ORLEANS — One of Orleans’s oldest continuous businesses, The Orleans Progress Examiner has been named as the Grand Marshal of the 2023 Orleans Dogwood Festival Parade.
The announcement was made at last week’s Dogwood Festival planning committee meeting.
“For nearly 150 years now, The Orleans Progress Examiner has been the keeper of our little hometown’s collective story,” said Orleans Executive Director Robert F. Henderson.
“In a time when locally owned community newspapers are all but disappearing, we are so very grateful to still have a weekly newspaper. Since March 1968 John F. Noblitt has been editor and publisher of our hometown paper. And we certainly owe him a debt of gratitude for keeping the paper going year after year in this very difficult technologically advanced environment,” Henderson added
The Orleans Examiner was established in July 1879 by H.J. Cooper. In November 1900, the Orleans Progress and the Orleans Examiner, merged in 1965 to become the Orleans Progress-Examiner. Today it continues its operation as the town’s only locally-owned newspaper.
In selecting The Orleans Progress Examiner, Henderson, and festival committee members cited its numerous contributions to the Dogwood Festival down through the years including the printing and publishing of the souvenir program for the past 53 years.
“We invite everyone to come out and help us honor both John and The Progress Examiner’s many contributions to our little hometown on Parade Day, April 29,” Henderson added.
