Cecil D. Jahraus

Cecil Doleroy Jahraus (1925-2004) was an American newspaper editor and publisher. Born on October 1, 1925 in Artas, South Dakota to parents Wilhelm and Christina (Krug) Jahraus, Cecil was the youngest of six children.
After graduating from high school, Cecil entered the United States Army as a PFC mortarman. He saw combat in Germany near the end of World War II.
On return home, Jahraus completed a bachelor's degree in rural journalism at South Dakota State University. He was asked to stay-on as an instructor in typography, which was a particular strength of Jahraus's. Subsequently, he joined his brother Wilhelm Hiram "Buddy" Jahraus in the operation of a rural weekly newspaper in northcentral South Dakota.
Jahraus met Darleen Loetta Fenske, and the couple married on April 17, 1954. Over the next 18 years, the couple had five children, Joel Patrick Jahraus, Timothy Cecil Jahraus, Mark Edward Jahraus, Debra Sue Jahraus (now Bender), and Christopher Dean Jahraus.
Jahraus owned and operated a series of weekly newspapers in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado, culminating in the purchase of the Emmons County Record in Linton, North Dakota, in 1972. During Jahraus's nearly 20 year tenure at the Emmons County Record, it grew to become the state's largest weekly newspaper by circulation, with subscribers in all 50 states and three foreign countries. In the late 1980s, Jahraus served as the president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association. He retired from publishing in 1992, and wrote a book entitled "Agnes, Artas, and Alzheimer's," from the notes and accounts of his sisters, Agnes Mabel Jahraus and Christine Charlotte Pickering (Jahraus).
Jahraus lived out his retirement by hunting and fishing in North Dakota. In 2004, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a malignant brain tumor. He died on June 29, 2004 at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center, near the home of his son Christopher in Lexington.

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