Nora Adkisson

Nora Pauline Adkisson, 85, died July 3, 2002. She wrote a weekly column “Polly’s Chatter” for the Jewett Messenger.

Blair Corning

Blair Corning, 65, died July 18, 2002 at her San Antonio home. She was a columnist for the San Antonio Light and later the San Antonio Express-News.

Ruth Higdon

Ruth Arnold Higdon, 91, died June 27, 2002 at Frio Regional Hospital. She was a columnist for the Frio Nueces Current in Pearsall. She wrote for the Pearsall Leader from 1930-70 and the Current until shortly before her death.

Cora Matlock

Cora “B” Matlock, 82, died July 28, 2002. She was a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman on two separate occasions and wrote feature stories and personality profiles in the early ’60s. She later worked in public relations and was PR director for the Texas Association of Realtors.

Lucille Muchmore

Lucille Muchmore, 87, died July 11, 2002. She wrote the column “Just Looking” for the Alpine Avalanche for 15 years and penned the Ranch News for many years.

John Rainey

John Edward Rainey, 70, died July 6, 2002 in Garland after battling multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone, for nearly two years.

A longtime newspaperman, his first job was as reporter at The Houston Post. He also worked for the Houston Chronicle and was news editor at The Beaumont Enterprise, managing editor of The Baytown Sun, night news editor of the Greenville Herald-Banner, editor of the Bonham Daily Favorite and news and sports editor of the Winnsboro News.

At the time of his death he was editor of the Wood County Democrat, a post he held since 1999. He returned to the Democrat part time in 1997. He came to Wood County in 1984 to work for the Winnsboro News before retiring in 1995.

Jason Ranton

Jason Ranton, 32, was found dead in his apartment July 2, 2002. The cause of death was unknown but he had suffered from diabetes since childhood, friends said.

Ranton worked briefly on the copy desk at the Waco Tribune-Herald. He was general manager of student publications at Baylor University, where he also taught copy editing until 2001.

He was editor-in-chief of The Lariat while attending Baylor, where he earned a bachelor’s in applied music in 1993 and a master’s in journalism in 1998.

Otto Wick Jr.

Otto Wick Jr., 74, died Aug. 1, 2002 of leukemia.

His first newspaper job was copyboy at the San Antonio Light in 1945. He worked 36 more years there holding positions in classified and retail advertising before becoming advertising director and assistant to the publisher.

In 1981 he was named publisher of the Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer, also a Hearst property. Four years later he became publisher of Hearst’s Midland (Mich.) Daily News, where he remained until retiring in 1995 to return to San Antonio.

William B. Wilson

William B. Wilson, 93, died July 12, 2002 at a Mineola nursing home. He began delivering The Dallas Morning News in 1916 as a boy, went to work in the mailroom in 1928 and retired in 1973 as mailroom foreman.

Lawrence E. Young

Lawrence E. “Larry” Young, 47, died July 20, 2002 of an apparent heart attack. He was managing editor of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif.

He started his 20-year newspaper career at the Arlington Citizen-Journal in May 1982 and later that year joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In 1987 he became political writer for The Dallas Morning News and later was mid-cities editor to the metropolitan desk. He became assistant national editor in 1995.

In 1996 he was named managing editor of the Arlington Morning News and in 2000 was promoted to executive editor.

In August 2000, he moved to the Press Enterprise, also a Belo newspaper.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators established the Lawrence E. Young Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Belo Building, Communications Center, Lock Box 11, Dallas TX 75265.