When it strikes friends or people we respect, it's even more shocking.

The Greene County Daily World family and its predecessor -- The Bloomfield Evening World -- lost a true friend Monday morning .

Karl Jeffries of Scotland passed away at Lyons Health and Living Center -- losing a battle with cancer.

He was 84.

Arrangements are pending at Day and Carter Mortuary in nearby Bedford.

Karl and his wife, Mary, were long-time newspaper carriers -- both logging more than a decade of dedicated daily service to the readers of both newspapers. The Jeffries worked as a team after Karl retired from NSWC Crane in 1986 and then worked at John Deer and the old Pork plant at Worthington.

The Jeffries' made sure our readers got their newspapers on time and for their service over the years and we are deeply indebted. It's the behind-the-scenes people -- like Karl -- that many of us who are out front with our names and photos in the newspaper every day fail to properly recognize and thank while they are still with us.

For Karl one of his real joys was talking about his World War II service to his country, eating fish lunches at Long John Silvers in Linton and his baseball cap collection.

Karl loved to talk about and show off his baseball cap collection. It was his pride and joy. Karl had several hundred caps of all colors. Being the frugal guy he was, Karl was also proud of the fact that most of his caps were given to him as gifts from friends or area places of business that he frequented.

I always wanted to do a story about Karl and his cap collection, but he was scared calling too attention to it might not be the best thing to do.

When his son, Bill, stopped in to the office to tell us about Karl's death, he had tears welled up in his eyes as he said that aside from having to help make funeral arrangements he had to pick out one of the caps for his dad to wear at his final resting place.

"Wow, he loved those hats. He really did," Bill said with a satisfied smile on his face.

Wear it proudly, Karl.