Staff additions, changes and promotions at Texas newspapers.
DALLAS - Dallas Morning News Copy Editor Kevin Leonard Gray died April 3 from complications with cancer. He was 60.
A native of Hampton, Virginia, Gray was a graduate of Norfolk State University and began his career at the Ithaca Journal in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
The Dallas Morning News hired him to work in the sports department in September of 1985.
He worked at the paper for 32 years, winning awards for editing and page design.
He was the primary content editor of the football special section that often received national recognition.
ABILENE – Robert Hoy “Bob” Lapham, 83, author, long-time editor for the Abilene Reporter-News and the last surviving member of the 1950s pop and rock ‘n’ roll vocal group The Picks, died on April 4.
A native of Abilene, Lapham graduated from Abilene High School in 1953 and attended Texas Tech University, studying engineering, business administration and speech and dramatics. He was a Tech varsity golf letterman in 1953-54.
Q: A death row inmate filed a writ of habeas corpus to contest his imprisonment. This is a ground zero, front-page news story in my coverage zone. I need to study the writ and it is about 500 pages in length. A copy for public viewing resides in the district clerk’s office, but I do not have time to sit in the district clerk’s office to read the document, take notes, flip pages back and forth, make calls, etc. I was ready to pay 10 cents per page, but the district clerk said a digital version of the document is not available and she cited Government Code Sec.
Sports broadcasting legend Jack Whitaker once said, “Fate has a way of bending the twig and fashioning a man to his better instincts.”
I have always loved that saying. It has really haunted me lately (in a good way) as I get ready to attend a reunion — and a very special one at that.
It is a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the closing of the San Antonio Light, where I began my newspaper career 36 years ago.
OLTON – Betty Sue (Howard) Cannon, 87, former owner of the Olton Enterprise, died April 8 in Lubbock.
A native of Erick, Oklahoma, she moved to Olton with her family in 1943 and she graduated from Olton High School in 1948. She attended Watson Business School in Plainview.
AUSTIN – William E. “Bill” Berger, whose career as a newspaperman spanned parts of nine decades, died Wednesday, April 11. At age 99, he was less than two months shy of his 100th birthday.
Following a private family burial service at the Texas State Cemetery, a memorial was held on April 16 at First United Methodist Church in Austin.
The Writer’s Notebook, available to TPA members, contains columns by popular authors such as Dave Barry, Ann Patchett, Joyce Carol Oates, Dean Koontz and Scott Turow.
The series launches with a Father’s Day essay by Barry, one of America’s best-known humor writers. Participating newspapers can use the 24 essays in both print and online formats. Two essays per month will be released from June 2018 through June 2019. Each will run around 800 words and be newly written by a well-known author.
The U.S. Postal Service has been unveiling for some months now the transition to a new, more secure business mail account payment system to migrate current users of the Centralized Account Processing System. It would also consolidate many different payment locations to run through one central account, now called Enterprise Payment System. It is not mandatory.
Q: What do you think of this? I was covering commissioners’ court this morning when one of the commissioners touched on an under-appreciated benefit of legal notices. He was praising the county tax office on a successful tax sale that was due in part to the notices printed in my newspaper.
The county realized more than $109,000, partly from the sale of property and partly from people who realized through the notice their family property was being sold and voluntarily came in and paid the taxes.