Obituaries

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

APRIL SUZANNE KELLEY

TAYLOR - April Suzanne Kelley, who had served since August as Granite Media Partner’s Central Texas area editor, including the Taylor Press and Elgin Courier, died Christmas Eve. She was 36.

A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Kelley was the first of her siblings to earn a college degree and worked nights to put herself through school before earning a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana Tech University, with a focus on journalism.

Prior to moving to Taylor, Kelley worked in more than a dozen newsrooms across the country, including in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado and Wyoming for the Thermopolis Independent Record, filling both editor and reporter positions.

From 2020-21, Kelley was chosen as a reporting fellow for John Jay College, part of the City University of New York, where she covered the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, as an editor and senior reporter for Community Impact.

Thomas Edwards, the executive editor of Granite Media Partners, said Kelley was a “true light who shone brightly” in the field of journalism, and her loss is keenly felt among the staff members at all 10 of Granite’s publications and its printing press.

“April was a true professional — always thinking of stories, always making deadline and very, very focused on getting the job done,” Edwards said. “She will live on in our memories.”

Survivors include her daughter, her mother and siblings.

A memorial service was Feb. 1 at Medders Funeral Home in Crossett, Arkansas.

L. Dan Coleman

SPOKANE, WA – L. Dan Coleman, former managing editor of the Wichita Falls Times Records News, died Jan. 6. He was 82.

A native of Wichita Falls, Coleman graduated Midwestern State University before he was drafted into the Army Adjutant General School in Indianapolis, Indiana. He later earned an associate of science in nursing degree at MSU through the G.I. Bill, but did not practice. He instead pursued a career as a journalist, working his way up from copy boy to obituary writer to reporter and finally to managing editor at what came to be the Wichita Falls Times Record News.

He left Texas in 1980 to become editor of The Yakima Herald-Republic, where he worked until 1997. He enjoyed a long retirement by staying active in community groups as well as competing in American Kennel Club field trial competitions, hiking and fishing.

He married Kathleen Gilligan in 2001. He is survived by three children and three grandchildren.

Memorial services were held at Audubon Park United Methodist church in Spokane.

Memorials may be made to the Opal Coleman Memorial Nursing Scholarship at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls.