On Saturday, the Freedom Center printed its final edition of the Chicago Tribune before facing a demolition deadline and planned redevelopment into a casino.
Sharol Walker Jackson, from left, a night shift press operator, on March 20, 2024, at the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center. Jackson has worked at the facility for 38 years, making her the longest serving female employee currently working. Press operator Andrew Whitaker, 69, who lives in the Kenwood neighborhood on the city’s South Side, started working at the Tribune Tower printing facility as a 24-year-old in 1979, which he remembered as dirty and cramped.
Their often nocturnal shifts, working while the city slept to ensure that daily newspapers would arrive each morning, meant missing everything from weddings to school plays. But the workers felt pride in their craft, printing the first draft of history for others to read over coffee. “You almost feel like an artist,” Whitaker said. “People really don’t understand the logistics that go into the printing process. It seems like the paper just appears, but there’s a lot to it.” Whitaker plans to retire in June.Mitch Britton, 65, a South Side resident, started at the Tribune Tower pressroom in 1978 while studying air conditioning/heating repair at Kennedy-King Junior College. He soon gave up his intended career to become a press operator.
Terry Ford, 64, of River Grove, a 41-year plant veteran who serves as crew supervisor, started as a part-timer at Freedom Center in 1983 and worked his way up as the plant ran at full capacity nearly round the clock. Deanna Warner, a night shift press operator, started in 2003. She enjoyed how every day on the job was different.
Rey Flores, a night shift press operator, at the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center pressroom. Flores began in 1994.
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