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Obituaries published in the August 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger

BOBBY HORN JR.

LIVINGSTON – Former Cass County Sun Editor Bobby Horn Jr. died July 8. He was 53.

Horn was also a reporter, columnist and production worker for the Citizens Journal and was managing editor for a chain of weekly newspapers in the Houston area. He was also pastor for both the Douglassville United Methodist Church and Union Chapel United Methodist Church.

A native of Beaumont, Horn was a graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown. He earned associate degree in humanities from Lee College n Baytown.

He was editor of the Crosby-Highland Star Courier for 15 years before going into the ministry. He was the current minister of the Wild Country Mission in Livingston.

He is survived by his wife, Melinda, two children and other relatives.

Memorial service was held July 15 at Wild Country Mission in Livingston.

LARRY MAYO

BRADFORD - Retired Palestine Herald-Press Publisher Larry Mayo, whose newspaper career spanned four decades, including his time as a student photographer at UT and as a military correspondent in Vietnam, died June 10 in Bradford. He was 80.

A native of Brady, Mayo grew up in Kerns and was a 1961 graduate of Sherman High School, where he was an all-district athlete. He studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where he first made a name for himself in the summer of 1966 when he took photos of the Charles Whitman tower shooting and sold them to the Associated Press and several European news publications to fund his last year of college.

In 1968, Mayo left for his tour in Vietnam and served as a U.S. Army correspondent in Southeast Asia for two years. During his time in the military, he supervised some 250 correspondents and photographers and was editor of the KYSU magazine at Long Binh. It was there that he earned the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal.

After leaving the service, Mayo joined the Dallas Times Herald as a personnel director. Later, he moved his family to Palestine, where he served as general manager with the Palestine Herald Press under publisher Wayne Sellers. Mayo became editor and publisher in 1980, when Seller became chairman of the board. Under Mayo’s leadership, the Herald Press became fully computerized in the early 1980s.

His colleagues and friends recall him as a professional mentor and friend who gave sage advice.

“The Palestine Herald-Press flourished under his management because of his love for accurate, balanced community journalism,” said Angie Alvarado, a former Herald-Press editor.

“Larry loved the community and knew that the newspaper had an important role in the community,” Mayo’s wife Nancy said. “He believed in publishing the unbiased truth, and doing what was right by the community, even if that information was unfavorable to his friends or business owners in the community.”

Mayo was active in civic work throughout his career and into retirement. He served as president of Rotary, YMCA and the United Way and served on the board of directors of the Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce.

Former State Rep. Cliff Johnson noted Mayo “was always looking out for Palestine and Anderson County. He was a supporter of keeping Union Pacific in Palestine, donating personally towards the lawsuits to keep the company in Palestine. He covered the first Supreme Court case between Palestine and UP in 1978 and went to New Orleans to cover related court proceedings.

Military service interrupted Mayo’s college work three hours short of earning his degree. In July 2022 at the age of 79, he officially completed his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In retirement, he and his wife lived at their Dream Creek Ranch, where he enjoyed outdoors activities and fishing. He was also an avid golfer.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by five children, seven grandchildren, a great granddaughter and other relatives.

Celebration of life was held June 30 at The Chapel at Eagle’s Bluff in Bullard.

Memorials may be made to a charity of choice.

JOE MURRAY

LUFKIN – In a storied career that would eventually lead him to travel the globe, Joe Murray was awarded journalism’s highest honor — and earned The Lufkin Daily News national acclaim — for a series of stories reported without ever setting foot outside his hometown.

The iconic journalist died at his home June 25 at the age of 82.

A native of Lufkin, Murray followed his dad’s path to the Lufkin Daily News, where the elder Murray had worked as a Linotype operator. Joe Jr. worked various jobs at the paper as a high school student and during summer vacation while he attended the University of North Texas in Denton. He spent several years as the Houston Chronicle’s East Texas correspondent in the mid-1960s before going to work at his hometown newspaper. In June 1969, Tom Meredith, then the Lufkin paper’s publisher, tapped Murray as editor, making him the first Lufkin native to lead the newsroom.

As a newspaperman, Murray always maintained an open door to readers. In 1975 when a local homebuilder walked into the newspaper to tell about a young family member who had died in Marine Corps recruit training in San Diego. The family wanted answers.

After listening to the grieving man, so did Joe. In a series of articles, Joe and reporter Ken Herman produced stories that answered some of the questions and brought the story to a nationwide audience.

That included then-U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Lufkin, who led the successful congressional battle for reforms in Marine Corps recruiting and training.

For the newspaper’s efforts under Murray’s leadership working with then-cub reporter Herman, the Lufkin Daily News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service.

In 1978, Murray was elevated to become the newspaper’s editor and publisher. In 1989, he had earned his way into a journalist’s dream job when he was named a special writer for the Cox Newspapers chain, whose properties included the Lufkin paper and publications in several states. He took his curiosity (and a seemingly unlimited budget) around the nation and the world and shared his observations in columns, also distributed by The New York Times and published around the nation.

His small-towner’s observations of the wider world were appreciated and enjoyed by many. Longtime Washington journalist Andy Alexander remembers Joe as “wicked smart” and with “a wonderful Thurber-like sense of humor.”

When he wasn’t on the road, Murray stayed home and wrote about his neighbors, continuing his column until his retirement in 2000.

Murray’s colleagues recall him as a first-rate journalist who mentored many young people early in their careers.

Herman, who continued his career with the Austin American-Statesman until his retirement, describes Murray — who not only guided him as a young journalist straight out of college but also introduced him to the woman he would marry — as someone who was “improbably very important to my life on so many counts, personally and professionally.”

“He just was a great newspaper man, and there just aren’t many people who are that good at what they do who will decide to spend their lives in their somewhat small hometown and not feel the lure of moving up to bigger cities, bigger newspapers. But Joe made Lufkin, his hometown, a better city with what he did for journalism,” Herman said.

He is survived by his wife of 58 1/2 years, Sarah K. Murray of Lufkin, three daughters, eight grandchildren and other relatives.

Memorial services were held July 5 at the First Baptist Church of Lufkin.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church Lufkin, 106 E. Bremond Avenue, Lufkin TX 75901; Monastery of the Infant Jesus, 1501 Lotus Lane, Lufkin TX 75904; Winnie Berry Humane Society of Angelina County, 1102 N. John Redditt Drive Lufkin TX 75904; and Kurth Memorial Animal Shelter, 1901 Hill Street, Lufkin TX 75904.

EARL WAYNE PLAGENS

COLORADO CITY – Earl Wayne Plagens, a former city councilman and newspaper publisher who owned and operated the Colorado City Record for more than four decades, died June 22. He was 75.

A native West Texan, Plagens lived much of his life in Mitchell County. He and his wife, Sheila, purchased the Colorado City newspaper in 1981 from West-Com. A former advertising executive with the Bryan-College Station Eagle, Plagens was one of the longest-serving publishers in West Texas history, having held the position from 1980 until his retirement in 2021.

During his career, he and Sheila also published the Alpine Avalanche in Alpine and founded Plagens Printing and Office Supply and Texas Caps and T-Shirts.

A native of San Angelo, Plagens’ family moved to Bryan, where he graduated high school and attended Texas A&M University. After college, he joined the staff at the Bryan-College Station Eagle, where he began his newspaper carer years earlier as a handler pulling papers off the press and stacking them for $1 a day. Later, while working as an advertising salesman, he met his future wife, Shelia Haney, who was working as an ad designer.

They married in 1976, the same year Plagens got the opportunity to be assistant publisher of the Terrell Tribune. Working for Hartman Newspapers, he was promoted to publisher of the Deer Park Progress in 1980. In 1981, they moved to Mitchell County to take the reins of the Colorado City Record. Shortly thereafter, Plagens was elected to the Colorado City Council, where he served for several years.

His efforts in chronicling the events of Mitchell County in the newspaper made him a key part of the area’s history. Mitchell County Judge Mark Merrill noted that “for a small newspaper to succeed says volumes about his ability, but the history he has preserved is so important for all of us.”

Plagens was active in the community, especially youth sports.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son and his family, including three grandchildren, and other relatives.

Celebration of life was held June 30 at the First Baptist Church in Colorado City. Memorials may be donations to the First Baptist Church of Colorado City, 301 Chestnut, Colorado City, TX 79512; Christian Temple in Colorado City, 1927 Hickory St, Colorado City, TX 79512; or the Colorado ISD Foundation, 1132 Hickory St. Colorado City, TX 79512.