as a family," she said. "It was my store, but my husband and my parents helped."

She made memories while working there, she said. Her daughter, Tammy Droscha, learned to read under the store counter by looking at comics such as "Casper the Friendly Ghost" and "Richie Rich." Occasionally Tammy would deliver the newspaper to the bakery next door and come back with a frosted cookie as a reward. The newsstand became a popular spot for students to visit after school. It sold everything from newspapers, paperback books and magazines to cards, LP records and 45 records, Barnett said.

"Tuesdays, when the kids got out of school, they would rush to the comic book store, to the newsstand, to go through the rack to get the particular issue they needed," she said. "They came every week."

The collectors ranged from middle-schoolers to adults, all of whom would search the turn racks for their desired issues.

Continued...

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