Obituaries

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

ROBERT BAKER

LOVELAND, COLORADO – Attorney and former owner of the Fort Stockton Pioneer Robert Walter Baker died Sept. 23. He was 83.

As a teenager and student at Fort Stockton High School, he worked as a disc jockey for the local radio station KFST.

He attended the University of Texas at El Paso where he earned a degree in journalism  and served as editor of the school newspaper. He also met his wife future wife, Carol Jenness.

He worked for the El Paso Times as the agricultural and regional editor while finishing his degree. 

Following service in the U.S. Army, he joined his father in the family business, where he served as owner and editor of the Fort Stockton Pioneer.

He entered law school in 1969 at Texas Tech University, launching a new chapter of service through the legal profession. During law school he continued to use his journalism skills as a contributor to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal and the managing editor of Texas Tech Law Review. After graduating, he practiced law in El Paso for three years before returning to Fort Stockton, where he partnered with Martin Adams from 1974 to 1982.

He moved his family to Denver, Colorado in 1982, where he was a land attorney for Energy Management Corporation and later rose to senior vice president and legal counsel. He later opened a solo law practice in Denver while working as executive pastor for Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boulder. Baker was named Colorado Pastor of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Family Council in 2003.

In 2022, he was honored by the State Bar for 50 years of continuous law practice. He continued to operate a solo law practice in Timnath, Colorado.

He was preceded in death by his wife Carol in 2014. He married Carolyn (Franklin( Baker in 2015 and she survives him.

He is also survived by four children, 13 grandchildren, thee great grandchildren and other relatives.

WAYNE EPPERSON

DALLAS — Wayne Epperson, 83, a rough-and-tumble Marine and newspaperman known for turning green young journalists into seasoned professionals, died of lung cancer Oct. 20. Military memorial services were held Oct. 28 at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

He is mourned by a loving family and scores of journalists who were whipped into shape by the gritty veteran who was as tough an editor as he was a Marine.

Among the journalists who posted tributes to Epperson was Kelly Brown of Bryan.

“Wayne Epperson was tough, brilliant, intimidating and impossible not to learn from,” Brown wrote. “He took a chance on me right out of college.. He taught me how to chase stories that mattered, how to listen better, when to be silent, to dig deeper, to be persistent...

“I was just one of many, many young reporters whose careers he helped start and shape. Looking back, I realize that what felt like small moments back then were not small at all: A quick line of feedback. A raised eyebrow at a weak lead. A quiet nod when something was finally right...

“I doubt he knew what he gave me – how much of my voice, my instinct, my sense of the job came from watching him work. I was just a kid in the newsroom, trying to earn a nod from someone who barely gave them. I carry his lessons with me still. I know I am far from alone when I say Wayne‘s legacy speaks louder than words ever could.”

Epperson worked at a number of Texas newspapers but was perhaps best known for his tenure as state editor of The Dallas Morning News during the tumultuous newspaper war of the 1970s and 80s. He took a handful of reporters and built a staff that grew to six bureaus and a half dozen Dallas-based journalists. Their stories ranged from hurricanes, tornadoes, plane crashes and prison escapes to exposes on government corruption. The reporters he taught and led by example went on to win numerous awards, including the Pulitzer prize.

Known for his sharp wit and willingness to fight for his people,  Epperson fondly referred to his irreverent state desk charges as The News’ “Black Sheep Squadron.”

After retiring from his newspaper career Epperson became a private pilot. He also wrote six books, including “Crime and Corruption in Texas.”

He is survived by his wife journalist Esther Bauer, two sons and three daughters, and numerous grandchildren.

JIM MITCHELL

DALLAS – Jim Mitchell, longtime member of The Dallas Morning News editorial board, died quietly in home hospice care in Carrollton Oct. 7. He was 71.

He retired earlier this year as senior editorial writer due to health issues. He spent 41 years at The News, starting as a business news reporter in 1984 before moving to the editorial board in 1998.

“Jim was a man of deep conscience and empathy and someone devoted to practicing journalism the right way,” said editorial page editor Rudy Bush. “His intellect, curiosity and just all-around decency helped shape this newspaper’s perspective for decades. He is greatly missed.”

Mitchell graduated from Loyola University and earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. His first job out of college was at the Times-Union in Rochester, N.Y. His second was with The Dallas Morning News.

“Jim was on the vanguard of a new era of business reporter that emerged in the 1980s,” said Bob Mong, who, as assistant managing editor over business news, recruited Mitchell to the newspaper. “He was well equipped to handle any business story because he was so well trained. His colleagues, the companies he covered and his readers appreciated his precision and skill.”

At the time, The News was rapidly expanding its business coverage as one of its competitive strongholds against the

Dallas Times Herald. The executive director of Columbia University’s Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business

Journalism program told Mong that Mitchell was worthy of keeping an eye on.

Mitchell is survived by his wife Verna and son Matthew.

KIMBALL GEORGE (KIM) PEASE

ROTAN – Kimball George (Kim) Pease, Sr. died Oct. 2, at the age of 83.

An Air Force veteran, pioneering newspaperman, and devoted man of faith, Pease’s influence continues to be felt in the lives he touched, the family he raised, and the newspaper legacy he left behind to chronicle the community he loved.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1942, Pease’s path carried him far from home, first through the United States Air Force, then into a career that became both a calling and a service: the newspaper business.

He moved to Fisher County in 1970, and Hooper Shelton, whose family had run the Rotan Advance and Roby Star Record for more than six decades, finally found a successor.

On Jan. 7, 1971, a front-page story introduced Kim to the community — a young newspaperman with big ideas, a young family, and a promise: “We look forward to a long stay in Fisher County and ask your help and cooperation in making this newspaper one that all of Fisher County can be proud of.”

He kept that promise.

For more than a quarter century, Pease guided the Rotan Advance–Roby Star Record through changing times, from the era of wax rollers and X-Acto knives to the dawn of desktop publishing. Shortly after taking the reins from the Sheltons, he moved the operation into the larger building across the Rotan’s Main Street.

When he retired in 1998, he sold the newspaper to an employee he had mentored for many years, Rosemary Donham, who ran the publication for another two decades.

When it came to the news, Donham said Pease believed a newspaper was a public servant, not a platform for self-interest.

“If you print the facts,” he often said, “they speak for themselves.”

That belief carried through every issue. He enforced deadlines with discipline, guarded transparency in government, and never backed down from the Texas Open Meetings Act, continuously working to uphold the foundation of public accountability.

Over the years he ran the newspaper, member of his family also pitched in, including his wife Reta Janeece Pease and their four children.

Pease was also known for dedication to his faith and continuing contributions to his community.

According to a feature published in the Double Mountain Chronicle by Jeff Hurt, “he believed faith and family came before everything else. And he believed that a community, when informed and cared for, would rise to meet its own challenges.

Even now, decades after stepping away from the editorial desk of the paper that would eventually become the Double Mountain Chronicle, the values he built into it remain — faith, family, fairness and fact.”

In addition to his wife and children, Pease is survived by nine grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren and other relatives.

A visitation to honor his memory was held Oct. 5 at the Rotan Methodist Church.