The Sequim Gazette celebrated its 50th anniversary last week, kicking off with a Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and open house. The event was attended by about 50 business leaders and community members, including former owner Brown Maloney, as well as past and present staff.

A special section celebrating the 50th anniversary was released the same day inside the Nov. 20th edition and online.

The newspaper operated for more than 45 years in its commercial space at 147 W. Washington home, and moved to its new home in June.

The Gazette, then known as The Sequim Shopper, was started in January 1974 by Shirley Larmore and her husband Bob. They transformed it into the weekly tabloid newspaper, The Jimmy Come Lately Gazette a few months later.

In 1978, Larmore sold the paper to Leonard and Linda Paulsen. Following Leonard’s passing in 1982, Linda took over publishing responsibilities until selling it to Brown Maloney in 1988.

The “Jimmy” became the Sequim Gazette on April 4, 1990.

Maloney sold the newspaper to Sound Publishing, in November 2011, who sold its publications to Carpenter Media earlier this year.

For more information about the Sequim Gazette, visit sequimgazette.com, call (360) 683-3311, and/or find newsstands around the area for a copy each week.

Photo courtesy Brown Maloney/ Former Sequim Gazette publisher Sue Ellen Riesau stands with former editor Michael Dashiell and interim editor Matthew Nash on Nov. 20 at a celebration of the newspaper’s 50th anniversary. Riesau hired both Dashiell and Nash.