19 Texas newspapers hold Pulitzer Prizes

Texas newspapers have won 19 Pulitzer Prizes. The most decorated Texas newspaper is The Dallas Morning News, which has won six Pulitzers.

Not all of the awards have gone to large dailies though. In 1955 two small dailies, the Alice Daily Echo and Cuero Record, both claimed separate Pulitzers for local reporting.

Here’s a list of Texas winners compiled from the Pulitzer Web site, www.pulitzer.org:

1955 LOCAL REPORTING, EDITION TIME Caro Brown of Alice Daily Echo For a series of news stories dealing with the successful attack on one-man political rule in neighboring Duval County, written under unusual pressure both of edition time and difficult, even dangerous, circumstances.

1955 LOCAL REPORTING, NO EDITION TIME, R. Kenneth Towery of Cuero Record For his series of articles exclusively exposing a scandal in the administration of the Veterans’ Land Board in Texas.

1961 PUBLIC SERVICE Amarillo Globe-Times For exposing a breakdown in local law enforcement with resultant punitive action that swept lax officials from their posts and brought about the election of a reform slate.

1963 LOCAL REPORTING, NO EDITION TIME, Oscar Griffin Jr. of Pecos Independent and Enterprise who as editor initiated the exposure of the Billie Sol Estes scandal and thereby brought a major fraud on the United States government to national attention with resultant investigation, prosecution and conviction of Estes.

1964 PHOTOGRAPHY, Robert H. Jackson, Dallas Times Herald For his photograph of the murder of Lee Oswald by Jack Ruby.

1965 LOCAL INVESTIGATIVE SPECIALIZED REPORTING, Gene Goltz of Houston Post For his expose of government corruption in Pasadena, which resulted in widespread reforms.

1977 PUBLIC SERVICE, Lufkin News For an obituary of a local man who died in Marine training camp, which grew into an investigation of that death and a fundamental reform in the recruiting and training practices of the United States Marine Corps.

1980 FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, Erwin H. Hagler of Dallas Times Herald For a series on the Western cowboy.

1981 SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY, Larry C. Price of Fort Worth Star-Telegram For his photographs from Liberia.

1982 EDITORIAL CARTOONING, Ben Sargent of Austin American-Statesman

1983, FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, James B. Dickman of Dallas Times Herald For his photographs of life and death in El Salvador.

1985 PUBLIC SERVICE, Fort Worth Star-Telegram For reporting by Mark J. Thompson that revealed nearly 250 U.S. servicemen had lost their lives as a result of a design problem in helicopters built by Bell Helicopter, a revelation that ultimately led the Army to ground almost 600 Huey helicopters pending their modification.

1986 NATIONAL REPORTING Craig Flournoy and George Rodrigue of Dallas Morning News For their investigation into subsidized housing in East Texas, which uncovered patterns of racial discrimination and segregation in public housing across the United States and led to significant reforms.

1988 SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY, Scott Shaw of Odessa (Texas) American For his photograph of the child Jessica McClure being rescued from the well into which she had fallen.

1989 EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM, David Hanners, reporter, William Snyder, photographer, and Karen Blessen, artist of Dallas Morning News For their special report on a 1985 airplane crash, the follow-up investigation, and the implications for air safety.

1991 FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, William Snyder of Dallas Morning News For his photographs of ill and orphaned children living in subhuman conditions in Romania.

1992 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, Lorraine Adams and Dan Malone of Dallas Morning News For reporting that charged Texas police with extensive misconduct and abuses of power.

1993 SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY, Ken Geiger and William Snyder of Dallas Morning News For their photographs of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

1994 INTERNATIONAL REPORTING, Dallas Morning News Team of Dallas Morning News For its series examining the epidemic of violence against women in many nations.