Silbernagel will be missed: Former INH editor passes away on May 26 in Carlos
by Karin L. Nauber
I will always remember the first time I met Ernie and Diane Silbernagel at their home in Eagle Bend. I was interviewing for a job as a reporter/photographer for them. I was a nervous punk who wanted to write. After three separate interviews over a number of years, I was offered the job to work with them.
This was in the early 1990s and they were still producing the newspaper—The Eagle Bend News and Bertha Herald—from their home.
Later, in 1992, they took on the Clarissa Independent and successfully joined the three newspapers—Eagle Bend News, Bertha Herald and Clarissa Independent—into the perfect union that became the Independent News Herald and moved the operation to the building in Clarissa after a major remodel.
Ernie and Diane bought the Eagle Bend News and Bertha Herald in 1979 and moved to Eagle Bend.
The couple were the co-editors/co-publishers of the newspapers for many years working tirelessly to put out a quality publication 52 weeks a year.
On June 1, 2000, they sold the business to Ray and Marlo Benning.
Ernie and Diane had run their newspaper from their home for 16 years with the last four years at the Clarissa office, to make for the total of 20 years they had owned the business.
When they originally moved to Eagle Bend, they had two children, Kelly (age 6) and Jason (age 8). . . .