Obituaries

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

RUTHANNE BROCKWAY

TERRELL —  Ruthanne Brockway, 73, one of three recipients of the Golden 50 Award at the Texas Press Association conference in Denton in June, passed away on Sept. 16, 2025 after a long illness.

Austin Lewter, director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism, who nominated her for the award, said, “We were glad that she was able to come in person to receive the award.”

A memorial service was held October 11 at the College Mound United Methodist Church near Terrell.

She had been presented the award for 50 years as a journalist in Texas.

She was born June 2, 1952 in Terrell.

In June, 1970, only a few days after graduating from Terrell High School, she joined the staff of the The Tyler Morning Telegraph as youth editor and reporter.

In high school, she had worked on the school newspaper and part time at the Terrell Tribune. She had a weekly broadcast on KTER, the local radio station.

She took courses at Tyler Junior College and later graduated from El Centro Junior College in Dallas. She then studied journalism and other subjects at the University of North Texas at Denton while working for the Denton Record-Chronicle.

In the 1980s she was a reporter with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the El Paso News and editor of the Grand Prairie Daily News and the Lewisville News.

She then spent more than two decades as a copy editor for with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A highlight of her journalistic career was teaching investigative reporting at UNT.

Until a few months ago, she had continued to live in the home she had purchased in Lewisville in the 1980s. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Lewisville.

Ruthanne was preceded in death by her parents, Olen and Erma Lou Brockway; two sisters, Margery Powell and Mary Louise Brockway; and two brothers, Marshall Ray Brockway and Mac Brockway. A brother-in-law, Keith Carter of Georgetown, also passed away on Sept. 16, 2025.

Ruthanne is survived by a sister, Ghita Carter of Georgetown; two sisters-in-law, Nancy Brockway of Lumberton and Judie Brockway of New Braunfels; and a large number of nephews, nieces, cousins and friends.

— Submitted by Winn Skinner and Dan Eakin

DAVE McNEELY

AUSTIN – Dave McNeely, a beloved figure in Texas journalism whose political columns enlightened readers for decades, died Aug. 30 at the age of 85.

His death was confirmed by his wife of almost 22 years, Kathryn McNeely, and Rusty Todd, a longtime friend and fellow journalist and educator.

McNeeley retired from the Austin American Statesman in 2004 after working there since 1978. He continued to write syndicated columns for another 15 years for a number of Texas papers.

“I loved Dave like a brother,” Todd said, describing McNeely as a tenacious reporter with an “instant network” of sources.

Born June 12, 1940, McNeely began his journalistic journey as a political reporter and editor for The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin.

He covered his first Texas legislative session in 1963. Over the next six decades, he became a fixture at the Texas Capitol.

His journalism career included stops at the Houston Chronicle (where he picked up the nickname “Moose” that his oldest friends still use), the Washington Post, and KERA-Dallas. 

McNeely joined the American-Statesman in 1978, where he distinguished himself as both a political reporter and editor and an incisive columnist whose encyclopedic knowledge of state government earned him the admiration of peers and politicians alike.

McNeely “was a mentor to me and everyone,” said longtime Texas journalist Ross Ramsey, now a speaker and consultant. “He was competitive like any journalist, but would give a competitor a lift up.”

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson recalled meeting McNeely in the 1980s when he was a political reporter covering a lawsuit over congressional redistricting and Watson was “a 23-year-old kid fresh out of law school.”

Eventually they became running buddies. As they trotted around Lady Bird Lake, then known as Town Lake, they’d trade stories and insights over whatever issue was dominating headlines, Watson said. 

Sometimes they’d agree, sometimes not.

“If you disagreed with McNeely, you’d better be minding your business because he was always well researched,” Watson said, noting that one of the highlights of running the trails with McNeely was that he always packed an ice chest of beer for afterward.

Former Statesman editor Rich Oppel said that when he arrived at the newspaper in 1995, McNeely “was a force—a big, generous, warm-spirited man.” 

“Dave got the story first, had great sources, and translated the inscrutable ways of Texas politicians into readable copy,” Oppel said. 

He spent most of 1976 as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Years later, he and another fellow journalist, Jim Henderson, co-wrote Bob Bullock: God Bless Texas, a biography of the sometimes outrageous and famously influential giant of Texas government. And he had a brief sojourn into political consulting, working on John Hill’s 1968 Democratic primary campaign for governor (Hill finished 6th).

In 1998, Dave helped start the Carole Kneeland Project, based on a concept he and his wife Carole and friends developed during the last months of her life. That thriving nonprofit has trained more than 850 broadcast journalists from around the U.S. in news ethics, writing, decision-making, management, and leadership.

He was an active member of University United Methodist Church and the Explorer’s Class and co-founded the Zavala Circle of Friends which continues to provide support to the staff and families of Title 1 Zavala Elementary School. Dave met weekly with his friends in the men’s Emmaus Reunion Group for over 30 years.

He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, a United Methodist pastor; their blended family of five children, seven grandchildren, five great grandchildren and other relatives.

Memorial service was held Oct. 8 at University UMC.

Memorial contributions to the Open Door Ministry at University United Methodist Church, the Carole Kneeland Project and the annual scholarship fund being established in his name by Friends of the Daily Texan would be greatly appreciated.