Betty Debnam Hunt, pioneering creator of The Mini Page for kids, has died

Betty Glass Debnam Hunt, who channeled her passion for education by creating The Mini Page, the newspaper for kids, died Sunday.

Hunt, known by her byline of Betty Debnam, was 91. She served as editor of the nationally syndicated newspaper for children and families for 37 years, from when it launched in The News & Observer on Aug. 31, 1969, through March 2008.

Friends and family say she was young at heart and loved to learn. She channeled that thirst for knowledge into The Mini Page, which introduced kids to current events and general knowledge through stories, drawings, word games, educational activities, and even recipes, that brought that information to life.

“She had a lot of curiosity and was always asking questions,” says Tali Denton, her niece, of Raleigh.

It came naturally. Hunt’s grandfather, J.E. Debnam, was the founder of the family-run The Standard-Laconic, a weekly newspaper in Snow Hill. Her father, W.E. Debnam, was a well-known newspaper reporter, editor and radio and television reporter.

“She loved being a journalist,” Denton says. “And she had readers of all ages.”

Hunt went to Broughton High School and Saint Mary’s School in Raleigh. She graduated from Saint Mary’s Junior College in Raleigh before earning her political science degree in 1952 from UNC-Chapel Hill. She earned a master’s degree in education from Duke in 1963.

She was teaching elementary school at Clarence Poe School in Raleigh when the idea for The Mini Page crystallized. Children needed a newspaper, she thought, and teachers could use the course material.

“I saw a gap to fill, that the students wanted something to look at that made sense to them,” Hunt told The News & Observer in 1994.

She also thought it could be used as an educational tool for teachers and parents as well as an introduction to newspapers for older kids, she told Walter magazine in 2017. She told the magazine she wanted to “build their background knowledge about subjects that everyone needs to know to solve real-world problems and become curious citizens.”

She took the plunge, and it caught on. It appeared in as many as 500 newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post, and had a combined readership of about 13 million.

Hunt always appreciated the support of the late Dave Jones, the N&O’s associate publisher, who as advertising manager, gave her the chance to launch The Mini Page, according to her obituary.

Hunt, as described in Walter magazine, “approached revenue with a children-first approach: She proposed illustrated ads.” That meant characters paired with certain businesses. Frankie and Frances Furter, for example, were used to sell Jesse Jones Hotdogs.

“No one had ever seen these types of drawings,” Hunt told Walter magazine.

By 1977, The Mini Page no longer relied on the advertisers and became syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate.

Alan McDermott, her editor at Universal Press Syndicate from 1978 to 2007, remembered Hunt always sought ways to perfect The Mini Page.

“It took us awhile to learn each other,” McDermott told The News & Observer Monday in a phone interview. “She was very creative, but rather disorganized. I’m not creative, but organized. We made a great team.”

She would send her stories in bits and pieces via FedEx to McDermott in Kansas City, Missouri. He would send her a proof, and they would go back and forth to make changes with Hunt calling him several times a day. She never missed a deadline, according to a 2014 story with Carolina Connections at UNC.

“She would call at the drop of a hat with a suggestion of changing a photo, or better art,” McDermott said. “Her mind was working, she was constantly processing new information.”

He knew when Hunt was on the line because of her “wonderful Southern accent,” he said.

“She was a very elegant woman, always beautifully dressed, Southern gal, very genteel,” he said. “But she knew how to stand up for her feature. She wanted to make sure that the sales force fully supported the Mini Page. She would tell them, ‘Keep selling it, don’t forget the Mini Page,’ even when new features were coming out.”

McDermott recalls how proud she was of a miniseries explaining the U.S. Constitution. She interviewed Chief Supreme Court Justice Warren E. Burger. The series was later collected and bound into a book. She interviewed other national and international figures, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and “Charlotte’s Web” author E. B. White, according to a 2018 story on the N.C. State website.

She and her husband, the late Col. Richard Hunt, lived in Washington, D.C., moving The Mini Page headquarters with her.

“Betty was bright, creative and totally committed to children’s education … reaching them through the newspaper,” McDermott said.

In 2007, she sold The Mini Page to Universal Press Syndicate, now known as Universal Uclick, which still distributes the weekly supplement.

Hunt received numerous journalism accolades for her work. She was inducted into the Newspapers in Education Hall of Fame and the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame and received the North Carolina Award for Public Service, the state’s highest civilian honor.

The Mini Page also was honored by education and journalism associations, including the Newspaper Association of America. That organization presented Hunt with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today, The Mini Page archives — over 2,000 issues — are cataloged online in Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill.

“She left a remarkable gift in the Mini Pages,” said Hiller Spires, one of Hunt’s friends, who is the associate dean and Executive Director of the Friday Institute at N.C. State University.

The two shared a keen love for literacy and how important it is for children. They had a standing lunch date on Saturdays.

“She was always thinking about the next project,” Spires said. “She had a constant flow of ideas about education, politics.”

Denton, her niece, said her sense of curiosity was a “thread” that carried through her life.

“She was interested in anything new and engaging,” Denton said.

That was on full display when Hunt, then 83, went whitewater rafting with Denton down the shimmering Nantahala River for her niece’s 50th birthday.

“People who met her never knew how old she was, she was so young at heart,” Denton said. “As we went down the river, she threw her arms in the air with total joy. She was not holding on. She was living her life.”