Obituaries

Steve Beever

Steve Beever, 56, died Aug. 12, 2004 at the Ennis Care Center after a lengthy illness. He was a longtime Ferris resident and worked as a salesman and sports writer for The Ellis County Press for several years.

Albert T. Collins

Albert T. “Al” Collins, 87, former business news and oil editor of the Houston Chronicle and a 35-year employee of the newspaper, died Aug. 22, 2004 in a Round Rock hospital.

Collins was a reporter, assistant city editor and book editor at the Chronicle before being named business news editor in the early 1960s. He joined the Chronicle on March 1, 1946 and retired in 1981.

He also served as Houston correspondent for The New York Times and worked in that newspaper’s Washington bureau. He was an original organizer and president of the Press Club of Houston.

Ruth Harris

Ruth Rachel Harris, 84, died Aug. 13, 2004 of a heart attack.

She worked for the Texas Almanac while at The Dallas Morning News nearly half a century and played a key role in transforming the Almanac to its current form.

She joined the News on Aug. 16, 1937, as a secretary in the circulation department. In March 1941, she was transferred to the editorial department. She helped with the editorial page during World War II and was head of reference in 1959.

Bessie Jeter

Bessie Picou Jeter, 75, died Aug. 9, 2004 in a Cameron nursing facility. She was news editor for The Cameron Herald for almost 30 years before retiring in the mid 1980s.

Pete Smith

Pete Smith, 87, died July 20, 2004.

He was a longtime Cleburne Times-Review sports editor and writer. In 1936, he began his full-time work with the Times-Review. While in high school, he wrote for the Cleburne Morning Messenger and the Times-Review when it took over the Messenger in 1935. He worked for the Times-Review for most of 41 years and retired in 1977 as sports editor.

Maurice Sparby

Maurice Sparby, 74, former general manager of The Beaumont Enterprise, died Aug. 9, 2004 in Maryland after a long illness.

Sparby retired from the Enterprise in 1988 after seven years as general manager. He previously worked as publisher of the Baltimore (Md.) News-American and the Trenton (N.J.) Times. He also worked at the Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal-Press as advertising director and director of sales.

Peggy Ree White

Peggy Ree White, longtime owner and publisher of the Goliad Advance Guard, died July 18, 2004.

White and her husband, Arthur Dale White, owned and operated the newspaper until the mid 1980s when they sold the paper and retired. She devoted many years to publishing the news of Goliad County.

Thomas Wright

Thomas Wright, 68, a San Antonio Express-News circulation department employee, died early Aug. 18, 2004 when his truck crashed in Schulenburg.

Wright had dropped off bundles of newspapers and was heading toward Flatonia on U.S. 90 when his 2003 Ford F-150 pickup veered off the left side of the highway at about 2:50 a.m., according to police.

The truck hit a culvert, went airborne and landed on its side, police said.

Wright was a delivery contractor for the San Antonio Light from 1984 to 1993, when the Light was closed. He went to work for the Express-News in 1997.