This Saturday, March 23, this newspaper will celebrate its 119th birthday. The first issue of The Jena Times was published on March 23, 1905, some five years before LaSalle Parish was even created. On Thursday, March 28, my wife and I will celebrate our one-year anniversary of owning this newspaper, which has been in the Franklin family’s possession for the past 56 years. Fifty-four of those years my dad, Sammy Franklin, was the owner and editor.