Joseph Benham

Joseph Benham was born in the last century in Amarillo, and is a fourth generation Texan. His mother ’s family was in Texas at least as far back as 1846.

Benham married Verna Heaton Benham from the Black Hills of South Dakota and they were wed 39-plus years.

“We met and were married in South America, where our children were born. Stephanie and her husband are in the corporate world in suburban Houston; Navy Lt. David is stationed at Pacific Fleet HQ in Hawaii and his wife is completing a PhD in psychology, ” Benham said.

His career as a newsman dates to 1950 and news reporting took him all over the world from New York; the United Nations; Santiago, Chile; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“I’ve been shot-at, tear-gassed, jailed and cussed-out by all kinds of people, and I ’ve turned out more words in print and on the air than I could count. And I’m proud of every day of it!” Benham said.

Starting in Amarillo, Benham worked as a sportswriter, deskman and general news reporter for the Amarillo Times from May 1950-December 1951, when the Times and Globe-News merged, and through August 1953 he had the same jobs at the Amarillo Daily News, Amarillo Globe-Times and Amarillo Globe-News.

He worked at the Dallas Times Herald as a sportswriter and deskman from August 1953-May 1954, and as a sportswriter, news editor and reporter for the Associated Press in Dallas and Austin from May 1954 to August 1955 when he went into the Army.

“The Army discovered in September 1956 that I had newspaper experience and moved me from Infantry platoon sergeant to Air Defense Command public information supervisor, ” he said.

Benham retired on disability as a sergeant and was sent to the Kerrville VA Hospital for treatment.

He then came back to the AP in Austin in January 1959 and held the same jobs as before until May 1960, when he was made a San Antonio correspondent — covering everything from sports to storms to President Eisenhower’s visit to Mexico, as well as calling on AP member papers and broadcast outlets.

The AP moved him to New York in May 1962 as a general news desk editor, where he continued writing book reviews, which he began writing in Texas. He then went to the world desk in 1963, the United Nations Bureau in 1964, and Santiago, Chile, in January 1965 as bureau chief for Chile and Bolivia.

Major stories he covered included earthquakes, the rise of Marxism that led to Salvador Allende ’s becoming Chile’s president and the hunt for Che Guevara in Bolivia.

“I missed Che’s capture and execution. I was back in Santiago marrying Verna. I tell people that Che and I got zapped the same weekend — he got killed and I got married!” Benham said.

Benham also did part-time work for NBC Radio News while in Chile.

U.S. News & World Report hired him in October 1967 and he spent the next 13 1/2 years covering South America, based in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Major stories he covered included the return to power of Juan Peron, election and subsequent downfall of Allende, the rise of Marxist and Peronist terrorism (including a bomb that took out six windows in his apartment) and the surge of economic nationalism that saw billions of dollars in U.S. investments nationalized in Chile, Peru, Venezuela, etc.

“I was in Buenos Aires when I was invited to NY to receive the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Distinguished Foreign Correspondence, awarded by the president of Columbia University at a special convocation, ” he said. “I still have the Tiffany-made medal and a picture of myself in cap-and-gown looking, according to some irreverent friends, like Henry VIII. The award is given for a body of work, not a specific story or series. ”

Benham came back to the States in July 1980 based in Houston as regional bureau chief for U.S. News, covering Southwestern states with occasional trips back to Latin America, until experiencing “corporate restructuring” after the sale of U.S. News.

“I had been writing about downsizing, layoffs, etc., as a result of corporate restructuring, and I found writing about it much more fun than experiencing it, ” he said.

“I free-lanced for most of the 1990s, writing articles for newspapers and trade journals and writing and editing a series of publications for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. I was news editor and commentator for a news service serving cable TV systems in suburban Houston and columnist for two chains of weeklies in suburban Houston. ”

Since moving to the Hill Country in 1998, Benham has been writing editorial page columns and features for the Kerrville Daily Times and serving as volunteer publicist for a half-dozen non-profits in the area.

He has served as director of the Foreign Press Association of Argentina and Press Club of San Antonio.

His journalism awards include the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for “Distinguished Foreign Correspondence,” writing awards from The Associated Press Managing Editors and regional press organizations.

His service outside journalism includes president, American Community in Argentina; trustee, Lincoln Schools; president, South Woodland Hills Community Assn., Kingwood; vice chairman, Kingwood Volunteer Fire Dept; secretary and director, Harris County Utility District; secretary, Kingwood Public Safety Committee; secretary, Humble Independent School District Student Wellness Board; secretary, Kingwood High School Management Committee; trustee and secretary of the board, Kingwood United Methodist Church; former director, Kingwood Services Assn. and Hill Country Youth Orchestra.

He also has been a lay minister, Methodist and Scots churches; president, Symphony of the Hills Assn., Kerrville; president, Hill Country Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution; past president, Friends of the Kerrville Library; chairman, various committees of the Kerrville Rotary Club; member, Steering Committee of the Kerr County 105th Birthday Observance; member Citizens Committee on Tax Freeze for Kerrville; member citizens committee, Kerrville ISD bond elections.

His civic awards include Citizen of the Year from the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce, Admiral in the Texas Navy and Honorary Colonel on the Staff of the Governor of Texas, honorary firefighter, honorary constable and a Distinguished Service Award from the Kiwanis Club of Kingwood.

Frankie Lynn Brisendine

Lynn Brisendine, publisher of The Brownfield News and Seminole Sentinel, recently celebrated 50 years in the newspaper business.

Brisendine, 60, is a past president of Texas Press Association (2000-01), West Texas Press Association (1985) and Panhandle Press Association (1979).

Born in Amarillo, he grew up in Hereford, graduating from Hereford High School in 1965. He was a longtime newspaper carrier, throwing a Hereford Brand route from 1957 to 1965. He also serviced an Amarillo Globe-News route for four years and was awarded a Master Carrier certificate during those years.

After high school he began his career at the Hereford Brand where he took a job as an apprentice printer. Pouring pigs, sweeping the floor and killing out pages turned into a job as a back shop floorman and eventually a Linotype operator.

In 1969 he began as an advertising salesman at the Brand. In 1971 he took over as the advertising manager of the Lamesa Press Reporter. Two years later he returned to Hereford and served as the advertising manager until he moved to Brownfield, purchased stock in and took over the Brownfield News as publisher and president on April Fool’s Day 1977.

Brisendine is the secretary of the board of South Plains Printing in Lamesa. He has been an associate of the Roberts Publishing group for more than 30 years.

Brisendine has been a member of Lions International for 38 years where he has been on the board of directors and served as an officer in three clubs, Hereford, Lamesa and Brownfield. He was president of the Brownfield club in 1985. He also has been a Mason for almost 40 years.

He has served on the boards of and been president of the Brownfield Development Foundation and the Brownfield Industrial Development Corporation. He also is a past director of BID Corp. and former chairman of the board for Kendrick Memorial Library in Brownfield.

He has served on the board of the Terry County United Way. He served on the formation committee and later the board of the DFYIT (Drug Free Youth in Texas) organization in Brownfield.

Brisendine was Terry County’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 1991.

The Brownfield News is a semiweekly publication with a circulation of 3,000. The paper has won numerous awards during Brisendine ’s 30-year tenure, including nine consecutive Texas State Teacher Association School Bell awards. He also has won several awards for his Paper ‘n Ink column he pens twice weekly.

The Seminole Sentinel also is a semiweekly publication with a circulation of 2,000. Both newspapers are completely paginated operations.

Brisendine is married to Linda, who has worked 28 years for the Texas Department of Human Services as a social worker with the aged and disabled. On press nights, she proofreads for the papers.

They have three children and by the end of 2007 will have nine grandchildren.

Becky Stephens, who is married to Brian Stephens, is a Texas Tech University graduate and works for Incode software company in Lubbock. The couple have a 5-year-old daughter, Hayleigh, and are expecting triplets in September.

Barbie Taylor, also a TTU graduate, is married to Alan Taylor, and works at Frontrange Solutions in Colorado Springs, Colo. The couple have a 3-year-old son, Logan, and a newborn son, Landon.

Brian Brisendine, a graduate of West Texas A&M University, is publisher of the Hereford Brand and president of sister company North Plains Printing. Brian is on the boards of West Texas and Texas press associations and is immediate past president and chairman of the board of Panhandle Press Association. He and his wife, Susan, have two sons, Thomas, 3, and Blake, 1, and the couple is expecting their third child in September.

Brisendine enjoys playing with his grandchildren, working on his backyard ponds, traveling, golf, reading and watching the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros.

Beverly Daughtry

Beverly Daughtry is publisher of the Elgin Courier, where she started working there at age 16 in 1957 as a typesetter. She has been managing the paper since 1967.

She graduated from Elgin High School in 1960.

Beverly’s entire newspaper career has been at the Elgin Courier, which has been in business since 1890.

While in high school, she worked after class for the Elgin Courier doing newspaper and commercial ad layout. She was hired to insert newspapers, but was soon tasked with setting type and laying out advertising, a skill that was largely self-taught.

After graduation, she started full-time, working for publisher Bob Bredlow setting type and laying out the commercial grocery ads and newspaper ads. Working for and through a succession of owners and publishers, Beverly learned from each one, while continuing to upgrade the quality of the newspaper.

After Bredlow came Bob Barton, then Bob Mosier, then ownership returned to Barton, who sold the Courier to Charlie Schulz, who, ultimately, sold it to Granite Publishing in 1994.

Throughout the years, Beverly has held various offices with many organizations, including the Elgin Chamber of Commerce, Envision Elgin, Cattlemen For Cancer Research, and the Elgin Education Foundation.

At the present time, she serves as a member on the Envision Elgin Board of Directors, the M.D. Anderson Cattlemen for Cancer Research Board ’s Advisory Committee, the Elgin Independent School District’s Education Foundation of Directors, the Elgin Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Board and its Board of directors, and, most recently, was named a director of Elgin ’s new Frontier Bank of Texas (proposed).  She also is one of the bank’s organizers.

In 2001 she was named Elgin’s Most Worthy Citizen, and she continues to work hard every day at managing the same paper that she has worked at for five decades.

Beverly is married to Ken Daughtry, a Realtor and former mayor and school board president of Elgin.

She has two daughters and sons-in-law, Kim and Ray Lerche, and Tammy and Scott Martin. She also has a stepdaughter and stepson-in-law, Shannon and Tommy Lollar, and a stepson and stepdaughter-in-law, Damon and Terri Daughtry.

She has six grandchildren, Katelyn Lollar, Ashton Lollar, Ty Lerche, Lane Lerche, Will Martin and Jenna Martin.

Mary Helen Gentry’s brother Weldon Nowlin was discharged from the Army and returned to run the paper. Eventually, her husband Charles Gentry came to work for the print shop, and was made the manager in 1951 when Weldon Nowlin died. Mary Helen’s mother, Helen Nowlin, remained publisher of the Ennis Daily News until she died and Charles Gentry was made publisher.

Mary Helen Gentry grew up in the newspaper business and started working at the Ennis Daily News in 1945. As a high school junior she started proofreading for the family’s newspaper.

“The wire service came in from Dallas on a Continental bus, and I would go and pick it up at the bus station every day,” she said.

Plans to go to college were put on hold when the society editor got married and Mary Helen needed to stay at the paper and help.

Over the years, she did everything from classified ads and proofing to bookkeeping and advertising accounts. She managed circulation, and eventually became society editor, and on occasion managed the Upco print shop.

“The Ennis Daily News will always be the first love of my heart,” she said.

The paper remained in the Gentry family until it was sold to Ellis County Newspapers Inc. in 1996.

Mary Helen Gentry has continued to write her column “On The Avenue” over the years. The column was a feature of the Ennis Daily News even before Mary Helen was its author. For a time, it was written by her mother and still appears under Mary Helen’s by-line in the Ennis Daily News each week.

“The column ‘On the Avenue’ was there before my Mama wrote it, it has gone on with the paper,” she said.

Mary Helen Gentry also continues to write a cooking column for the Ennis Daily News.

She and her husband Charles are still very active members of the Ennis community, volunteering their time to various civic organizations. They frequent the offices of the Ennis Daily News several times a week.

Mary Mae McDonald Hartley

Mary Mae McDonald Hartley entered the University of Texas immediately after high school graduation in the summer of 1944 and majored in journalism. She worked on The Daily Texan for three years covering women’s sports, and had a by-line story virtually every single day she worked there.

Despite her heavy reporting duties, Hartley earned high grades in all subjects, was honored with the prestigious “Goodfellow” award for all-around excellence at UT, was president of her sorority Delta Zeta for two years and was a Bluebonnet Belle nominee for campus beauty.

Her first job out of college in 1948 was as a reporter on the weekly Colorado County Citizen in Columbus for editor/publisher Truman McMahan, with whom she maintained a life-long friendship until his death in the late 1990s.

Within a year, Texas Press Association general manager Vernon T. Sanford called on Hartley to work at TPA, editing the Texas Press Messenger monthly trade publication — thus began a 30+ year association with TPA.

Hartley went to work for the Austin American-Statesman for several years after her first TPA stint, and took an interim short-term summer job at the Amarillo Times, a daily tabloid, during her Statesman years.

TPA called her back to Austin, and from the late 1950s until the mid-1980s, TPA was never without Hartley as editor of the Messenger and often in other capacities: she served as assistant to the executive director of TPA under the various tenures of Sanford, William G. Boykin and Lyndell Williams.

Whether she was working full-time or part-time for TPA, Hartley also was a public relations freelancer, handling such accounts as the American Heart Association, the Korean Children’s Choir Texas Tour, the American Red Cross and the Junior League’s Settlement Home in the time before non-profit entities made a PR director part of their regular payroll.

Often Hartley and her husband, commercial artist and American-Statesman staff artist Harry Hartley, would team up — she writing the copy and he creating the graphics for many print media projects.

Both often freelanced, being members of the notoriously low-pay journalism trade, to help take care of their three daughters. Harry Hartley drew many a Texas Press Messenger cover back in the days when it was a slick, magazine-style monthly publication.

Hartley also was a regular contributor to the Austin Chamber of Commerce monthly magazine, and edited several trade publications such as the Texas Association of Dry Cleaners monthly and many others.

Besides editing and writing almost all of the copy for the Messenger, one of her main tasks at TPA was planning, organizing and coordinating every facet of the June and midwinter conventions.

The Golden 50 Award was conceived and first awarded in 1963 while Hartley was at TPA during her most heavily involved years, as well as the building and growth years of TPA itself.

She helped organize TPA’s former Texan of the Year award for such Texas greats at Hoss Cartwright, Miss America Phyllis George, pianist Van Cliburn and many other luminaries.

Hartley’s daughter Donna Hartley Lucas well remembers the day she and her sisters sat on Dale Rogers’ and Roy Rogers’ laps while her mother interviewed the beloved couple for the Messenger. Dale gave her baby sister Harriet her 2 p.m. bottle that day.

Hartley once had an appointment to photograph Gov. Allan Shivers, and she brought all three daughters along because they were on spring break. But unknown to her mother Donna Hartley had stowed her new Pomeranian puppy in a handbag and just before the photo was snapped the dog got loose and threw up on the governor’s mansion carpet.

Hartley was always a reporter, and in 1966 when Charles Whitman went on his deadly shooting spree atop the UT Tower she ran outside the TPA offices on San Antonio Street just off the main “drag” of the UT campus within range of the rifle shots to be a living eyewitness to the mayhem while “everyone else got under their desks.”

Hartley left TPA in the early 1980s to write books. Her first book was a children’s storybook, “Mariposa, Magical Stories of Texas,” published by Eakin Press.

She also authored non-fiction works “A Hand on Their Shoulders” about Texas’ Marbridge Youth Ranch, and “Almost to Heaven” about the Lion’s Club camp for children.

She has written about David Ruiz, a prison inmate instrumental in correctional system reform in the 1970s, and Ben Jack Cage, a notorious high-flying embezzler of the 1950s, a highly possible model for the 1980s fictional J.R. Ewing. Cage is Hartley’s first cousin. Hartley traveled to Brazil and Chile pursuing the Cage story.

In the 1990s she was a paid cruise lecturer on writing memoirs for a special writers’ cruise to Australia and New Zealand, surviving a storm at sea near Tasmania that injured numerous ship passengers.

From 1985-99 she taught creative and non-fiction writing and journalism techniques at McLennan Community College, Bosque Conservatory of Fine Arts, and Southwest Texas State University community education department.

She lives in Austin with her dog Emily and cockatiel Cassie, and is still writing and outlining future books.

Betty Humphrey

Betty Humphrey, the Fort Bend Herald’s society editor, has been on the job for nearly 54 years.

She began her stint at what was then The Rosenberg Herald fresh out of high school on Oct. 8, 1952, as Betty Dawes. The night she graduated in the Top 10 percent of her class at Rosenberg High School, she was offered a job by publisher Donald B. Bryant, who had seen — and was impressed with — some of the articles she penned for the Rosenberg Chamber of Commerce and submitted to The Herald and the Houston Chronicle.

At that time, the newspaper was published weekly and, as Bryant’s secretary, Humphrey sat on a wooden drawer to take dictation.

Humphrey has seen a lot of changes in the more than half-century since her career began, and met countless celebrities along the way. Among them are Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard and Pat Nixon, George Bush, George W. Bush, Willie Nelson and George Strait.

But Humphrey says she has never been particularly impressed with celebrity, preferring, instead, to visit with the folks of the community she has served over the past 54 years, helping them observe births, weddings, anniversaries, and making sure their obituaries are correct.

In 1957, four years after she married Guy Humphrey, the late Fred Hartman and his newspaper associates of Southern Newspapers Inc. added the Rosenberg Herald and The Texas Coaster, Richmond’s newspaper, to their stable of community publications, when a partnership was formed with then owners Windel Shannon and his wife, Pat.

Humphrey was part of the new staff when the two newspapers were merged into the semiweekly Herald-Coaster in 1958, and she was there when the publication became a daily newspaper in 1967, about the time she says she and her female coworkers were allowed to wear “trousers” to the workplace.

Bill Hartman and Hartman Newspapers became the owner of The Herald-Coaster (now the Fort Bend Herald) in 1974.

Among her most treasured recognitions was that of 1999 Fort Bend County Fair Honored Volunteer.

She has for many years been a member of several organizations throughout the county, including the Rosenberg Business and Profession Women’s Club, and the Milton Brenner Post 3903 VFW Ladies Auxiliary.

She and her husband have five children: Lynn, Bubba, Kevin, Lisa and the late Bill, who was killed in a car/train collision. All five children worked at The Herald-Coaster at one time or another. The Humphreys also have 10 grandchildren.

“When you’re having fun, time just flies,” she says, adding the newspaper has provided “a wonderful life for me and my family.”

“I thank the Lord for loving what I do and getting to do what I love,” she said.

Mildred Skapple

Mildred Skapple started as a reader for Texas Press Clipping Service in April 1956 and began a 50-year association that earned her the title of clipping bureau manager.

Texas Press Clipping Service was a highly-successful arm of Texas Press Association. Readers scanned all the newspapers in Texas each day for target words provided by clients and then clipped applicable stories for clients all over the state and even outside Texas.

The service was sold to Geotel’s Newz Group in Missouri in April 1999 but Skapple remained on staff and still works in client relations today.

TPA Executive Vice President Lyndell Williams in the 1980 anniversary book called Skapple “a jewel of a commander.”

Skapple is TPA’s longest term employee in years of service, racking up 44 years of service while the bureau was part of TPA.

When she was first employed as a reader in April 1956, the department employed only four people to handle its initial 13 accounts. She was appointed supervisor one year later.

By 1980, the department had grown to 15 employees handling 510 accounts. Among those accounts were state and national office holders and politicians, utility companies, lawyers, large corporations, hotels, chambers of commerce and industrial organizations.

Skapple recalled that the clipping bureau even furnished news and photo clips that were mounted into scrapbooks and presented to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. But one of the most unusual clipping accounts over the years, she once recalled, was from the owner of a thoroughbred stud horse who wanted all the mares in Texas to realize that he had hung up his horseshoes.

During the 1978-79 fiscal year, the bureau processed and mailed a total of 606,651 individual clippings.

Skapple is an Amarillo Sandy, having been reared in that Panhandle city. She and her husband Rodney first came to Austin so that he could study structural engineering. A good family team, Mildred worked to finance Rodney’s education and they raised two sons, Kim and Randy. She still lives in Austin.

Dalton Wood

Dalton Wood graduated from Jacksboro High School in 1946 and earned a bachelor of arts in journalism in August 1950 at North Texas State University in Denton (later University of North Texas).

His first newspaper job was as a reporter for the weekly Graham Newsfoto in September 1950.

From November 1950 to early 1951 he was a reporter and photographer for the Vernon Record. In 1951 he moved to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal as reporter and photographer, and later that year joined the news desk as rim man (copy editor and headline writer).

Wood soon left Lubbock for the big city in 1952 to become a copy editor and headline writer for the Dallas Times Herald but he returned a year later in 1953 to the Avalanche-Journal as chief editorial writer. He later moved to the copy desk as editor and supervising reporters.

In 1955 Wood moved to Indiana where he purchased the weekly Newburgh Register. He also worked part time as copy editor/headline writer/layout at the daily Evansville Courier and Press.

Just a few years later in 1959 he returned to Texas and purchased weekly newspapers in Sudan, the Beacon-News, and the Amherst Press in a town seven miles away.

Later he established a new weekly paper at Shallowater, the Star, which was published for several years. During the early 1960s he also owned the Four County News at Anton.

In 1965 Wood joined staff of the Plainview Daily Herald as news editor, editing and supervising copy of reporters, choosing stories from Associated Press and United Press wire services, writing headlines and laying out all the newspaper except society and sports pages.

He also taught night and late afternoon classes in journalism and English at Wayland Baptist College, and coached the tennis team there.

But in 1971 the ownership bug bit him again and he purchased an interest in the weekly Slaton Slatonite, and moved to Slaton to publish that newspaper.

In 1979 he purchased the weekly Lynn County News at Tahoka and moved there as publisher. For about five years from 1983-88 he also published weekly newspapers at Sudan and Amherst, having re-acquired those papers.

Wood turned over publishing duties of the Lynn County News to twin daughters, Juanell and Vondell, in 1992, and has been semi-retired since with title of publisher emeritus. He still continues to write police beat and other stories and also a weekly column, called “Woodwork,” which has appeared in the newspapers he has owned since 1971.

Patrick Martin

Patrick Martin is a fixture at not only The Normangee Star, but in the community itself. The 68-year-old Martin was born in Galveston, but moved to Normangee as a young child. He has moved away several times, but always manages to find his way back to his hometown.

Martin began working in newspaper and journalism-related fields in 1952 when, as a sophomore at Normangee High School, he began writing a weekly column and covering sports for Bill and Billie Moss at The Normangee Star. He graduated from Normangee High in 1955, and began attending Sam Houston State Teacher’s College. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism there in 1958.

While at Sam Houston, Martin was a charter member of Sigma Delta Chi/Society of Professional Journalists’ student chapter. And, during his final semester, Martin served as editor of the school’s publication, The Houstonian.

After graduation, Martin worked as a journalism teacher for one year at Huntsville High School. In November 1959 he joined the U.S. Navy Reserves, but went directly into active duty, until November 1961. While serving in the U.S. Navy, Martin worked for the public information office for the commander of the First Fleet.

After being discharged, Martin returned to Huntsville High to teach for one semester, until May 1962. The following school year, he moved to Tyler, and worked three years as a journalism teacher at Tyler Robert E. Lee High School.

While at Tyler Lee, Martin was one of 12 journalism teachers chosen nationwide in 1963 to receive a Wall Street Journal fellowship, and studied for the summer at Columbia University.

In 1965 Martin moved on to Grayson College in Sherman/Denison, where he taught journalism and served as director of public relations until 1970.

In 1966 Martin received a master’s degree in school/community relations from Texas A&M University. His was the first master’s degree ever awarded by the university in the field.

During this time, Martin didn’t forget Normangee. While attending Sam Houston and Texas A&M, he returned to Normangee during the summer months to work for The Normangee Star. And it was while doing this that he knew a career in journalism was for him, as he loved to run the Linotype machine and hand-set front page headlines for the Mosses.

In 1970 Martin moved to Dallas, where he taught three years at Eastfield College. He then took advanced journalism courses at North Texas State University for a semester, before accepting a post in 1974 with the Texas Education Agency in Austin, serving as program director in dissemination.

He was responsible for identifying effective classroom programs, preparing publications about them, and distributing them through the state’s 20 Education Service Centers to various school districts.

In 1980 Martin moved to Washington, D.C., where he was hired for a two-year tenure to manage the federally-funded Council of Chief State School Officers, the professional association for heads of department of education for all 50 states and U.S. territories. In 1982 he was named as assistant executive director of the same organization, and was responsible for preparing the board’s publications, writing the newsletter and maintaining the organization’s Web site.

While in Washington, D.C., Martin also served as director of the National Teacher of the Year Program. And, his final year there, Martin’s procedures for choosing the National Teacher of the Year were modified by him for NASA for use in the Teacher in Space Program, which eventually chose Christa McAuliffe to become the first teacher in space.

In 1985 Martin moved to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and owned and operated a bar and restaurant. He said he was “blown back home” to Normangee in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo.

Martin took over as editor of The Normangee Star in 1989, hired by old friend Billie Moss Bouldin. He continued to work full time for The Star until October 2004, when he chose to semi-retire.

He continues to periodically write columns and stories for The Star. During his tenure with the newspaper, it won numerous regional and state writing awards.

Martin is a past president of the Texas Junior College Teachers Association, and a past president of the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association. He currently is involved in the Normangee Area Chamber of Commerce and the Hilltop Lakes Lions Club.

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Charlotte Thurman

Charlotte Thurman plans to retire this summer after 50 years with the Plainview Daily Herald.

Although her title is secretary to the editor, she performs a variety of duties including writing obituaries, scanning and filing copy, pinch-hitting with writing lifestyles, church copy and an occasional feature and — her favorite task — dealing with the public.

Raised on a farm about 20 miles from Plainview, she was told about a job opening at the paper in June 1955 by a girlfriend, who was dating the sports editor at the time. She started out “punching tape” for the Linotype machines, which she also learned to operate.

As it turned out, she could punch type at 110 words a minute, recalling that she knocked out a Bible-sized legal from the city in an hour and a half to make the day’s mid-afternoon deadline

She remembers The Herald getting a paper out with the help of a generator after a tornado knocked out power to downtown Plainview in April 1970 with reporters writing stories by the light of kerosene and Coleman lanterns.

Over her 50-year career — exclusively with the Plainview Daily Herald — she has worked with just three editors — the late Herb Hilburn, Jim Servatius (retired editor of the Midland Reporter-Telegram) and Danny Andrews (since 1978).

But she has worked with probably a thousand other employees and has been the “photo historian,” noting with a laugh that “I have boxes full of pictures but I don’t know who all the people who are in the pictures.

“I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve dealt with and the people I’ve worked with. We’ve always had such a good camaraderie at The Herald. I cry when people bring in obituaries and we have fun when they have good news. I’m a weeper and keep a box of tissues handy.”

She commiserates with those who have suffered tragedy, being a cancer survivor and having lost her husband of 48 years, E.E. “Buddy” Thurman, to a heart attack in 2000.

Owner of two palomino quarter horses, she has been a member of the Bar-None Rodeo Drill Team since 1979; is a ham radio operator (WA5MIQ); collects horse memorabilia; and enjoys her family — a son and daughter and their spouses, two grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

She plans to travel (she’s been to Europe twice), take care of her acreage and animals and to continue playing cards with friends.

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Norman S. “Scottie” White Jr.

Norman S. “Scottie” White Jr. was almost literally “born in the back shop.” Nedra Allein White, his mother, set type for the newspaper all night, walked half a block home in an ice storm and gave birth to a baby son the next day.

Newspapers ran in the White family. Norman S. Sr. and Nedra Allein White both received Golden 50 Awards from TPA, in 1979 and 1983 respectively.

“I started working at the family newspaper, The Riesel Rustler, as soon as I could, throwing in type and band-setting titles for movie theater ads. I began learning the Linotype at about 12 years old and worked at The Rustler until I graduated from high school,” White said.

White went to Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos as a journalism major and was on the staff of the College Star for the two years he attended the college. The last semester of his sophomore year White became the college’s sports information director after the person who held the post left. He also played basketball for two years.

White then transferred to Baylor University where he graduated in 1953 with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

During his two years at Baylor he worked full time for Sam Pyland at the Falls County Record then for Bonner McMillion at the Brazos Valley Times in Marlin as Linotype operator, pressman and sports writer.

After graduation, White entered the Army and was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., where he spent two years in the Army field printing plant as a Linotype operator, pressman and proof reader.

After discharge from the Army, he returned to Texas and went to back to work at The Rustler, where the family also published The Lou Post.

“In 1968, my dad was appointed postmaster and I became editor until 1985, when the paper was sold to Roger Jones of Waco,” White recalled. “I then became editor of Hometown News, a total-market-coverage newspaper in suburban Waco and southwest McLennan County, and continued as editor of The Rustler. I retired in 1999, but have continued part-time on both newspapers.”

The Rustler has won first-place awards from Texas Press Association and North and East Texas Press Association, as well as numerous second and third place awards. White has received several individual awards from various local and state organizations.

On Dec. 13, 1953, he married Patsy Bryant of Marlin and started “the best 51 years of my life.” The couple has four children plus an international daughter in California, and 13 grandchildren.

James T. “Jimmy” Bass

James T. “Jimmy” Bass began his newspaper career on the Jefferson Jimplecute in 1927 at the age of 12. He delivered the Jimplecute on horseback and learned typesetting and printing.

In 1933, he went to work for the Longview News and Journal. He was working for Charles K. Devall at the Kilgore newspaper when he married Lonatish Hebisen in March 1937. She had a family background in the weekly newspaper business in Forney and Emory, knowledge that would benefit the family later. Shortly after the marriage, they moved to Beverly Hills, Calif., where Jimmy worked for Will Rogers, Jr., who published the Beverly Hills Citizen and several other newspapers for the Los Angeles area.

They returned to Longview in October 1937 and he worked for the News and Journal, until July 1, 1951, when Jim and Tish both went to work for the Gladewater Daily Mirror.

On May 1, 1952, Jim and Tish bought the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald. The entire family went to work on the newspaper.

They bought the present building that houses the Optic in 1963. The couple oversaw the conversion to offset printing in November 1971. Another event, noted with publication on Nov. 22, 1973, was the return of Bob and Pat Wright to the Optic-Herald family. The combined Bass-Wright group formed Four Corners Publishing, Inc. and purchased the Deport Times, Bogata News and the Talco Times, and printed the first edition of the papers under new ownership by offset. The Blossom Times was established on Oct. 28, 1976, completing the small chain of newspapers.

Jimmy Bass was active in all facets of life in Mount Vernon, and was president of the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce the same year. Posthumously, he was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Mount Vernon Rotary Club. He was the local observer for the National Weather Service from 1966 until 1986. His editorial in favor of building Lake Cypress Springs influenced the election, which passed by a margin of fewer than 30 votes. The lake was discovered by residents of the Metroplex and now the homes surrounding the lake provide a substantial tax base for Franklin County.

He was president of North and East Texas Press and received the Sam C. Holloway Memorial Award from that organization.

The newspaper won many contests in North and East Texas Press and in Texas Press, but he published his newspaper for the people of Mount Vernon and Franklin County. His “Optics” column was a favorite of readers.

He continued to work part-time at the newspaper even after it was sold to his daughter and son-in-law, Bob and Pat Wright, in 1980. He died in 1987, leaving a legacy of community newspapering for his family.

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Wayne Greer

Wayne Greer has left miles of ink, grease and smiles across the dusty roads of West and South Texas, forging a half-century trail to Graham.

Although his travels have taken him through good times and bad, he’s never lost his sense of humor nor pride in his craft.

His first taste of the newspaper business came soon after a short stint on a turkey farm.

“We were as poor as a church mouse,” Greer recalls. “When Dad had a heart attack, I had to go to work, but I wanted to finish high school.”

Greer worked at odd jobs, and while in the eighth grade tried his hand in the fowl industry.

The third day of his freshman year he quit the turkey business and went to work for the Coleman County Chronicle & Democrat-Voice.

Greer earned enough money to help out the family, buy school clothes and keep a jingle in his pocket, but most importantly he was learning a trade.

“My first job at The Chronicle was whatever they told me to do,” Greer explains. “This was back in the old hot-metal days. Anything bigger than 18-point we had to handset.”

Greer left The Chronicle to enroll at the University of Texas at Austin, but his college career was short lived. “I ran out of money the first semester,” Greer recalls. “And I was too stubborn to take any handouts.”

Although the publisher of The Chronicle and a local lawyer offered to bankroll his education, Wayne refused, preferring to make it on his own. He did, however, take the publisher up on his old job.

By the time he left The Chronicle in 1966, he was shop foreman with a firm grasp of the inner workings of a newspaper and commercial print shop from the ground up.

He gained most of his notoriety as a fix-it man.

“I was born with a mechanical ability,” Greer says. “I grew up on a farm and was always working on cars.

“I always figured if somebody was smart enough to build it, I could read a book and fix it.

“I’ll work on anything but the crack of dawn or a broken heart.”

After a short-lived career with the Temple Daily Telegram – “I didn’t get along with the superintendent” – he found his niche at The McCamey News.

With two weeklies and a large commercial printing business, Greer soon made his way once again to shop foremen. Greer stayed on in McCamey for nearly four years before trying his hand in other parts of the state. But the dye was cast.

In August 1969 he was in Longview and by the early 1970s he was with the Houston Chronicle.

“I had the opportunity to start learning cold type,” Greer remembers.

The newspaper sent him to the East Coast for schooling. In New York he attended one of the last schools put on by Merganthaler Linotype in a last-ditch effort to keep the hot-metal process alive. In Boston he was introduced to an Electronic Character Recognition Machine, the early predecessor of today’s print scanners.

Having built a reputation as a troubleshooter all across Texas, Greer returned to McCamey in 1975 after “me and the union got cross ways.”

On Jan. 1, 1980, he was owner – “chief cook and bottle washer” – of The McCamey News. The publication and the print shop it housed also served the even smaller community of Iraan.

As publisher/editor/sales manager, Greer slowly built the business up to seven employees and a circulation of 1,200.

“It wasn’t very big; it was a small weekly. But we had a large commercial printing business for office supplies and silk screening T-shirts, ball caps, you name it,” he says

He served almost 30 years in the volunteer fire service, signing on with the McCamey EMS while it was in its infancy and becoming a member of the Upton County Civil Defense Rescue.

“I’d get to a scene as an EMS and when the emergency was over, I’d pull off my EMS hat and put on my publisher’s hat. I got a lot of pictures I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Greer says.

His willingness to help others has forged many a friendship within the business, but none so apparent as the Moores in Ozona.

“He was a blessing to Linda and me,” says Scotty Moore, recently retired publisher of the Ozona Stockman. “Without him and his tremendous expertise and knowledge of the printing industry, we probably would have thrown up our hands in disgust a long time ago, with a for-sale sign on the front door.”

After a quarter of a century running his McCamey empire, a domestic disagreement with his wife left him without a home or a job.

“I was self-employed until June 1998. I got fired,” he jokes.

An advertisement in the Texas Press Association newsletter led Greer to Graham Newspapers Inc., and in April 1999, he signed on as pressroom foreman.

The Graham group’s publishing business has flourished under Greer’s gentle tutelage. The company has gone from a six-unit News King in the back shop to a million-dollar, nine-unit Web Leader setup with its own building.

Greer’s day-to-day operations at Graham Newspapers Inc. include overseeing printing five of the company’s six publications, The Graham Leader, Olney Enterprise, Jacksboro Gazette-News, Jack County Herald and Lake Country Sun – the companion Breckenridge American has its own press – and several commercial jobs.

He keeps the Web Leader and all the peripheral printing necessities – imagesetter, plate burner, inserter, etc. – in tip-top condition.

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Arlan Hays

In May 1916, the San Augustine Tribune came into the Hays family. Webster F. Hays, a veteran newspaperman and printer, bought the Tribune from Mrs. Bernice Harrison whose husband had edited it for four years before his death.

When Webb Hays came to San Augustine in 1916, he had three children ages 6, 4 and 2 and another girl came within a month of his arrival in San Augustine. In 1918, another girl was born.

The Tribune was a family operation, which had very little advertising and a meager circulation. When Hays took over the Tribune he brought an unmarried sister who had worked with him as a typesetter in Mt. Enterprise. Several years later she married the printer, who was working at the Tribune.

The circulation began to grow also and by the Depression in 1930 the Tribune had more than 1,000 subscribers.

Newsprint was not scarce during World War I but it was very short in World War II, and advertising was also short.

Webb Hays published newspapers in Central Texas, at Itasca, Copperas Cove, Hondo and other towns in the early 1900’s and he found that to have an editorial or a personal column every week was impractical due to the lack of important subjects, so a personal column and an editorial page was not featured. An occasional editorial, when the need arose, was very powerful but the Tribune’s policy was, and still is, to use editorials very sparingly.

Webb’s middle son, Arlan Hays, began helping in the shop at the age of 12, doing what he could do. In 1926 a new job press was purchased and his dad had him make up the form and print the first job on the new press. The press is still in the shop, and in usable condition, although it has not run in about 30 years.

Until the early 1970’s, the Tribune was printed on a four-page single revolution printing press that had been one of the battery of presses in the Houston Chronicle in the 1890’s.

It was a single sheet, hand fed press that had a speed of about 1200 sheets an hour. It printed up to four pages at a time.

In the early part of 1933, after Arlan Hays had graduated from high school the year before, he took over operation of the printing plant while Webb and oldest daughter, Beryl handled the news department. He is still associated with the publication at age 90.

Offset printing, which the Tribune joined in early 1970 and faster photography, drastically changed operations. Beginning at the age of 13 or 14, Stephen Hays, Arlan Hays’ only son, grew up with the photography department, which carried some of the other newspaper and reporting skill with it. In 1997, Stephen joined his dad in the operation of the Tribune and is co-publisher.

Webster Hays died Aug. 31, 1968 at 87 after spending a lifetime serving his community.

The Tribune also has the enviable record of only missing the mail twice in the 88 years that the Hays family has operated it. One publication in 1920 when a fire next door filled the building with smoke and firemen wet the machinery by mistake and again in 1995 during an electrical failure at the central printing plant.

The Tribune’s circulation has grown from the few hundred copies when Webster Hays started in 1916 to a peak of 5,400 in the mid 1990s.

The current circulation is about 4,500.

The Tribune is proud of a feature known as the J.E. Miller Memorial Fund that allows a copy of the Tribune to be sent to residents in local nursing homes free each week.

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Roger W. Jones

After growing up around newspapers such as the Scurry County Times, Hamlin Herald, Haskell Free Press, owned and operated by his uncle Willard Jones, a longtime TPAer, and the Waco Tribune-Herald, where his father was a Linotype operator and night ad foreman, Roger W. Jones went to work as a printer’s devil in 1951 at the Waco Tribune-Herald at the age of 15.

By completing his courses of study in the International Typographical Union, which required working in all aspects of the Composing Room, Jones left the Waco newspaper and took a position in the composing room of The Dallas Morning News in 1960.

In September 1961, Jones and his wife Barbara purchased the Waco Farm and Labor Journal, along with Pittillo Printing Co. and in September 1987 they bought the Riesel Rustler at Riesel and started Hometown News, a weekly newspaper to serve the Southwestern section of McLennan County.

The desire was to get away from the hard news of daily newspapers and to run a lot of pictures and stories of local Little League, school, church and smaller cities within their area.

This has been a labor of love and several honors have been received, including the statewide award of the Association of Texas Professional Educators’ Alafair Hammett Award in 1997 (two statewide awards are given each year, one to the electronic media, and one to the print media that have been judged to have done the best job of promoting the Texas public school system.)

In addition, Midway Independent School District PTA honored Jones as a lifetime member of Texas PTA.

In 1998, in recognition of his contributions to the Hometown News area Roger was presented the Hewitt Hero Award by the Hewitt, Texas Chamber of Commerce.

“I still consider myself a printer and newspaper man of the old school, having operated a printing company and newspaper or newspapers as editor and publisher since 1961. I feel that through these channels I have been able to, in some small way, repay my community for the outstanding opportunities that have been afforded my family and myself,” Roger said.

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Stella Orozco

Stella Orozco started working for the daily Commercial Recorder in San Antonio June 8, 1951 fresh out of high school.  Her career started as a part-time employee working for Mrs. Miskimin, the daughter of the newspaper’s founder. Mrs. Miskimin recognized Orozo’s abilities and promoted her to a full-time position the next week.

Over the years the Commercial Recorder has seen several owners, the most recent being Bill Johnson, each of whom has kept Orozco in her position as legal editor of the paper and corporate grand master of Prime Time, Inc.

Orozco’s knowledge of legal notices is beyond reproach. She is the “source.” Her expertise is called upon by local courts as well as attorneys and she is highly regarded by both the District and County Clerks’ offices.

Day-in and day-out for the last 53 years she has cheerfully proofed every page of San Antonio’s legal paper. She has proofed famous births, deaths, seen the transfers of property that have resulted in San Antonio’s tremendous growth and read many a lawsuit and disposition.

Orozco has lived newspaper history having been involved in producing daily papers using technology ranging from hand set type to the modern computer age. She has been dragged, kicking and screaming at times, through technological innovations.

Her old manual Royal typewriter still decorates the office along with many of the antiques she has acquired over the years. Now, she is computer savvy. E-mail and the Internet don’t scare her!

In addition to being the Bexar County “Legal Eagle,” Orozco found the time to raise four wonderful children and has a whole group of very talented grandchildren and great grandchildren.

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William B. “Bill” Wilkerson

If William (Bill) Brightman Wilkerson’s blood isn’t burnt orange due from his many years of devotion to the University of Texas at Austin, then it is surely ink.

Born to J. C. and Alma May Wilkerson April 12, 1929, Wilkerson became a second generation newspaper man at the early age of 8 as a printer’s devil at the Comanche Chief where his father was the publisher. He worked many hours during his youth and has scars from the hot lead as proof.

Wilkerson graduated from the University of Texas in 1951 and married his college sweetheart Judith Blanton Wilkerson in 1950. She also has ink in her blood as her mother, Katherine Englebright Blanton, was the society editor of the Temple Daily Telegram.

While at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn during the Korean Conflict, he attended night school to learn the ins and outs of a machine he grew to hate — the Linotype. In 1956, he returned to Comanche to serve as editor of the Comanche Chief shortly after his brother James passed away. Three children were born and raised in this newspaper family — David, Katie and Noel.

While running the Comanche Chief, the Wilkersons also bought the De Leon Free Press, which they owned and served as publishers until 1998. In 1974, he and Judy sold their interest in the Chief and purchased the Pleasanton Express from Ruth Daetwyler after her husband and the Wilkerson’s longtime friend, Wally, succumbed to cancer in 1973. A natural ad salesman by heart coupled with outstanding business smarts, success was sure to follow Wilkerson.

The paper prospered during the heyday of the oil field boom and held tight during the bust. All the while, he maintained the credo “Let’s get the best product we can out there and have as much fun as we can!”

Under his watchful eye, the Pleasanton Express has continued to prosper, grow and become a respected publication among its peers. Over the past 30 years, the newspaper has won more than 100 awards from the South Texas Press Association and Texas Press Association with a quarter of them being first-place honors.

In the 80’s, Bill and Judy Wilkerson joined Bill Berger of the Hondo Anvil Herald in establishing the South Texas Press. Craig Garnett with the Uvalde Leader-News has since joined them in this successful partnership that currently prints numerous weeklies, inserts and other collateral material.

Wilkerson has maintained a close affiliation with the South Texas Press Association family where he served as president from 1968-69, and secretary/treasurer from 1985-2004. There have been only three secretary/treasurers in STPA’s 77-year history! Wilkerson, who never met a party he didn’t like, has only missed one STPA convention since 1956 and that was because he was flat on his back in the hospital. Bill and Judy Wilkerson were the youngest couple when they joined STPA and now they are the oldest couple in attendance. He has also served as a board member and member of the Texas Press Association for many years.

Bill and Judy Wilkerson retired from the everyday grind in 1989 and moved to Austin where they remain as owners and publishers.

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Patricia Bass “Pat” Wright

Patricia Bass Wright started working in May 1952 at age 9 after her parents, Jim and Tish Bass, bought the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald. She stood on boxes to set type from California job cases and ran the Linotype machine. She shot sideline photos at football games during the third quarter when she was off from playing in the Mount Vernon High School Band.

She graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1960 and attained a BS degree in journalism and business management from East Texas State University in 1964. She was business manager, then editor of The East Texan, the school newspaper, and later was assistant of the college magazine, the Locust Special. In 1996, she was named an ambassador of the Alumni Association. Upon graduation from East Texas, she moved to Denison, where she sold advertising for the Denison Herald and did volunteer work with the Girls Club.

After eight years at the Herald, she became retail advertising manager at the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel.

She married Robert W. Wright in November 1972 and they moved to Baton Rouge, La., in April 1973.

In November 1973, the couple bought the Deport Times, Talco Times and the Bogata News and went into partnership with her parents. They founded the Blossom Times in 1976.

Following the illness and retirement of Jim Bass in 1980, the Wrights moved to Mount Vernon and bought the Bass’ interest in the Optic-Herald. The smaller newspapers were sold in 1982.

That same year, the newspaper won the Sweepstakes Award from the North and East Texas Press Association, the first of several journalism and photography awards for the newspaper since that time.

She was awarded the Sam C. Holloway Award from the North and East Texas Press Association for outstanding contributions to her profession in 1991. She has been president of NETPA.

She became publisher of the Optic-Herald upon the death of her husband in April 1997.

Wright is a pilot and founding member and officer of the Wildflower Chapter of “The Ninety-Nines,” an international association of women pilots.

She and her late husband were the driving forces in getting an airport in Franklin County, a dream that became a reality in July 1987. The Franklin County Airport was completed with state and federal funds, and a terminal and community hall were built with community donations.

She has served on the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, and is still on the Airport Board and the Mount Vernon Housing Authority Board. She served 17 years as a volunteer Accident Prevention Counselor with the Federal Aviation Administration. As a member of Rotary, she has been named a Paul Harris Fellow.

Pat is a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mount Pleasant. She has served on the vestry and currently serves as a lay-reader.

She supports countless community projects as publisher of the Mount  Vernon Optic-Herald, not the least of which was helping to raise funds and build the School Bus Accident Memorial now standing on the grounds at the Mount Vernon School campus.

Within the next year, she will extend the legacy of the newspaper by selling it to the third generation, a niece, Susan Reeves, and her husband, John.