This week marks 20 years that Yvonne Contreras has been with the San Saba News & Star. A lot has changed since then.
Yvonne started at the San Saba News & Star on August 9, 2006 - twenty years ago. She was originally hired to proof read, answer phones, and help customers at the front counter. She also delivered the newspapers to newsstands around town every Wednesday. She had the task of going to the post office and bank everyday. At that time, she was only part time, four days a week, but she quickly went to full time.
A lot has changed in her job description since then, and the change happened very quickly.
About two months later, Alice Smith joined the news crew. Yvonne then transitioned to typing, daily deposits, and bookkeeping. She was still delivering the newspapers as well. By December, she began putting some of the newspaper pages together. The newspaper had five employees at that time.
In the spring of the following year, the ads creator, Desiree Dietzman, went on maternity leave. Before she left, she trained Yvonne how to create the ads. Desiree decided not to return, so Yvonne took over that position and is still creating your ads today. Because her job demands were growing as ads creator, the paper found someone else to deliver the papers to give Yvonne more time in the office. Her husband Bruno stepped up to do the Wednesday paper deliveries before he went to his regular job.
Yvonne has had several life changes while employed at the San Saba News & Star. Her oldest daughter moved almost four hours away (2010). Between her two daughters, Yvette and Cydnee, three grandchildren were born: Zephyr (2015),Amity (2019), and Archer (2025).
Yvonne also had some challenging life changes during her 20 years at the newspaper. She lost her father (Marcos Gomez) in 2015. Within six months of each other, she lost both her mother (Anita Gomez - 2022) and husband, Bruno (2023). Through everything, she was still committed to her job at the newspaper.
In case you don't know, Yvonne is a baseball fan. She even likes to watch the teams practice! She also likes movies, mostly horror movies, and mystery books. Her biggest hobby at present is watching her grandson, Archer. He and his mom, Cydnee, live with her, and Archer always puts a smile on Yvonne's face!
Besides monthly weekend get-togethers, the other two grandchildren, Zephyr and Amity, come spend a week with her during their summer break. The entire next week, Yvonne is beaming from ear to ear at work!
Yvonne has created hundreds and hundreds of ads for our local businesses. Her favorites are the ones for our magazines, the Visitor's Guide and Hunter's Guide. The printing quality of the magazines really show off Yvonne's hard work and dedication to doing a great job on the ads.
Just like a pastor of a small church is called to do odd things at odd times (sweeping the foyer just before the service, cleaning the kitchen after a fellowship, cleaning the toilet, etc.), Yvonne does many things in the office besides creating ads. When you have a small office in a small town, you do whatever is needed. Sometimes you may find her cleaning up, putting on postage stamps for your subscription renewal postcards, doing post office and bank runs, changing clocks, replacing batteries. At different times, she has done virtually everything at the San Saba News & Star. In 2025, she took over running the paper while I was out several months for surgery.
Many may not know this, but the Down Memory Lane article that is loved by so many of our readers is produced by Yvonne. She does a lot of research each week to bring you interesting items from the past to put a smile on your face.
Another tidbit of information you may not know - Yvonne’s dad, Marcos Gomez, drew the pecans at the top of our Front Page, and we have been using them since July 15, 2015!
On Monday, August 3, 2026, the staff of the San Saba News & Star presented Yvonne with a plaque that read:
Celebrating 20 Years of Service to the San Saba News & Star and the entire community of San Saba County
Yvonne Contreras
With gratitude, the many current and former staff members of the San Saba News & Star
Thank you, Yvonne, for 20 years.
Let's go for 30!