Laurie Ezzell Brown joins Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame honoree Laurie Ezzell Brown with family members at the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame luncheon.

DENTON — TPA members gathered during the 145th Convention and Trade Show Hall of Fame luncheon to honor veteran Texas journalists.

Outgoing TPA President Bill Patterson presided as the Texas Newspaper Foundation honored the newest inductee to the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame and TPA honored five newspaper veterans with Golden 50 awards.

Keynote speaker for the luncheon was Craig Garnett, publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News, who discussed the important work of community newspapers, especially when tragedy strikes. (See column on Page 3 for more.)

Texas Newspaper Foundation President Greg Shrader inducted Canadian Record Publisher and TPA Past President Laurie Ezzell Brown into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame.

The second generation to run her family newspaper, she joins her father, the late Ben R. Ezzell, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Brown is past president of Texas Press Association as well as two-time president of the Panhandle Press Association, a group in which her parents were also active and both served as president. She is also a recipient of the Frank W. Mayborn Award for Outstanding Community Service.

Brown has served as editor of The Canadian Record since the death of her father in 1993. She put out the first edition after his death. She later assumed the role of co-publisher with Nancy Ezzell until her mother’s retirement in 2010.

Brown continues in her parents’ footsteps today, chronicling the life of the Texas Panhandle city of Canadian and Hemphill County — but doing it digitally, after reaching the decision to cease print publication in 2023.

The Record was the subject of the documentary ‘For the Record,’ which follows Brown’s battle to secure the future of the newspaper after her retirement. The film brought to national attention the economic pressures facing community newspapers throughout the country.

In 2007, the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues presented The Canadian Record and the Ezzell family with the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural community journalism, recognizing the mother-daughter team still publishing the newspaper at that time.

The Canadian Record has won regional and state awards as well as accolades from across the country for its coverage, quality of writing, graphics and photography. 

TPA Golden 50 honorees

TPA recognized five Texas newspaper veterans with the Golden 50 Award recognizing 50 ore more years in the newspaper industry. President Bill Patterson introduced the honorees:

RUTHANNE BROCKWAY

Ruthanne Brockway has spent well over 50 years of her life as a journalist in Texas.

In June 1970, only a few days after graduating from Terrell High School, she joined the staff of The Tyler Morning Telegraph

She took courses at Tyler Junior College and later graduated from El Centro Junior College in Dallas. She then studied journalism and took other courses at North Texas State University at Denton, where she worked for the Denton Record-Chronicle.

In the 1980s she spent a few years in West Texas with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the El Paso News.

She came back to the DFW area late in the 1980s, first as editor of the Grand Prairie Daily News and then the Lewisville News.

She then spent more than two decades with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, first as a features copy editor and later as a news copy editor.

One of the highlights of her journalistic career was getting to teach a course in investigative reporting at North Texas State University.

Now retired, she continues to have an interest in journalism and keeps in close contact with many fellow journalists she has befriended during the past six decades.

ROBERT CESSNA

Robert Cessna, who everyone calls Cease, has worked 50 years at one newspaper — The Eagle in Bryan-College Station. To this day, he’s often the last to leave the office and is known for his work ethic, integrity as a reporter and humorous nature. He’s a pillar of sports coverage in the Bryan College Station community and beyond. 

He was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 2008 after being named Sportswriter of the Year by the High School Coaches in 1997.

Cease has been described as a man of faith and family, which come through in the way he does his work and the way he lives his life. 

RICK CRAIG

Rick Craig’s newspaper career journey began at just four years old when he worked for his parents at the Hamlin Herald for 10 cents per day. In the coming years, he spent much of his time in the back shop of the Hamlin Herald, or in his grandfather’s shop, at the Stamford American.  

During junior high and high school, Rick began shooting sports photography and in college he worked part-time at Texas Tech Press.

In 1979, Rick returned to Hamlin to resume covering sports and manage the commercial printing department. When his father unexpectedly passed away in 1981, he and his mother stepped up to lead the newspaper.

Rick was an early adopter of technology in the industry. His newspaper was among the first to transition to Apple computers and desktop publishing. As more newspapers made the switch, he launched a business selling and installing Apple computers while training newspaper teams statewide.

In 1998, Rick joined the Hood County News in Granbury, initially managing the company’s internet service before shifting into the role of advertising director. In 2018, he became publisher of the The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches. 

He served as president of West Texas Press Association, where he received the Dewayne Kelly Friend of the Newspaper Award in 2004. He also served in 2019 as president of the North and East Texas Press, from which he received the Tom Mooney Friend of the Newspaper Award. Rick has been active in Texas Press Association and has served on the board of directors for the past six years. 

Rick is a third-generation recipient of the Golden 50 Award, joining his late grandfather, Roy Craig, in 1978 and his mother, Barbara Craig Kelly, in 2008. 

CLYDE KING

Clyde King received a journalism degree from the University Texas in 1969, and he began his career later that year at The Baytown Sun.

King had stints at other newspapers — The Bayshore Sun, Deer Park Progress, The Terrell Tribune, The Kaufman Herald, and in 1973 he became publisher of The Katy Times. 

Not long afterward was named vice president of Hartman Newspapers and served as editor and publisher of the Herald-Coaster in Rosenberg, which later became the Fort Bend Herald. He was later named president and then chairman of Hartman Newspapers.

King is a past director of the Texas Press Association and former president of the Richmond Rotary Club. He was president of the Rosenberg-Richmond Area Chamber of Commerce in 1989, and during his tenure founded what is now the Lamar Educational Awards Foundation.

CANDACE VELVIN

Candace Velvin made her career choice at Robert E. Lee High School in Houston where she worked on the school newspaper, the Traveler, named for General Lee’s horse. She majored in journalism at the University of Houston and worked for the UH Daily Cougar, which was her first paying job in 1975. 

After a short stint at the Houston Chronicle in 1978, she landed a reporter job with the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches and in 1985 became news editor. 

In 1987, she joined the staff of The Light and Champion in Center, part of the Smith newspaper group, where she served as managing editor. In 1995, she became publisher of the Bowling Green Times in Missouri. She returned to Center in 2001 as editor and publisher of The Light and Champion.

In 2005, she joined Granite Publications as editor and publisher of the Diboll Free Press. In 2006, she made the move to Central Texas as editor and publisher of The Cameron Herald, the Thorndale Champion and the Rosebud News. During a decade with Granite, she also served stints with the Boerne Star and the Taylor Daily Press.

In 2016 she left community newspaper publishing to join the staff of the Texas Press Association.