Golden 50 - 2026

Golden 50 Awards 2026

146th Convention & Trade Show, June 19, 2026, Hyatt Regency DFW Hotel, Dallas

Dana Garrett, Lockhart Post-Register

Sherrie Geistweidt, Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post

Phil Major, Wood County Monitor in Mineola, and many other publications

DANA GARRETT

Lockhart Post-Register

In Caldwell County, the Lockhart Post-Register (LPR) is the newspaper of record and a trusted news source for Lockhart since 1872.

Since 1923, the LPR has only had two owners, the Mohle Family and current Owner and President Dana Garrett. In 1979, at the age of 24, Garrett purchased the small rural community newspaper with big dreams. At 71, Garrett has now officially owned the Lockhart Post-Register for more than two-thirds of his life.

He began his career in Rosenberg at the Rosenberg Herald-Coaster working for Publisher Dick Barton. Garrett started there as a photojournalist and in composition/paste-up, plunging into the newspaper industry at the age of 15. Covering sporting events and miscellaneous news, Garrett was able to establish relationships with members of the industry. Garrett cannot deny he has “ink in his blood.” He is the absolute definition of the old idiom, with love and passion for the newspaper industry.

When Garrett captured and developed his first snapshot using a Relleicord twin lens reflex camera, he could not have imagined the technological growth that he would see over the next five decades. Garrett recalls the early dinosaur days of hours of typesetting and creating long strips of words on a Compugraphic 7200 to the days of waxing up full printed stories onto a blank page. The process contrasts greatly to today’s luxury of typing stories and pasting them in InDesign.

Not only could he write in-depth pieces, take pictures or paginate a complete newspaper, but Garrett also ran the press when LPR was still printing on-site. To remind him of the good old days and share a piece of history with others, Garrett still houses that same press in the back room of the LPR office on display as a museum piece.

Garrett has seen many changes in his community, but nothing affected him and his staff like the COVID pandemic.

When advertising sales dropped, Garrett was forced to reduce his staff from eight to four employees. But Garrett rallied his staff, and they pulled up their bootstraps and acted like they had just bought a new newspaper and started over again with zero-based budget.

Garrett was convinced the value of the Post-Register would win out. When people ask if he feels that local newspapers are a thing of the past, he reassures them that the news that they read in the LPR is the truth. If they hear about rumored news stories from other outlets, social media, etc. he encourages them to pick up the weekly edition of the LPR to read the truth. There is no need for sensationalism in his newspaper. There is no ambulance chasing or borderline ethical storytelling allowed. Only facts that are gathered about the real news of his community – stories about the people in it and businesses like his that keep the small town of Lockhart alive.

Garrett has steered a ship through stormy seas in an industry that some say is sinking, believing the mantra of slow and steady wins the race. Owning a newspaper is not for the faint of heart. Garrett has experienced good and bad revelations in the business but still stands committed to the industry and belief that newspapers are not dead.

Some in the industry believe the more papers you own, the more successful you are. Not Garrett: He feels success is when you take on the responsibility of digging in and reporting the real news. He sees it as an obligation to readers to be able to find historical records reported by LPR for years to come. Garrett has a portal on the LPR website that leads to thousands of pages of archives dating back to 1872. LPR has the largest weekly archive of newspaper pages in the state of Texas.

Garrett is not one for big bells and whistles for his accomplishments but prefers to remain low key. For their perseverance through the pandemic and coming on the heels of celebrating the LPR’s sesquicentennial, the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce recognized Garrett and his staff as Business of the Year in 2023.

In late 2024, Garrett and his wife, Terri, were entertaining the idea of retiring or at least semi-retiring. Placing an ad for a new publisher, Garrett was quickly able to find his new publisher within a few days. Even though Garrett handed over partial reins to Leesa Teale, a 32-year veteran of the industry, he still comes into the office to take care of the financial aspect of the newspaper.

Dana loves to travel with his best friend and wife, but the couple remain devoted to serving their community. Terri has spearheaded the soup kitchen at their church for 11 years. Dana couldn’t help while working full time, but now he gets to join Terri every Wednesday to serve and revel in the labor of love they share.

But what Garrett truly enjoys is being able to tinker around their ranch just outside of Lockhart. Being the publisher and owner/operator for almost five decades, Garrett found it hard to find time to do essential tasks around his multi-acre property. Now he relishes in the fact that he has time to burn brush piles, tend to his many chickens and peacocks and relax under the sprawling Renaissance Oak tree that shades the back porch.

Teale stated: “The amount of dedication Dana has devoted to the newspaper industry is truly unparalleled. The ability to own the same newspaper, see it through the good and the bad and not waiver on the importance of journalism standards is something hard to find these days.”

Former editor and current Caldwell County Director of Communications Miles Smith said: “Never in my life have I worked for newspaper owners like the Garretts. Dana and Terri truly wanted me to become a part of the community and succeed as their editor and went above and beyond to ensure that happened. They were mentors who helped elevate my career and to this day remain great friends. I and any editor who has had the privilege to work for them owe them a great deal of gratitude.”

Current editor of the LPR, Anthony Collins stated, “Dana represents the very best in the newspaper industry. After more than 50 years of telling the stories that shape our community, he still believes in the power of honest journalism. I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity he’s given me to work as his editor and to learn from his decades of experience.”

Sherrie Geistweidt

Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post

Sherrie Geistweidt worked at the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post for just over 50 years before her retirement in early January of 2026.

Sherrie was a steward of the town’s history and the town and its newspaper was fortunate to have her. She was the office “go-to” source for historical information, and her roots were deep in the county since her family had resided here since the mid-1800s. She wrote a once-per-month column called “Time Pieces” that was very well read and filled with humorous memories and stories about her life growing up near the Doss community in northwestern Gillespie County. 

During her 50 years, Sherrie served as head of bookkeeping and printing, obituaries editor, columnist, historian and proofreader. She also checked the paper for style and design formats and kept up with some circulation duties. 

She began her career at Fredericksburg Publishing Company as a 16-year-old student at Fredericksburg High School. She learned the craft of community journalism working under former Publisher Art Kowert and his wife Elise, and, later, under Terry and Cathy Collier. Cathy had even been her high school journalism instructor. 

Sherrie saw several eras of the newspaper business, from the last of the “hot type” days, to offset printing, using wax and paper and pasting up pages, then to Microsoft Word and the Adobe suite of products and design softwares. She also tutored newsroom rookies on news operations and AP style, along with coaching about local family names and history. The Kowerts and Colliers used to call her “Encyclopedia Geistweidt.”

Sherrie was a diligent obituaries editor, striving for perfection and respecting the dead for what was likely the last time their name would appear in the paper. 

Sherrie didn’t just do her job — she believed in the mission of community journalism. “Newspapers are the recorded history of our community,” she said. “If we’re not here to do this, who will?”

Phil Major

Wood County Monitor in Mineola, and many other publications

Phil Major has been active in Texas newspapers since his days of throwing a route in middle school for his hometown Denton Record-Chronicle.

He threw the route for the Record-Chronicle in his neighborhood in 1968-69. 

Prior to that Major began his newspaper career officially as the coeditor of the Coin and Stamp newsletter in Mrs. Melton’s fifth grade class at Newton Rayzor Elementary in Denton, which was printed on a mimeograph. 

He handled the stamp side of the operation.

In his senior year of high school, he served as news editor of the Horseshoe, monthly student newspaper for Denton High School.

After earning a degree in history, Major took a job as a general assignments reporter at the Bowie News and advanced to news editor.

He met his wife Lesa while working at The News and they married in 1980.

Phil joined the Wise County Messenger as sports editor in 1981 and became the editor in 1985. 

The Messenger won its first TPA sweepstakes in the Better Newspaper Contest in 1984.

While in Wise County, Phil was the secretary for the Wise County Planning and Steering Committee and editor of the Lions Din, weekly newsletter of the Decatur Lions Club.

He went to work as managing editor for the daily Alice Echo-News in 1991 and joined the Times Record in Lake Worth-Saginaw in 1992.

Phil was managing editor for Today Newspapers in Duncanville and DeSoto from 1993 to 1995, overseeing a news operation for five weeklies including Cedar Hill, Lancaster and Midlothian. 

Today received its first TPA sweepstakes award in 1995.

While in Duncanville, Phil served on the board of Leadership Southwest and the Duncanville Independent School District discipline and strategic planning committees.

The Majors purchased the Clay County Leader in Henrietta in 1995.

The Leader earned several regional newspaper contest awards and five TPA first place awards. Lesa was the business manager and designed ads.

Phil served as president of the Henrietta Kiwanis Club, the Henrietta and Clay County Chamber of Commerce and the North and East Texas Press Association.

He also served on the District Advisory Team of the Henrietta ISD and the board of the Clay County Extension Service.

The NETPA honored Phil with its highest awards, the Sam Holloway award in 2001 and the Tom Mooney Friend of Newspapers award in 2003.

He also served as NETPA scholarship chairman and finance chairman. He has served on the board of directors of the West Texas Press Association and on the board of the Texas Newspaper Foundation.

He served both as an appointed director and elected director of TPA, chaired TPA’s newspaper contest committee and served on news clinic and convention committees.

In 2004, he assisted the National Newspaper Association with the development of new requirements for the Boy Scout journalism merit badge. 

Phil was elected president of Texas Press Association June 23, 2007, at the 128th Summer Convention in San Antonio.

For the past seven-and-a-half years, Phil and Lesa have owned and operated the Wood County Monitor in Mineola. 

They announced their retirement in April when they sold the Monitor to veteran manager James Taylor capping off more than half a century of dedication to the Texas newspaper industry.

In his farewell column in the Monitor, Phil wrote, “I could regale you with stories for days, but it has been said that every journalist has a book in them and that’s where it should stay.” 

The same column recounts a career that includes an estimated 3,716 newspaper editions across 14 different communities in Texas. 

“Phil has set the standard in our business for decades,” Taylor said. “I am humbled and honored to take up the mantle and carry on their great work in Wood County.” 

The Majors plan to stay in Mineola where Phil volunteers with multiple community clubs and organizations.

In retirement, Phil plans for more, “More sleep, more golf, less stress and a little fun thrown in.”