Obituaries published in the September 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger

MORRIS GARLAND CRAIG

NAPLES – Naples Monitor Publisher and Owner Morris Garland Craig, whose career of 67 years was spent at that newspaper, died Aug. 19. He was 85.

Craig was a native of Douglassville.  Before he started school his family moved to Naples following the sawmill trade. He made his home and career there for the rest of his life.

Obituaries published in the August 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger

BOBBY HORN JR.

LIVINGSTON – Former Cass County Sun Editor Bobby Horn Jr. died July 8. He was 53.

Horn was also a reporter, columnist and production worker for the Citizens Journal and was managing editor for a chain of weekly newspapers in the Houston area. He was also pastor for both the Douglassville United Methodist Church and Union Chapel United Methodist Church.

Obituaries published in the July 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

KAREN GAIL McCRARY

LULING – Karen Gail McCrary, longtime writer, photographer and former editor and publisher of the Luling Newsboy and Signal, died June 14. She was 69.

A native of Luling, she was known not only as the city’s journalistic voice, but as a leader and champion of many civic programs and improvements.

Obituaries published in the June 203 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

CHUCK CARLTON

DALLAS – Charles Jay “Chuck” Carlton, 64, of Flower Mound, died April 25 in St. Paul, Minn., while completing a sports writing assignment for the Dallas Morning News.

A native of Macomb, Ill., he was born March 16, 1959, to Gerald Carlton and Nancy Elder (Carlton). He graduated from Colchester (Ill.) High School in 1977 where he was salutatorian.

Carleton attended Western Illinois University as a journalism major.

Obituaries published in the May 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

Roger Dewayne Cline

Roger Dewayne Cline, 54, managing editor of the Big Spring Herald, died April 19 in San Angelo following heart surgery.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Cline grew up in Port Arthur and attended the University of Texas at Permian Basin, where he earned bachelor degrees in computer science (2004) and English (2005), graduating summa cum laude. He also attended Lamar University in Beaumont.

Obituaries published in the April 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

EDWARD ASHER

HARLINGEN – Award winning writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ed Asher, longtime night city editor for the Valley Star in Harlingen, died Feb. 21. He was 65.

Born in Charleston, W.Va., Asher grew up in a military family, moving around the world before settling in Houston. He was a prolific writer from a young age.

Obituaries published in the March 2023 edition the Texas Press Messenger.

Teresa Lavonne Hair Phillips

Obituaries published in the February 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

Randy Riggs

AUSTIN – Randy Riggs, a sportswriter for the Austin American-Statesman for more than 36 years until his retirement in 2013, died Jan. 19 at his home in South Austin. He was 71.

Riggs was born in Vienna, W.Va., where he lived with his family until his parents moved to Cleburne while he was in elementary school.

Obituaries published in the January 2023 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

MICHAEL LINDENBERGER

KANSAS CITY – Michael Lindenberger, who worked in Texas metro markets during nearly 30 years of reporting and editing on floods, politics, poverty and social justice for newsrooms large and small — and helped the Houston Chronicle this year earn its second Pulitzer Prize — has died. He was 51.

Obituaries published in the December 2022 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

GARY MARTIN

SAN ANTONIO — Gary Martin, a former San Antonio Express-News reporter admired for his tenacity and perceptiveness as well as his warmth and generosity, died Nov. 10 in Las Vegas. He was 64.

Martin was a reporter, columnist and Washington correspondent for the Express-News during a 31-year career at the paper.

In 2016, he became Washington bureau chief for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.