STEUBENVILLE — Once in a blue moon, or when it’s politically advantageous, the blue-collar city of Steubenville is thrust onto the national stage when it is the site of a presidential visit.

A significant number of presidential candidates, presidents-to-be and former presidents have made Steubenville a destination over the nation’s history. To date, only two sitting presidents have visited the town — 27th President William Howard Taft on May 17, 1912, and 39th President Jimmy Carter on Sept. 12, 1979.

Carter’s local stop stirred memories following his death at the age of 100 on Dec. 29. That event nearly 50 years ago was momentous for the city and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the handful of Herald-Star staff members who covered it.

More than halfway through his only term as president, Carter was scheduled to appear for a mid-afternoon town forum in the Steubenville High School auditorium to hear concerns of citizens.

The visit came at an important time, when Ohio coal miners faced large-scale unemployment due to environmental regulations and competing energy sources. Citizens had worries about the future of Ohio coal and whether the U.S. would grow more dependent on foreign oil — concerns that ultimately dominated the forum.

After flying into what was then Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, Carter was greeted by U.S. Rep. Douglas Applegate and other elected officials. He then joined a motorcade that would take him along Third Street in Steubenville before turning from Market Street onto Fourth Street, ending at the high school.

One thousand individuals took ticketed seats inside the auditorium, while another large crowd formed outside to catch a glimpse of the Georgia-born commander-in-chief. A short walk east on Dock Street, a small group of Herald-Star staffers prepared for one of the biggest assignments of their careers.

Matz Malone, then a photographer for the newspaper, was one of seven or eight individuals assigned to cover Carter’s visit, each focusing on various aspects. The group was halved, with one portion inside the auditorium and the rest outside.

The forum was an “interesting experience,” recalled Malone, a Wellsburg resident, who had arrived for the event an hour early with his team. Malone stood on a specially constructed dais to Carter’s left, rubbing shoulders with numerous other media representatives — local and national.

Like the other photographers, Malone took many photos any time Carter shifted or changed expressions. Thankfully, he had some film left to snap a candid photo of a departing Carter smiling and reaching out to shake the hands of audience members.

That photo ran on the front page of the Herald-Star’s Sept. 13 edition. It would go on to win a 1979 Ohio Associated Press award in the breaking news category.

“Jimmy Carter, I always had a soft spot in my heart for him because of that picture,” said Malone, who keeps the photo next to his desk at his home.

Also inside the non-air conditioned auditorium was Judi Tarowsky, who wrote a color piece centered on the crowd and overall atmosphere. Tarowsky recalled it being a “very hot day — everybody was sweating.” The headline on her story on Sept. 13 read: “Crowd Swelters; So Does Carter.”

Although the crowd had a light and excited air, security took no chances. Tarowsky said there were reports the Secret Service had sent divers to inspect the Fort Steuben Bridge before the motorcade crossed, and manhole covers on the route were spot-welded shut. One press member had agents inspecting his french fries, which he’d abandoned just before the forum began.

“Working for a small-town newspaper, it was really exciting. Something you never expect you’ll really get to do – cover a sitting president,” said Tarowsky, who’d shook hands with Carter when he was campaigning at the Fort Steuben Mall a couple of years before the forum.

Like Tarowsky, then-general assignment reporter Mark Sharp, who now lives in the Cleveland area, kept his press pass lanyard from the forum. Being privileged enough to see a sitting president speak on important issues had a profound impact on Sharp.

“Wow, the president came to Steubenville. It’s a small town, and he actually came here and talked to the people, literally one-on-one. That was kind of impressive from that aspect — a little surprising and a really noteworthy event for everybody in town at the time. And, certainly for me as young reporter at the time.”

Sharp noted that the online archive American Presidency Project has a full transcript of Carter’s speech and responses to questions from the audience.

Fred Rossano, a general assignment reporter and copy editor at the time, said the experience was “a lot of fun” and “made you feel important.”

Rossano remembers being stationed outside with another staffer. People packed both sides of Fourth Street, he recalled, and security was substantial, including sharpshooters on the roofs of nearby buildings.

A Secret Service agent told Rossano and his co-worker that, instead of pulling in front, Carter’s motorcade would stop at the auditorium’s side entrance. So, the two relocated and were later delighted to see the motorcade take a right. But when the motorcade kept moving and turned behind the high school, the two looked at each other and said, “We’re suckers.”

Janice Kiaski, the former community editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times, was a senior at what was then West Liberty State College in September 1979.

While she wasn’t a part of the newspaper’s coverage, she remembered having the chance to see Carter in person in March 1978, when she represented West Liberty as one of 200 editors of college newspapers from across the nation who attended a White House news briefing and press conference.

“I didn’t get to ask anything, but I was busy taking what pictures I could of him and other members of his cabinet who were on hand,” she remembered. “If anything, it was the experience of being able to say I was in the presence of a president, which doesn’t happen every day.”

Kiaski said the opportunity was a big deal — from flying to Washington, riding in a taxi, staying at the historic Hay-Adams Hotel and then writing about it for the school newspaper, The Trumpet.

Although Marian Houser wasn’t involved in coverage of the 1979 stop, she had met Carter on the campaign trail three years earlier, in 1976.

Houser, a longtime Herald-Star staffer who filled many roles, from city editor to community editor, worked for the Wheeling News-Register at the time and was at the Fort Steuben Mall to speak with her former classmate and wire service reporter Tim Schell. Houser intended to cover Schell — “a hometown boy covering a presidential campaign” — but was called over by then-Steubenville Mayor William Crabbe to meet Carter.

“He called Secret Service members over … and they took me over and introduced me to the candidate. We actually had a brief, but pleasant, conversation about small-town life and working women. He was very pleasant, soft spoken and kind. I didn’t get to talk to him when he came in 1979, but he shook my hand in the crowd outside the Fountain (restaurant) and gave me a little nod. I have no way of knowing if he might have remembered me.”