In the early 1990s, my beat at the Times was to rove California's small towns and far-flung regions and cover stories that needed telling. Just about every time I would get to a hidden little town, I'd find that Charles Hillinger had been there for the Times first — and his stories would often be hanging on the wall in the local cafe. Hillinger died Monday night after a two-year battle with cancer. According to an email circulating among ex-Times staffers, "Hillinger retired in 1992 after 46 years with the Times [and] estimated that he wrote more than 10,000 stories during his years with the newspaper. At the time of his retirement, Hillinger was the longest-tenured editorial employee." Larry Harnisch of the Times' Daily Mirror history blog says he'll be posting Hillinger items all day. (Chuck was 82, the LAT obit says.)