Chronicle welcomes Billy Drown

Chronicle Staff

Published: Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

After spending the past couple of years in the northern Dakota state, South Dakota native Billy Drown couldn’t be happier to be back in the southern Dakota state, especially since he is now located in the breathtakingly scenic Custer as the newest staff member of the Custer County Chronicle.  Drown was raised in Bison. After graduating from Bison High School in 2001, Drown attended South Dakota State University in Brookings. With a degree in newswriting and reporting, Drown graduated from SDSU in 2006. His first journalism adventure took him to Killdeer, N.D., where he was the editor of the Dunn County Herald.  After a year of advertising sales, reporting, paginating, photographing and various other tasks, Drown was ready for a change. So he accepted the editor positions at the Adams County Record in Hettinger, N.D., and at the Lemmon Leader in Lemmon.  During that time in 2007, Drown split his time between each paper. Like in Killdeer, he was a Jack-of-all-trades for each paper. And like Killdeer, he enjoyed the time he spent while he was there.  But in mid-2008, Drown, unsure if he wanted to spend the rest of his days working in the media, decided to change career paths. With the help of a friend from Hettinger, Drown was hired by Nabors Drilling USA LP in Wyoming. Oil rig work was something completely new to him, but he welcomed the physical work one doesn’t get at newspapers.  So off he went to Wamsutter, Wyo., to begin life as a roughneck, or puffneck as they now call them, since safety precautions are at a all-time high at oil rig sites nowadays.  Drown, though, must have missed some of the safety measures, because halfway through his first hitch he fractured the tibia bone in his left ankle.  With his left ankle wrapped in a cast and out of work for six weeks, Drown pondered if he made the right career choice. He finally came to the conclusion that his heart wasn’t in the oil rigs, but in newspapers.  Drown decided to give Charley, whom he had been in contact with for two years, at the Custer County Chronicle a call. He asked Charley if a spot was still open at the Chronicle. To his surprise there was one. Once again Drown finds himself in the newspaper business and once again he will be a Jack-of-all-trades. He will report, edit, photograph, sell ads, paginate and do whatever he is asked for the Chronicle. Drown couldn’t be happier to be in Custer and back in the newspaper business. “It is great to finally be in Custer. For two years, Charley has tried to get me to come down here to Custer and work for him. Thank goodness I finally wised up,” said Drown. He continued, “Custer is a beautiful place and I couldn’t be happier to call it my new home. A lot of my great friends are from Custer and I look forward to making more here. I look forward to working with a lot you in Custer and can’t wait to meet you all.” To contact Billy Drown at the Chronicle, call 605-673-2217 (office) or 605-393-7582 (cell) or email him at drownbilly@hotmail.com.