For just over 20 years, one of the most popular daily features in the Tribune was based on weather predictions and later editorial-type comments by a newsroom cat named Albert Lea Tommy.

This feline with journalistic tendencies was created in 1924 by Burt and Adelaide Nesbett May. The were a husband and wife team who were staff members of the Albert Lea Tribune.

Through the years several interesting factors developed regarding this black cat with the exceedingly long tail.

First, Albert Lea Tommy was not the first critter used by the Tribune as an illustration to help highlight the daily weather prediction. The cat’s predecessor made its first appearance in the Dec. 31, 1923, issue and looked like a cartoon mouse. This mouse-like creation made its second appearance in the Jan. 14, 1924, issue and then appeared daily on Page 3 until early April of that year.

Second, the first appearance by Albert Lea Tommy, complete with the artist’s illustration, was in the April 12, 1924, issue.

Third, the newsroom cat was used to highlight the weather predictions for a few years. Then the weather predictions were shifted to the upper left hand corner of the front page and the cat’s place on Page 3 was devoted to daily observations of life in the Albert Lea area.

Fourth, it was true that Albert Lea Tommy started out as a mythical cat created by Burt May, the Tribune’s editor, and illustrated by his wife, Adelaide. However, an undated article in a 1947 issue of the St. Paul Pioneer Press confirmed that there really was once a black cat in the Tribune’s newsroom named Tommy. The article stated, “… Burt May began quoting a black cat in his newspaper column. So many folks demanded to see the cat that he purchased one. It was a huge thing and intelligent enough to love to perform for visitors. … It was a real tragedy for Albert Lea when the real black cat Burt May and his wife had purchased and lived with for 14 years died.”

A grandson, Tom May of San Antonio, Texas, said, “ Tommy would sometimes talk about trips that grandmother and grandfather (and their son, Merle) took and other mundane day-to-day items. These were written by grandmother. But Tommy also wrote about city government politics — and would say things that couldn’t be said in an editorial. These were written by grandfather — but not always.”

Another grandson, David May of Anoka, said it was his understanding that his grandmother illustrated the daily drawings used to illustrate the Albert Lea Tommy part of the newspaper.

Burt May was born on Oct. 14, 1878, in Forest City, Iowa, and attended grade school and high school there until his senior year. The May family then moved to Albert Lea where he graduated from high school. After graduation May went to Moline, Ill., to work with his brother at the Evening Mail newspaper.

When he heard Albert Lea was going to have a daily newspaper, May returned to the city. He became a part of the press room crew which published 225 copies of the first edition of the present Tribune on Aug. 8, 1898. (The original daily Tribune started on Oct. 15, 1897, and ceased operations four months later because of financial problems.)

During his early years at the Tribune, May worked in the press room, advertising department, the newsroom as city editor in 1912, and became managing editor in 1914.

He retired from the Tribune on Oct. 1, 1945, and died July 23, 1956.

His wife, Adelaide, was born Aug. 8, 1878, in Austin, graduated from Central High School in Minneapolis and came to Albert Lea in 1900. She worked with her husband at the Tribune. Adelaide was the newspaper’s first Associated Press wire editor and took the telephone dispatches by shorthand. She also wrote feature articles, reviewed plays and films, and edited special sections of the Tribune.

Adelaide May died on April 14, 1963. Her Tribune obituary said, “She also contributed from time to time to ‘Albert Lea Tommy,’ a column originated by her husband.”

By 1945 the comments by the newsroom cat were appearing on page four, the Tribune’s editorial page. The cat rated a special mention in Burt May’ last editorial in the Oct. 1, 1945, edition with, “Tomorrow I am starting a trip east. Albert Lea Tommy has a front seat and perhaps you will hear from him form time to time.”

Thus, the next series of regular commentaries by Albert Lea Tommy were based on this vacation and retirement trip. The last regular daily column by the newsroom cat was in the Oct. 18,1945, edition. After this, the column appeared in the Tribune on an irregular basis for a few more years.

Just how many of the Albert Lea Tommy (alias Burt and Adelaide May) columns were written for the Tribune during a 20-year span? One fairly close estimate could be based on the number of 6,000.