William C. Barnard

William C. Barnard, 88, died May 26, 2002. He was the former Associated Press Texas bureau chief and joined AP in 1942 after working for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. In 1950 he went to AP’s Tokyo bureau as editor to relay stories about the Korean War. He returned in 1954 and retired in 1984.

A. Murray Bratcher

A. Murray Bratcher, 88, died May 8, 2002. He spent his entire working life in newspapers. He started his career in Cleburne working for the Cleburne Times Review, moved to the Brownwood Bulletin, and then Miami, Okla. to become publisher of the Miami News Record. He was a part owner of the Alice Echo News. He and wife, Bacca, played an important role for the Woodson family of newspapers for many years.

Dorothy Crowder

Dorothy Mae Schexnider Crowder, 72, died May 16, 2002 at Hospice of Wichita Falls. She was a reporter for the Port Arthur News, reporter and later women’s editor for the Denton Record-Chronicle, reporter for Burkburnett News and feature writer for Wichita Falls Times-Record-News.

Ricardo Garcia Sr.

Ricardo Garcia Sr., 91, died May 12, 2002 after a long illness. His career as a pressman for the Laredo Morning Times spanned 50 years and the newspaper estimated he had supervised more press runs in its history than anyone else.

Elmer W. Hester

Elmer W. Hester, 80, died April 26, 2002. He and wife, Jo, owned and published the Throckmorton Tribune from 1970-72. He also served in the Air Force for 28 years.

Sol Katz

Sol Katz, 88, died May 9, 2002 of natural causes at Heritage Manor nursing home in Plano.

He started working for The Dallas Morning News while still in high school and became full time upon graduation in 1929. Ten years later he moved to a position at the main office and soon after became city circulation manager. In 1950 he was promoted to head of the circulation department. In 1960 he was elected to the Belo board of directors and was named senior vice president in 1974. He retired from the newspaper in 1975 and the board in 1980.

Orris O. McLeland

Orris O. McLeland, 80, died May 13, 2002. He was area circulation manager for The Dallas Morning News for nearly 20 years from 1968 until retiring in 1987. He also was an independent contractor before being hired full time.

Jo Randel

Jo Stewart Randel, 86, died May 5, 2002. She was a reporter for newspapers in Clarendon, Paducah and Memphis. She was editor of the Paducah Post in 1935.

Richard T. Richards

Richard T. “Dick” Richards, 78, died April 24, 2002 after a brief illness. He was a reporter for the Snyder Daily News and edited travel literature for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Margaret Small

Margaret Ada Small, 96, died April 30, 2002 at Mission Hospital. She wrote the “Random Notes” column for the Pharr San Juan Alamo Advance News.

Virginia Turner

Virginia Strom Turner, 86, died May 11, 2002 in a car accident after failing to stop at a red light and colliding with a tractor-trailer at an El Paso intersection. Turner was one of the first female city editors of a daily newspaper and was the first woman to hold that job for Scripps-Howard while serving as city editor from 1959-76 at the El Paso Herald-Post. She contributed columns for the newspaper from 1976-97.