Angelina Bednar

Angelina Bednar, 90, died Dec. 29, 2004 at a Brenham nursing home.

She was a columnist for the Brenham Banner-Press for nearly 40 years and penned “Latium Gardening” from 1964-2002. She was recognized by President Johnson for her work in organic gardening and soil conservation practices.

Bill Comedy

Bill Comedy, 77, died Feb. 11, 2004 at Hendrick Medical Center.

As a boy he worked for the Coleman Democrat-Voice. He published the Throckmorton Tribune for six years before moving to Haskell where he published the Haskell Free Press for 21 years.

He was president of West Texas Press Association in 1978.

Glennie Earley

Glennie Mae Earley, 95, died Jan. 6, 2004 at a Waco nursing home. She was a reporter for the Johnson City Record-Courier for many years.

Dorothy Fagg

Dorothy Porter Fagg, 86, died Jan. 6, 2004 at a Dallas nursing home.

She entered journalism as a part-time columnist at the Oak Cliff Tribune and went on to become home furnishings editor at the Dallas Times Herald where she worked 21 years from 1961-82.

Bob Frederick

Bob Frederick, 88, died Jan. 2, 2004 at Kindred Hospital in Arlington.

He was a lifelong journalist and a reporter for the Tyler Courier Times and Morning Telegraph. He also edited Drilling Magazine.

Sean French

Former Bandera Bulletin editor and publisher Sean French, 35, died on Jan. 8, 2004 in a Houston hospital following a three-month battle with liver and kidney failure.

French served at The Bulletin from 1994-97. He left Bandera in 1997 to become publisher of The Marble Falls Highlander.

In 2001 he formed a publishing company with business partner Mark Henry. Together they purchased the Zapata County News in March of 2002 and The Lake Cities Sun in Lake

Dallas in November 2002.

French had been managing operations in Zapata at the time of his illness.

He served on numerous boards and committees while serving in Bandera including director of the Bandera County Chamber of Commerce from 1995-97. The Bulletin won the 1996 Business Community Service Award for contributions to the citizens and businesses in Bandera County.

H. Haag Jr.

H. Martin Haag Jr., 69, died Jan. 10, 2004 in Dallas.

He was a reporter, general assignments editor and education editor for the Dallas Morning News during the 1950s. He also worked many years in broadcast, including a stint at NBC in New York, a station in Los Angeles and as senior vice president/news for Belo’s Broadcast Division in 1989.

He retired in 2000 and was broadcast executive in residence at Southern Methodist University’s journalism department.

Thomas Hagan

Thomas William Hagan, 90, died Jan. 23, 2004 in Austin of a heart attack after a lengthy illness.

He began his career as a reporter with the The Dallas Morning News and went on to spend much of his three decades in journalism with the Cox newspaper chain. In 1939 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for meritorious service while on staff at the Miami Daily News.

Jan McComb

Jan Prevost McComb, 79, died Jan. 24, 2004. She penned the column “Let’s Go Shopping” from 1960-71 in the Houston Chronicle and was an advertising representative.

Felix R. McKnight

Felix R. McKnight, 93, died Feb. 7, 2004 at his University Park home.

He was a reporter who went on to become co-publisher and editor of the Dallas Times Herald in a career spanning six decades.

McKnight’s first newspaper job was with the San Antonio Light, followed by the Associated Press where he was acting chief of the Dallas bureau when The Dallas Morning News hired him in 1941. After 18 years in which he rose from writer to managing editor, the Times Herald 

hired him away to become vice president and executive editor; co-publisher and editor in 1967; and vice chairman of the board in 1973. He continued to serve the paper as a consultant after his retirement in 1988.

Richard McSpadden

Richard Lewis “Sandy” McSpadden, 65, died Jan. 1, 2004 in a Lubbock hospital.

He was a sports columnist whose columns appeared in newspapers in Greenwood, Colorado City, Abilene, Sweetwater and Stanton. He also coached girls softball and football at Greenwood High School.

John F. Malone

John F. Malone, 74, died Jan. 5, 2004 of respiratory heart failure at Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler.

He started as an 18-year-old copy boy for The Dallas Morning News and turned that job into a 44-year career in the credit, data processing and personnel departments before retiring in 1991.

Paula Moore

Paula Moore, 53, died of ovarian cancer Jan. 29, 2004 at her home in Wetumpka, Ala.

She was executive editor of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and a former managing editor of the El Paso Times.

Moore spent 20 years with the Times before leaving in 1997 to become the first female executive editor of the Advertiser. She also was the first woman elected president of the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.

James Robinson

James Robinson, 44, died Jan. 13, 2004 at California’s Stanford University Hospital of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

He worked for the Houston Chronicle from 1989-1996 and covered Houston City Hall and international stories. He came from the Hartford Courant in 1989 to interview for a job at The Houston Post but the Chronicle hired him first. He most recently was associate director of the Stanford News Service, where he edited a newspaper for the university staff and faculty.

Ida Schmidt

Ida Brieger Schmidt, 94, died Jan. 18, 2004.

She and husband Paul A. Schmidt published the Nordheim View before renaming it the DeWitt County View and moving it to Yorktown in 1951. The Schmidts published the View for 32 years before selling in 1970. The couple donated land for the local Lions Park that became part of the 25-acre Coleto Park Project.

Lois Watson

Lois Monk Watson, 79, died Jan. 17, 2004  of complications from pneumonia.

She was society and fashion editor for the Park Cities News in Dallas for nearly 25 years from 1978 until her death. She also worked for The New York Times’ News of the Week in Review.