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Obituaries published in the May 2025 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

DANIEL LEE TABOR

CLYDE –  Daniel “Danny” Lee Tabor, 62, of Clyde, passed away Wednesday, April 9, at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene.

He was born Aug. 8, 1962, in Abilene, to Don and Betty Joe (Patton) Tabor.  He was a 1980 graduate of Clyde High School and attended Cisco Junior College.

He began his newspaper career with the Abilene Reporter News before moving back to Clyde to work for the Clyde Journal with his family. The Tabors have owned the newspaper since 1976. Following his father’s death in 2016, Danny became the editor of the Clyde Journal. He was also involved with the Lions Club of Clyde for many years.

He is survived by two brothers, several nieces and nephews and other relatives.

Funeral services will were held April 26 at Bailey-Howard Funeral Home in Clyde with Rev. Monty Barnett officiating.

ILAH BLACKWELL RODGERS TURNER

LUBBOCK – Nilah Blackwell Rodgers Turner, a writer for newspapers and magazines who also published books, died March 17. She was 91.

Growing up in Littlefield, she married Rafe Rodgers in 1950 and they settled on a farm in Whitharral. After her sons reached school age, she began working part-time at the Levelland newspaper, her first job as a writer.

She learned on the job how to write news stories, obituaries and weddings and do other tasks as well. Eventually, she also began writing in-depth features.

The editor in Littlefield noticed her work and when she later applied for a job there, Bill Turner quickly hired her. He told her that his newspaper wanted her interviews and photos for every feature article she could write.

For many of the years working for the Levelland and Littlefield newspapers, she also was a stringer for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, helping with that paper’s coverage of major events in Lamb and Hockley counties.

The Leader-News was sold in 1972 to James Roberts, and Jerry Tidwell later became the new editor-publisher. She continued to write for the newspaper and began to freelance with magazines, writing mostly for Readers Digest, Redbook and Good Housekeeping. 

One year she tied the record at Readers Digest — 10 Dramas in Real Life by a single author in one year.

When the magazine market seemed to falter later in the 1970s, she sought a new career in real estate.

In 1982, she renewed her acquaintance with her former boss in Littlefield, Bill Turner, who had purchased the Citizens Journal in Atlanta. 

They married in 1982. She continued her real estate career while writing for the Atlanta Citizens Journal, which became a twice-weekly newspaper during Turner’s ownership.

After selling the newspaper in 1986, the couple continued to live in Atlanta until 1993, when they moved to Longview. 

They moved to Lubbock in 2006, to reside there the next 18 years, so she could be nearer her family.

She spent many of the final years of her life writing two novels, “Home to Hidden Springs,” published in 2018, and “Tending the Enemy,” published that same year.

She is survived by her husband Bill, two sons, nine grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, four great-great grandchildren and other relatives.

A memorial service was held April 23 at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Lubbock.

JOHN THORNTON

AUSITN -  Texas Tribune founder John Thornton, co-founder of the American Journalism Project and Elsewhere Partners, died on Saturday, March 29. He was 59.

Born in 1965 in Wichita, Kansas, John graduated first in his class at Trinity University in San Antonio and went on to earn an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

He began his professional life at McKinsey & Company before joining Austin Ventures in 1991, where he led nearly 50 software investments. He ultimately served as managing partner, leading a firm with over $4 billion in assets under management. He later co-founded Elsewhere Partners, an investment firm focused on bootstrapped software companies outside traditional venture hubs.

In 2006, as the news business faltered, Thonton assembled a team at Austin Ventures to explore newspaper investment opportunities.

He became a crucial early and influential voice making the case that local news was a “public good,” and that commercial markets could not sustain it. “Maybe public-service journalism — whatever you want to call it, I call it capital-J journalism…maybe this stuff is a public good just like national defense, clean air, clean water,” he said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review.

In 2008, in his first journalism venture, he founded The Texas Tribune, recruiting Evan Smith, the president and editor in chief of Texas Monthly, to run it as his co-founder alongside veteran journalist Ross Ramsey. Thornton assembled $4 million in seed capital and contributed over $2 million to the organization in its founding years. The Texas Tribune would become the gold standard in nonprofit news, garner broad recognition in the industry, and inspire the founding of dozens of similar organizations in other cities and states.

A decade after starting the Tribune, Thornton co-founded the American Journalism Project, a first-of-its-kind “venture philanthropy” to raise money and fund local newsrooms across the country. Alongside co-founder Elizabeth Green, he recruited prominent national philanthropies to support local news at the very moment it was teetering.

The premise, as he often reminded staff, was that every dollar the American Journalism Project gave local news outlets would generate three new dollars in local annual recurring revenue. The first 22 organizations funded by the American Journalism Project have, on average, doubled in size since they received their grants; collectively, they have added over 200 journalists to their staffs.

The American Journalism Project has raised more than $225 million to fund local news and now supports a portfolio of 50 nonprofit newsrooms in 36 states.

He is survived by his wife, Erin Thornton, and two stepsons.

A memorial honoring his life was held in Austin on April 9, on what would have been his 60th birthday.