Joseph Bell

Joseph Edward Bell, 84, who restarted his career as a newspaperman when most men his age were thinking of retirement, died Feb. 19, 2004 following a long struggle with Parkinsons disease and other illnesses.

Between 1952 and 1972 he owned, edited and published the Colorado City Record, which won more than 50 awards, including sweepstakes honors from Texas Press Association.

Bell was nearing 60 when he became a reporter in the 1970s and 1980s for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he had worked during the 1940s. He also worked for the Fort Worth Press.

Sam P. Braswell

Sam P. Braswell, 93, died Feb. 8, 2004.

He spent much of his life working in the newspaper business and co-owned-and operated the Kerrville Daily Times from 1948 to 1955.

In 1936 he and his wife Cecelia Braswell joined the production staff at the Kerrville Mountain Sun.

Braswell worked in Kerrville until 1942 when he went to operate the Coleman Democrat-Voice, which he purchased in 1944.

In 1948, the Braswells returned to Kerrville when they purchased a co-ownership interest in the Kerrville Times. After leaving the Times, Braswell became the Victoria Advocate’s associate manager for five years.

His father, Sam M. Braswell, was TPA president in 1923-24 while at The Clarendon News.

Clifton Caldwell

Clifton “Clif” Floyd Caldwell, 87, died Feb. 29, 2004, in Somerset, Pa.

He was a 46-year newspaper owner and publisher from Christopher, Ill. who worked in Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, Florida and Illinois.

In 1946, Caldwell started his newspaper career in Ada, Okla., and soon after accepted the advertising manager’s position at a weekly newspaper in Shamrock, Texas. Caldwell joined the Texas City Sun in 1947 as advertising manager and later became the publisher of the Sun and the Galveston News.

He owned a group of Illinois weeklies and retired in 1987.

Doug Freelander

Doug Freelander, 73, died Feb. 17, 2004 at his home in Conroe.

He was a reporter, city editor and longtime newsman with The Houston Post from 1956 until the paper closed in 1995. His wife Ann James, also was a former Post journalist. Freelander’s first wife, Marion Freelander, was a former Post food editor who died in 1984

Ben Gillespie

Ben Gillespie, 73, died Feb. 4, 2004 at the Crosbyton Nursing Home after a lengthy battle with cancer.

He owned the Crosby County News and Chronicle until December 2001.

Gillespie and his family moved to Crosbyton in 1988, and he and his wife, Donna, became the editors and, eventually, owners of the Chronicle. She died Feb. 12, 2001. At one time, while Gillespie and his wife were both battling cancer, members of the community and journalism students from Texas Tech University published the weekly.

Joyce Lowe

Joyce Lowe, 83, former longtime Lampasas Dispatch Record publisher, died Feb. 28, 2004 at her residence.

Lowe’s husband Ward Lowe was one of the founders of The Lampasas Dispatch and longtime editor and publisher of The Dispatch and The Lampasas Record. After her husband’s death, she became publisher of the twin weeklies.

During her years as publisher, The Dispatch and The Record in 1985 took the South Texas Press Association’s Community Service Award and in 1984 received similar recognition from the West Texas Chamber of Commerce.

Under her leadership, the two weeklies merged in 1984, to become the Lampasas Dispatch Record. The following year, she retired and sold the newspaper to her sons, Fred and Jim, who became publisher and editor, respectively.

She was a past president and board chairman of the West Texas Press Association and a director of Texas Press Association.

Zwingli Joe Thornton

Zwingli Joe Thornton, 65, died Feb. 23, 2004 after a long illness.

He was a former Fort Worth Star-Telegram political writer, investigative reporter from 1964-79 and Washington bureau chief from 1975-77. Thornton’s first newspaper job was night rewrite editor at The Dallas Morning News.

Mary Wilkerson

Mary Elizabeth Smith Wilkerson, 84, co-publisher of The Comanche Chief for 40 years, died Jan. 21, 2004 at a Brownwood hospital.

She joined her husband and his family in the newspaper publishing and printing business in Comanche. After her husband’s death in 1964, she became co-publisher of the Chief working full time, writing her popular Chit Chat column, as well as keeping the books for the business for more than 30 years until her retirement in 2001.