Raymond Adler

Raymond Henry Adler, 60, died Dec. 27, 2002 of complications from pneumonia. He led the Dallas Times Herald photography department when it won two Pulitzer Prizes. He also worked at the Austin American-Statesman.

Charlie Brown

Charlie Edward Brown, 84, died Dec. 11, 2002 in Carrollton. He was a pressman for the Denton Record-Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News and Wichita (Kan.) Eagle.

Alice Burford

Alice Burford, 83, died Dec. 16, 2002 at Comfort House in McAllen. She was society editor of the Edinburg Daily Review for three years and a teacher for 25 years.

W.A. Brown

W.A. “Dub” Brown, 67, died Dec. 14, 2002, of complications from lung cancer. His journalism career spanned 36 years. He was editor of the Port Arthur News from 1985-92 and worked for newspapers in Denton, San Angelo, Tyler, Fort Worth and Waco. He was a past president of Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and Texas United Press International Editors Association as well as North and East Texas Press Association.

Joe H. Fietsam

Joe H. Fietsam, 84, died Jan. 8, 2003, of congestive heart failure.

He was publisher and owner of the Floresville Chronicle –Journal and had a long career in newspapers. Before being drafted in World War II he worked at the El Campo News, Kerrville Mountain Sun, Bellville Times and Shiner Gazette. After being discharged in 1946 he went to work for the Sealy News.

He also worked for The Calvert Times, the first newspaper he purchased, and the Fort Bend Reporter in Rosenberg. He also once owned the New Ulm Enterprise, Stockdale Star and La Vernia News. Fietsam received the TPA Golden 50 Award in 1990.

His wife Marjorie and son Jimmy continue to publish the Chronicle-Journal.

Randy Gordon

Randy Earl Gordon, 53, died suddenly Dec. 16, 2002. At the time of his death he marked 32 years with the San Antonio Express-News as ad quality controller.

Rosemary Gouldy

Rosemary Gouldy, 85, died Dec. 12, 2002 at a Fort Worth hospital. She was the owner of the Weekly Livestock Reporter for the last 50 years. She retired after her husband Ted died in 1993 but remained active in the publication.

James Hale

James H. Hale, 75, died Jan. 12, 2003, of natural causes.

He was a former publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Kansas City Star. Hale began his career as a wire editor of the Texarkana Gazette.

He had owned or been a top executive of The Baytown Sun, Tyler County Booster in Woodville and newspapers in Laredo, Altus, Okla., and Clearwater, Fla.

He also worked at the Henderson Daily News, Lufkin Daily News, Texarkana Gazette and Tyler Morning Telegraph as well as serving as president and CEO of the San Francisco Newspaper Agency, the joint business and publishing arm of the Examiner and Chronicle.

Tommy Hart

Tommy Hart, 86, died Dec. 12, 2002 at a Big Spring nursing home.

He was a carrier for the Big Spring Herald starting in 1931 and returned after serving in World War II. He eventually became sports editor and was promoted managing editor in 1970 and editor in 1975 where he remained until 1981.

Clyde Kitchens

Clyde Thomas “Jack” Kitchens, 85, died Dec. 15, 2002 at a Fort Worth hospice.

He and Grant Ghormley Jr. held the patent for inventing the web-fed offset press, which revolutionized the newspaper industry. He developed the technology along with several other men, including Staley McBrayer in Fort Worth.

Vic Koleber

Vic E. Koleber, 91, died Dec. 11, 2002 at Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia. He spent the first 14 years of his 40-year newspaper career at dailies and started with the Wichita (Kan.) Beacon. In 1935-36 he worked for the San Antonio Express and Evening News and joined the Edinburg Valley Review in 1937 and became publisher and general manager there in 1942.

From 1946-72 he owned and published of various weeklies, including the Florence (Colo.) Citizen, Teague Chronicle and Goldwaithe Eagle, which he sold in 1971 when he retired to Waco.

Eloise Laurence

Eloise Laurence, 95, died Dec. 8, 2002. She was editor and columnist for the Thorndale Champion and even though she retired in 1974 she continued to write “The Roving Eye” into the mid 1980s.

Charles Lewis

Charles R. Lewis, 73, died dec. 23, 2002 at his residence in Hideaway. He was a former editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph and former co-publisher of the Kilgore News Herald and later provided the “Oil and Gas Notes” to newspapers around the state.

Sarah McClendon

Sarah McClendon, 92, died Jan. 7, 2003, at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she had been hospitalized for several weeks.

McClendon was the Texas reporter known for pointed questions that dogged presidents for six decades. She got her start in Texas at The Beaumont Enterprise and worked in Tyler. She became a Washington correspondent in 1944 and worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and established McClendon News Service.

Judith Metcalf

Judith Ann Metcalf, 63, died Dec. 9, 2002, at Baylor University Medical Center after a long illness. She was a reference editor from 1979-96 for The Dallas Morning News and oversaw the newspaper’s transition from clippings to digital archives.

Jesus Perez

Jesus H. Perez, 82, died Jan. 10, 2003, after a yearlong illness. He worked 57 years for the San Antonio Express-News supervising street vendors and in the circulation department.

Virginia Plunkett

Virginia Plunkett, 92, died Dec. 9, 2002. She chronicled Waco society for generations for the Waco Tribune-Herald where she started in 1960 and retired in 1975 but continued writing until 1992.

Virginia Roberson

Virginia Roberson, 89, died Dec. 10, 2002, in Sherman. She and husband Alf owned the Grand Saline Sun and Edgewood Enterprise before selling in 1970.

Jack Scott

Jack Scott, 94, died Jan. 5, 2003 at Specialty Hospital in Austin. Scott was editor of the Cross Plains Review at age 20 and by 1940 had bought the entire newspaper. He was a director for West Texas Press Association and TPA and worked for several Texas newspapers.

Myrna Smith

Myrna Smith, 85, died in late November 2002. She worked 25 years as society editor of the Plainview Daily Herald, starting as news and feature writer in 1959.

Robert Tonkin

Robert Tonkin, 86, died Dec. 28, 2002. He wrote an outdoors column for 12 years for The Monitor in McAllen, the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen and The Brownsville Herald.