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.

Billie Bouldin, Normangee Star

They called her the “fastest Linotype operator in Texas,” and she probably was, and she came by her involvement in the newspaper business naturally.

Billie was born and raised in Mexia and decided that she wanted to be a newspaper reporter when her fourth grade teacher had her bring in articles as part of an assignment. She married Bill Moss in 1945, just before he was released from active duty following World War II. He had already been in the business, working for the Mexia Daily News, and went back to work at the Daily News following his discharge. After a stint with an oil company, he returned to the newspaper business with the Livingston Enterprise, then he and Billie moved to Normangee and went to work for Bill and Billie Perkins, who owned the Normangee Star.

The Mosses bought the Star from the Perkins in 1953, and the newspaper has remained in the Moss family since then. Billie recalls that copy was set on the Linotype — her job — and most of the ads and headlines were hand set. The paper was printed on a huge flat-bed, hand-fed — Bill’s job — 1896 Babcock press. A hand-fed — again Billie’s job — folder was also part of the operation. At one time, Bill and Billie edited and printed the Normangee Star and printed newspapers from Teague, Diboll, Marquez, North Zulch, and Hilltop Lakes. Billie said that the old press would have problems almost every week, and they relied on the skill and dedication of the local blacksmith to keep it running.

The Normangee Star has been in continuous operation since it was founded in 1912. It missed only one issue since the Moss family purchased it, and that was when a tornado destroyed much of downtown Normangee, including the newspaper office, in 1984. The paper has slowly modernized and now serves not only Normangee but the communities of Flynn and Marquez and the retirement community of Hilltop Lakes.

 Bill and Billie added a real estate office to their business enterprise in 1960 and operated both for many years. Bill died in 1987, and Billie remains a full-time owner of both businesses. She handed over the day-to-­day operation of the newspaper to a managing editor in 1990 but still lists herself as owner-publisher in the paper’s masthead.

Billie has been an active participant in her community, having served as president of the Chamber of Commerce. She has been a member of the Eastern Star for over 50 years and served as Worthy Matron. She has also performed many duties in the First Baptist Church since moving to Normangee.

Billie’s work now is devoted mostly to her real estate business. She is a Graduate Master Broker. She married Everett Bouldin in 1997. Everett worked for the Houston Chronicle for over 30 years and was at one time state circulation manager.

In 2001, the Rogers Prairie Masonic Lodge presented Billie with its annual Community Builders Award, recognizing her many years of devotion to the Normangee area.

The Mosses had four children, three sons and a daughter. One son is deceased. They have nine grandchildren, one deceased, and five great-grandchildren.

Billie has spent most of her adult life in the newspaper business. She is proud of her accomplishments. She is thankful for the support she has received from her community and the assistance from other newspapermen and women over the years. She is honored to receive the Texas Press Association’s Golden 50 Award.

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Fred C. Latcham, Beeville Bee-Picayune

Fred C. Latcham Jr. was born in 1917 to Fred and Louise Latcham of Denver, Colo. He grew up in Denver, but spent as much time as possible in the mountains, hiking and camping with friends. After graduating from East Denver High School, he enrolled at Colorado University in Boulder, where he majored in finance.

After graduating from CU, he entered the Army where he was commissioned a second lieutenant and began training with artillery. The war in Europe ended before Latcham had finished his training stateside, but he was sent to Italy in the Army of Occupation. After completing his service and an honorable discharge, Latcham hired on with Brown & Root, running a survey crew laying pipelines across the nation.

While in the Army, the second lieutenant took an occupational aptitude test that found him fit for any job other than an author or editor. (Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?) When his Brown & Root pipeline crew took up residence in Beeville, Texas, Latcham was introduced to a young lady through some bridge-playing friends. He quickly took to Joyce Atkins, daughter of George Atkins, publisher of the Beeville Bee-Picayune. Long story short, they were married and he went to work for the newspaper in 1953, learning the trade as he went.

He eventually took on the role of publisher when George Atkins died in 1959.

His proudest accomplishment at the paper bears witness to the high calling of community journalism. One afternoon, a mother of five walked in to the offices to buy a newspaper and lamented to Latcham about the high cost of education and how difficult it would be to send all her children off to college. Touched by her predicament, he wrote an editorial on the need for a junior college in Beeville. The Bee County Chamber of Commerce thought that was a fine idea and put Latcham in charge of a committee to explore it.

When all was said and done, Bee County College was born with Latcham serving as the founding chairman of the board of trustees from 1965-1978. Recently renamed Coastal Bend College to more reflect its service area, the school now serves an enrollment in excess of 3,000 with campuses in Beeville, Kingsville, Alice and Pleasanton. The academic building on the main campus is now named the Fred C. Latcham Building in his honor.

At age 85 and widowed, Latcham still goes to work every day he is able, with a driver bringing him to town in the morning and again in the afternoon. His sons, Chip, 48, and Jeff, 45, now work as co-publishers of the Bee-Picayune and its sister newspaper, The Progress, in George West and Three Rivers.

Most days still find Latcham at his desk, going through the day’s mail, signing checks and generally making sure “the boys don’t get into trouble.”

And, across from his desk, hanging on the wall is an aerial photograph of Coastal Bend College’s main campus... testimony to the important work we do as community journalists.

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Burnis Lawrence, Alpine Avalanche

Former Alpine Avalanche publisher Burnis Lawrence received the South Texas Press Association’s highest honor on April 25 with the Chester Evans Award. He was presented the award by Hondo Anvil-Herald editor and longtime friend Frances Guinn.

A retired publisher, Lawrence was president of STPA in 1977-78 and has worked for newspapers across the state.

Lawrence’s journalism career began in 1948, when an instructor and a couple of his friends at Stephen F. Austin State University forged his signature on a letter of application for the position of editor of the college publication, the Pine Log. When the president called Lawrence to congratulate him on the appointment, he was surprised but accepted to show his friends he could do the job.

In 1950 he was hired by Charles Guy, publisher of the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Then in 1951 he became editor of the Post Dispatch, where he remained until 1953. After a short stint with the Pecos Enterprise, the Air Force recalled him and, while stationed at Connaly Air Force Base in Waco, Lawrence worked nights at the Waco Tribune.

After orders sent him to Shepherds Air Field in England in 1956, he edited the base newspaper there. In 1958, now out of the Air Force, Lawrence worked at the Beeville Bee Picayune.

A group of businessmen convinced him to start up a newspaper in Refugio, and in 1959, the County Press was born. From there, in 1962 Lawrence worked with publisher Ward Lowe at the Lampasas Dispatch.

Although he spent some time with Vern Sanford at the Texas Press Association in 1963, the lure of the road enticed Lawrence to Weslaco in 1964, where he edited the Weslaco News; then, in 1965, he hired on with Otha Grisham at the Seguin Enterprise as editor.

From 1970 to 1981, Lawrence stayed with Bill Berger and the Hondo Anvil Herald, then moved to the Mathis News where he was editor until 1983.

In 1986 Lawrence purchased the Crosby County News from Jim Reynolds, and in 1995 he took on the publisher’s job at the Alpine Avalanche, remaining there until his retirement in October 1998. He still writes his “Dear Boss” column for the Avalanche.

Lawrence is a World War II veteran, serving in the Army-Air Corps as a P-38 aircraft mechanic. He celebrated V-E Day in London in front of Buckingham Palace.

He was recalled to the Air Force in 1953, and remained in the military until 1957. In the Air Force reserves until 1981, he retired as a full bird colonel.

Lawrence has a degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, and earned his four-year diploma in five semesters.

Melvin "Gene" Dow

Melvin "Gene" Dow grew up in the newspaper business, while in junior high and high school, working with his father, Melvin N. Dow, and grandfather, James L. Dow, learning the printing trade on the Wink Bulletin.

He earned a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Texas in Austin in January 1952. He served as editor of the Wink Bulletin for almost a year before being drafted for military duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. After returning from overseas duty in Austria, he returned to Wink to again assume the editorship of his father's newspaper.

Ready to leave his hometown, Dow became news editor of the Monahans News in 1956. After 2 1/2 years, he and his new bride, Joyce, saved enough to make the down payment on the Van Horn Advocate, which they published for more than 13 years. While there they also acquired the Hudspeth County News at Dell City.

Dow earned his private pilot's license while still in high school, and in 1972, the opportunity was presented to combine his love for flying and still continue his newspaper career. He became editor of General Aviation News, aka The Green Sheet, a nationally distributed aviation newspaper, headquartered in Snyder. Dow later became publisher of

that publication.  Again, after a dozen years or so, Dow developed a strong interest in computers. He opened the Computer Case, Inc., an Apple computer store, in Snyder in 1983 and a branch store in Big Spring the following year. Three years later, Apple Computer Co. cut the dealerships of all smaller stores, forcing the Computer Case stores out of business.

So it was back to the newspaper business. Dow then became managing editor of the Colorado City Record for about two years before Roberts Publishing Co. selected him in 1989 to become publisher of the Seminole Sentinel.

Except for the two years in the Army and three years in the computer business, Dow has spent a lifetime in the newspaper business. In most cases, his wife has worked alongside. She retired in December 2000, as women's news editor for the Sentinel.

"Seems like I've made a major change in life about every 12 years or so -- this time it's retirement," Dow said.

The Dows have been active in local civic organizations and are members of First United Methodist Church.

They have reared two children, a son, James Dee, who works and resides in California; and daughter, Dana Joyce, who is advertising director for the Mineral Wells Index, thus a fourth-generation newspaper person. Their children each have three children, providing the Dows with four grandsons and two granddaughters. They plan to continue maintaining their home in Seminole.

Dow has been the 11th publisher of the Sentinel since its founding in 1907. Dow served as the publisher of the Seminole Sentinel for 12 years from 1989 until his retirement in December 2001.

He has served West Texas Press Association as a director, first and second vice presidents and president. He has served on the editorial board of Texas Press Association.

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 Ted Leach

Ted Leach began working for newspapers as a street delivery salesman in 1947, but three years later a near fatal accident on a motor route would create not only a change of professions, but a career move.

The drunk traveling an estimated 90 mph hammered him broadside on a Cushman motor bike while he was throwing his route.

Unable to participate in organized sports that summer, or in the future, Leach was devastated by his misfortune. Although it went unsaid, the newspaper family took Leach under its wing. Longview News-Journal sports editor Buster Hale offered a solution.

Keep score or umpire summer games and high school ball and cover the contests in the newspapers under Hales' tutelage. It would pay more than throwing routes.

Through high school at Longview, young Leach worked as a reporter of local amateur and some professional sports. He covered Kilgore in the old East Texas League, keeping score on the radio and calling in stories and boxes from his parents' home in Longview.

He was sports editor of his high school newspaper and class reporter and sports editor on scholarship at Kilgore College. All the time, he worked with many friends, and his ambition to follow in his father's footsteps was building.

"I had more spending money then than I do now," he often jokes.  His mother and father both worked, Kay with the Texas Employment Commission, Ed as sports editor, then reporter-columnist and finally editor and editor-in-chief of the Longview morning and afternoon newspapers.

Ed Leach earned a 50-year pin from Texas Press Association in 1983, finishing a distinguished career working for publications Leach helped found. He also cherished a Friend of the TPA honor.

Research shows Ed and Ted Leach are one the few father-son duos to reach this 50-year milestone from TPA.

With Buster Hale's help, Leach landed the sports editor's job at The Borger News Herald. His father was adamantly opposed to any move from the Longview area, but it was made without consulting him.

In 1960, Leach won the Texas UPI Editor's sports writing competition and Ed embraced the idea that maybe there was hope.

"The best competitor I've ever had," Amarillo Globe-News sports scribe Putt Powell once wrote of Leach.

"The greatest circulation builder I have ever known," Borger's Dean Preston believed.

An elderly gentleman who was hired in circulation at Borger took a great liking to Leach and promoted him to work with his friends at Wichita Falls Times-Record News, telling one of the managing editors that Leach was a writer who works circulation without pay in order to build a reputation.

Curtis Cook and Al Parker liked Leach well enough to hire him and eventually made him sports editor.

"I had to back up to the pay window, I loved that job so much," Leach said.

As sports editor he directed a four-man staff, wrote columns, covered the best schoolboy games in the city and area, covered the best of the Southwest Conference football games on Saturdays during football, and when the Dallas Cowboys came to being at the Cotton Bowl, Leach was there to write about the home games.

"It's been a great ride," he says. "I've seen many of the greatest athletes and coaches of my time and I've had a blast.

"There hasn't been a day I dreaded going to work."

He came back to Longview to get some news writing and editing experience under a master of the language,Wells Burton, but shortly accepted a position as chief cook and bottle washer (editor, photographer, darkroom tech, composition makeup assistant and circulation manager) of the Mount Pleasant Times. Operating on the promise he would someday be afforded the opportunity to buy the old hot type paper, he worked long hours in a very competitive market.

With his devoted wife Maudie entering the work force as wire editor and co-circulation manager, and their five children participating in delivery of The Times, as part of the work force, they were greatly pleased as a family to be a part of that town, until Leach was offered The Panola Watchman editor's job at Carthage. His wife would have a job as typesetter and would gather courthouse news, since there was no wire copy to edit.

While in Carthage, Leach aggressively covered controversies in the local school system and was eventually asked to serve on the PTA and run for school board. But the management shunned the idea and Leach said that when he didn't back down, he was fired. Shortly his wife was fired, too, and he and local city councilman, Robert Pike, started to co-publish a new newspaper.

The Panola Post was born in Pike's living and dining rooms, until a front porch could be enclosed to give his wife Hazel a good portion of her living quarters back. Devoted to her husband's causes, Hazel took Leach and Maudie under her wing and said little about the scraps of waxed paper she often had to remove by hand from her carpets.

"Hazel and Robert were fantastic," Leach said.

Leach would soon sell his portion of The Post to Lloyd Grissom, and then would join the Grissom Publications team (East Texas Light, Timpson Times and newly acquired Toledo Sportsman) at Tenaha.

He was hired as editor, writer, circulation manager, sales person and advertising director of The Toledo Sportsman. Throw in composition,  too, he said.

In his tenure, The Sportsman grew from a 24-page tabloid to 96 pages, including national, lake marina and local township ads from either side of the great lake.

All his life, however, Leach secretly wanted to be sports editor of the Longview papers. It was rumored his friend, John Inman, was looking at a public relations job in Dallas with the Cowboys so Leach agreed to come write a morning column, to cover Panola County events and be outdoor editor on the promise that Inman would not be forced to vacate his post.

Eventually he also joined Buster Hale at The Henderson Daily News covering sports, and working double duty.

From 1982 to 1990, Grissom urged editorial excellence through contests and The Panola Post and The Post-Watchman were dominant in their divisions of the Texas Press Association and North and East Texas Press Association competition.

The Post held its own in the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association, too. Leach served as president of that group in 1990-1991.

The weekly and semiweekly publications won 38 first places in a l0-year span in TPA, NETPA and TGCPA competition, including two TPA and two NETPA sweepstakes plaques.

Leach was editor and the only reporter, sports and otherwise, when the Watchman took one sweepstakes honor. He was editor or editor-in-chief when The Panola Post earned its highest honor. Leach took 22 first places with The Panola Post and Post-Watchman for sports, column writing, news photos and editorials in the period of 1982 to 1990.

Then the emphasis on winning awards waned.

Newspapering always has been a family operation with the Leaches. Sons David and Donald have covered area high school sports, daughter Debbie has helped keep statistics and drives Leach to his doctor appointments between games. Granddaughters Amber and Angel Leach assist their father as photographer and statistician for Beckville games.

Grandsons Donnie and Donald are paw paw's eyes and able assistants.

"I've worked with folks in this business that didn't like to show up at the appointed hour. All I have to do is ask," Leach said of his family sources.

"Does this guy Leach ever sleep?" a TPA judge once asked in a critique of sports entries.

"The family is my secret weapon," Leach said.

With five married children, 14 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren all living with 15 miles of Carthage, it's easy to get someone to a game if there's a conflict.

Trying to cover boys' and girls' and men's and women's games at the high school and college level, creates a hectic pace. Almost seven years ago (Aug. 7, 1995) Leach had a heart transplant.

With the aid of a portable computer, a fax machine, a telephone and great sources on the local sports scene to help in every way, he missed just one full and a partial issue of his semiweekly schedule. He would get scorebooks or information by fax, write the stories at night and send them by modem before deadline .

"Loyd once told me it's not what you print that always counts, but what you know," Leach said.

"If I reported the truth, I enjoyed the hatchet man reputation, too. That all changed, however, when I had a change of heart."

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Rigby Owen, Sr.

Rigby Owen, Sr., was born June 17, 1912, in Rosebud, Falls Co., Texas. In late 1918 Rigby and his only brother,  Irvin, moved with their parents to Oklahoma City via train. He remembers seeing soldiers on the train returning to their respective homes at the end of World War I.

He attended schools in Oklahoma City through the 11th grade and began his newspaper career there at the age of 12 delivering the Daily Oklahoman while attending Webster Junior High.

He consistently delivered papers through his junior year at Central High School. This was the beginning of a very successful career in newspapering.

Owen graduated from high school in 1931 in Norman, Okla., at the age of 18. At 19 he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma with his goal being a degree in engineering. During his first semester at OU, his father had an automobile accident that resulted in a permanent back injury that would keep him from working the rest of his life. Owen quit college after one semester and went to work to help support his Mom and Dad. They were living in Norman at this time.

In 1932 he moved to Cushing, Okla., to assist his older brother in distributing The Oklahoma City Times and the Daily Oklahoman, two Oklahoma City newspapers.

During that year, Owen's brother was transferred to El Reno, Okla., to work as a distributor for the two Oklahoma City papers. He remained in Cushing. In June 1932 Owen met his future wife, Jo Briley. They married Feb. 14, 1933.

On Sept. 25, 1933 Owen was hired as circulation manager of The Cushing Daily Citizen. During his two years there he converted all the routes so the carriers would do the collecting and pay for their papers.

This was called the "Little Merchant Plan."

In making this change Owen was able to double the paid circulation for the Citizen. While working for the Citizen he wrote a column titled "Red Visits the Rural Routes," so named because of his red hair.

The Owens' first child, Sandra, was born in Cushing.

In August 1935 the district manager for the Oklahoma City papers, C.A. Lane, was named circulation manager of the Little Rock Democrat. Owen was offered a job as city circulation manager by his longtime friend. He took the job thinking this was quite a move for him and stayed there about one year before deciding to move on because he seemed to enjoy working on smaller newspapers.

In September 1936 he moved to Shawnee, Okla., and worked for the local newspaper in advertising and circulation. After about six months he moved to Ada, Okla., where he was hired as circulation manager for the Ada News. W.D. Little was the publisher of the News.

During his six years on this job he wound up making more than men who had been on the job a lot longer. Two sons, Steve and Rigby, Jr. were born in Ada.

In 1937 Owen was appointed an "Honorary Colonel" commission on the staff of the Oklahoma Boy's State for his enduring work with young newspaper carriers under the "Little Merchant Plan" he implemented for the Ada News. In January 1941 Owen was elected president of Ada's Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Early in 1942 Owen resigned from the Ada News when he had an opportunity to buy one-fourth interest in the Opelousas Daily World in Opelousas, La. The World was a year and a half old and was started by John Thistlethwaite for about $12,000. There were several other stockholders owning 50 percent of the stock.When Owen arrived in Opelousas, Thistlethwaite sold him 25 percent of his stock, mostly on credit. The next day Thistlethwaite left for the Army.

During the next few years the minor stockholders wanted to sell out. Thistlethwaite did not want to participate. Owen was able to purchase an additional 50 percent of the outstanding stock, again, mostly on borrowed money.

When WWII ended Thistlethwaite came back to be the editor of the World and Owen was publisher. Thistlethwaite was offered a chance to be a 50-50 partner with Owen but was not interested.

Owen always considered Thistlethwaite an equal partner and good friend during his nine years in Opelousas.

The Daily World was the only offset daily newspaper in the state at the time and later was declared the first successful offset daily in the United States. During his nine-year tenure in Opelousas, Owen coowned nearby newspapers, including The Eunice New Era, The Layayette Pictorial and The Lafayette Progress. The paper in Eunice was later renamed The Eunice News.

Owen was elected to the Louisiana Press Association board of governors in April 1944 and elected president of the LPA at their annual meeting in New Orleans on April 12, 1947.

In 1951 Rigby sold his controlling interest in the World to his good friend Thistlethwaite.

In December of that same year Owen bought The El Campo News.

He sold the News in March 1953.While in El Campo, Owen coowned newspapers in Port Lavaca and Weslaco.

On Sept. 1, 1953, Owen bought the Conroe Courier and moved there with his family.

He was elected vice-president of the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association on May 10, 1954 at its annual meeting in Brenham. Patsy Woodall, publisher of the Huntsville Item was elected President.

In May 1955 he became president of the Texas Gulf Coast Press Association. In July 1971 he was elected president of Texas Press Association. At that time, he was only the second publisher in the United States to have served as president of two different state press associations.

On Sept. 1, 1971 Owen sold the Conroe Courier to Universal Publishing, Inc.,Wesley Attaway, chairman of the board. Owen served on the board for several years.

Other newspapers Owen owned prior to the sale of the Courier included The Tomball Tribune, The Cleveland Advocate and The Huntsville Pictorial. He also acquired an FM radio permit to begin operating radio station KNRO in Conroe.

In 1976 he bought radio station KMCO in Conroe and the call letters later changed to KIKR.

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Bert West 

Bert West's newspaper career has ranged from reporting on harness horse racing at county fairs in the Midwest to man's first landing on the moon, and from PTA meetings to murder trials in between.

On Sept. 7, 2002, West will have completed 55 years as either a sportswriter, sports editor, news editor, bureau manager, managing editor and publisher or owner of newspapers in Indiana, Missouri and Texas, 43 of those years in Texas.

An Indiana farm boy who dreamed of being a newspaperman since he was 5 years old, West started his career on Sept. 7, 1947, at the age of 20, when he went to work at $35 per week as one of two associate editors of The Horseman & Fair World, a weekly trade magazine devoted to the sport of harness horse racing, published in Indianapolis. He became editor of the magazine in 1949, at which time Billboard Magazine featured him as the youngest editor of any publication of worldwide circulation. The Horseman was one of two such magazines on the sport of harness horse racing.

While with The Horseman, West wrote weekly columns on harness horse racing for the Indianapolis Star; Lexington (Ky.) Leader and the Washington, D.C., Daily News.

In 1951, he became associate editor of the sport's other magazine, The Harness Horse, at Harrisburg, Pa., then spent a few months in early 1952 as editor of the brand new Harness Daily, at LaGrange, Ill., which folded in short order.

In July 1952, he joined the Indianapolis Star as a sportswriter. Then, after members of his wife's family had moved to Dallas, West, too, found Texas in August 1954, leaving Indiana with his family of four and no job in sight. Within a few weeks, he became managing editor for Rufus Higgs at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

In March 1955, he became news editor of the El Campo News, owned by a fellow Hoosier, B.W. Bradfute. When Bradfute sold the News in 1957, West became the first manager of the Port Lavaca bureau for the Victoria Advocate.When the Woodson group purchased the two competing newspapers in Port Lavaca, he became managing editor of the merged Port Lavaca Wave-Calhoun County Times, along with keeping his Victoria Advocate bureau duties.

There was a quick trip (five months) back to Indiana in early 1961 to be news editor of the Madison Courier, but the Texas fever was too much. He returned in June 1961 as sports editor of the Vernon Record.

In December 1961 he became managing editor of the Bay City Tribune.

Over the next five years, West was news editor, San Benito News; news editor, Lamb County Leader, Littlefield; and general manager, Calhoun County News, Port Lavaca. At San Benito, he founded and published the Valley & South Texas Football magazine in 1963-64.

In 1966, he joined the Pasadena News-Citizen as news editor. While there, he converted five weeklies between Houston and Galveston, which were owned by the Citizen, into the Spaceland Star.

In 1968, he accepted an offer from the Houston Chronicle to be manager of its news bureau at the Manned Spacecraft Center, where he covered the first six manned flights of the Apollo program, including the first two manned landings on the moon, Apollo 11 and 12.

During this time, he also served as Space Center correspondent for the French News Agency, the U.S. Information Agency, Japanese News Agency, Newsday and a Turkish news agency. Prior to Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon in 1969, he spent a week in Armstrong's hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio -- the first place West had gone to cover county fair harness horse racing back in 1947 -- retracing Armstrong's youth, family and friends, for the Chronicle and Texas Magazine.

Wanting to get back into full newspaper activity and responsibilities, after the first two Moon landings, West became managing editor of then three-times-a-week St. Charles Journal in St. Charles, Mo. This started a 5 1/2-year stay in Missouri, but it was again back to Texas in mid-1975, where he became editor-publisher of the Morris County News-Ledger and Cass County News-Ledger at Daingerfield and Hughes Springs.

He and son, Nick (fresh out of the Marines) purchased the papers from Grayford Jones, converted them into the Steel Country News-Ledger and also started the Ore City News-Ledger.

They sold the papers to the Bluebonnet group in November 1979, after which West spent about four months helping the new owners of the Johnson City Record-Courier revamp their paper before becoming editor-publisher of the Needville Tribune. In 1981-82, he was news editor for Dick Reavis (whom he had worked with at Port Lavaca 20 years earlier) at the Moore County News in Dumas.

For a brief spell in 1982, he was owner-publisher of the Bogata News and three other small weeklies in the area, before joining son, Nick, at the Palacios Beacon. From 1983-89, he was news editor, then general manager of the Yoakum Herald-Times. In 1989, he founded the requester weekly, Four Star Reporter at Yoakum.

After selling the Four Star to Buddy Preuss in 1994,West thought he was retiring, and was -- for three months. However, the owners of the Jackson County Herald-Tribune at Edna, on a tip from Tex Rogers, offered him a job of being their publisher-general manager, which he accepted. He remained there until July 1999.Within a month, he was back at it -- rejoining son, Nick, at the Palacios Beacon on full-time chores.

"Most of those job changes in the early years were due to my always looking for challenges. I would join a paper, help to build it up, then go looking for another to do the same,"West said. "Besides, I told my wife when we married that I wanted to travel.

"Of all the newspapers I've worked for, there wasn't a one that I didn't enjoy my job," he says.

Among his accomplishments, while at the St. Charles Journal, he was lead writer on a series of twice-weekly articles that ran continuously for 18 months, that resulted in St. Louis keeping its major airport, Lambert Field, in Missouri, instead of building a new one across the Mississippi River, in Illinois -- a deal that had been endorsed by St.  Louis' two daily newspapers and was all but completed by the governor of Illinois and the mayor of St. Louis, until the Journal series. Missouri would have lost millions of dollars, plus hundreds of jobs, had the airport gone to another state.

He also wrote a long series of articles at the Four Star Reporter in Yoakum that resulted in the State Department of Transportation keeping its District 13 intact and headquartered in Yoakum, instead of being merged into the Corpus Christi District as supported by then Gov. Ann Richards.

West also received a commendation from the Associated Press for his coverage of the Kentucky Derby while at the Indianapolis Star.

West was named Outstanding Secretary of the Texas Jaycees in 1957. He founded the Little League basketball program at Stephenville in 1954, the El Campo Little League in 1956, fishing tournaments at Port Lavaca and Palacios and was elected charter director and secretary of the Yoakum Hospital District. He has been national chairman of the public relations committee for the trustee division of the American Library Association. He was president of the Calhoun County Fair, president of the Palacios Chamber of Commerce, board member of the Texas Main Street Committee at Yoakum, president of the St. Charles County, Mo., Library District board of trustees, president of Port Lavaca Jaycees, and president of Rotary and Optimist clubs in Texas and Missouri.

West and his bride, Betty, whom he married in 1948, have had eight children (a daughter died in childhood). Son, Nick, is publisher of the Palacios Beacon; daughter, Leah Eames, works for a printing company in Naples. Other children are Pat West, Mount Pleasant; Dodie Edinger, Lake St. Louis, Mo.; Deborah West, Dallas; Karen Roby,  Longview; and Larry West, Yoakum. Grandson Michael "West" McCracken is sports editor of the Gonzales Inquirer.

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Willis Webb

Willis Webb began his career in newspapering at age 10 by working as a carrier throwing the Waco Tribune-Herald on a bicycle route in his hometown of Teague. And he's been "handling" newspapers up close and personal since.

Webb is publisher of The Jasper Newsboy and is second vice president of Texas Press Association. During his 50-plus-year career he has been a syndicated columnist, a managing editor, advertising director, newspaper consultant and an award-winning editor-publisher at several locations.

Webb rode his bike and tossed that Waco newspaper from 1947-1953 and then was distributor/carrier of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Teague, 1953-55.

In 1956 and 1957 he studied journalism at Sam Houston State in Huntsville, served as sports publicity director for Bearkat athletics and worked as a stringer for the Huntsville Item and correspondent for The Houston Post, Associated Press, United Press and International News Service (INS).

He returned home for one year as news editor of the Teague Chronicle, then finished his J-degree work in night school at the University of Houston, working days as a copy editor for The Cougar, student newspaper, and authored a syndicated column, "The Texian Editor's Frontier News Flashes," gleaned from Texas newspaper files from the 1860s and 1870s. More than 150 weekly newspapers carried the column.

On Jan. 1, 1959 he became an ad sales rep for the Galena Park Reporter and six months later was named general manager. In 1960 he became associate editor of Texas Industry magazine published by the Texas Manufacturers Association.

Webb worked as editor and then editor-publisher of the Fort Bend Mirror at Rosenberg for six years and spent the next three years as editor-publisher of the Cleveland Advocate. Next stop was Conroe where he was associate publisher, then editor, then publisher of the Conroe Courier, later the Conroe Daily Courier.

From 1976 to 1982 he was sales manager for Southwest Creative Graphics, worked as a consultant to Attaway Newspapers and brokered the sale of the Cleveland Journal to Attaway. He also did advertising, public relations and political campaign work.

He was editor-publisher of the Lockhart Post-Register 1982-84 and then the Fredericksburg Radio Post in 1984-85. During the next four years he worked for Hartman Newspapers, Inc. (HNI) in several capacities: business manager of The Herald Coaster, director of sales and marketing, vice president-operations and editor-publisher of the Fort Bend Mirror.

He was editor/publisher of the Fort Bend Business & Legal Review at Stafford and then joined the Houston Digest as an ad sales rep.

In May 1991 he became editor-publisher of The Jasper Newsboy, which is the oldest continuously published (under the same name) weekly in Texas. His wife Julie, a former schoolteacher, serves as contributing editor of the Newsboy. They have four children and two grandchildren.

Webb has received numerous awards in news, editorial and column writing, graphic design, ad copy and design, photography, and community service from the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, the United Press International Editors Association, Texas Press Association, Houston Press Club, Texas Gulf Coast Press Association, South Texas Press Association, North and East Texas Press Association, the Hearst Corporation and the Press Club of Southeast Texas in Beaumont.

In 1997 he became the first weekly publisher to receive the Hearst Corporation's Eagle Award for outstanding individual accomplishment in journalism.

He is a past member of the administrative board of First United Methodist Church of Jasper and is a past-president of numerous chambers of commerce. He was founding president of the Boys & Girls Club of Jasper and served on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Deep East Texas. He currently serves as a director of the Jasper and Sam Rayburn Area Chamber of Commerce and is a Jasper County Historical Museum director.

Since the James Byrd Jr. murder and trial, Webb has spoken by invitation at TPA, Panhandle Press Association and STPA conventions about the impact on Jasper and the Jasper area as well as on the newspaper.

J.W. "Bill" Cooke

J.W. Bill" Cooke, editor and publisher of The Rockdale Reporter since 1981, began his newspaper career very early in life by hand-feeding presses, sweeping the building, making deliveries and handling many other chores around the Reporter offices.

He is the third generation of his family to be involved with the newspaper, as it was purchased in 1911 by his grandfather, John Esten Cooke. His father, W.H. Cooke

joined the newspaper staff in 1930 and became publisher in 1936.

Bill Cooke is a 1959 graduate of the journalism department of North Texas State University

where he received the Outstanding Senior Journalism Award. He had worked through the years with his father on The Reporter and joined the Reporter as news editor in January 1959 after serving six months active duty in the National Guard. He was re-called into active duty with the 49th Armored Division during the Berlin Crisis where he served in the Public Information Office on the post newspaper at Fort Polk, La.

He and Peggy Adams Cooke were married in December, 1957 and they are the parents of four children, Kathy Cooke Phillips, Kyle W.  Cooke, Ken Esten Cooke and Kevin Adams Cooke. Peggy Cooke is a recent past president of the South Texas Press Association.

Bill Cooke returned to the Reporter in October 1962 and became editor and co-publisher in 1970. He became editor/publisher in 1981, purchasing his father's interest in the paper. A fourth generation, Ken Esten Cooke, joined the newspaper staff in 1995 and is involved with news coverage and web site and other tech responsibilities. Daughter Kathy Cooke Phillips also is employed in the advertising department.

Bill Cooke served as treasurer of the Texas Press Association and is a past director of the South Texas Press Association. He is past-president of the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce, served as a director of the Industrial Foundation, is newsletter editor for the local Rotary Club, is a past hospital board member and has been involved in many other civic duties in Rockdale. He is an active member of St. John's United Methodist Church and has served in various capacities for the church.

Through all four generations, the Rockdale Reporter has been a consistent winner in Texas Press Association and South Texas Press Association newspaper contests, winning "Best All Around" Awards at STPA for eight years.

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A.C. "Ace" Kincheloe

On June 17, 2001, A.C. "Ace" Kincheloe celebrated his 50th year as an employee of The Llano News.

Kincheloe started on that day in 1951 for then publisher the late Will Collins. His first assignment?

Print two boxes of #10 envelopes on a Snapper Press.

Kincheloe spent 40 years as a "printer" at the newspaper. He has spent the last 10 setting ads, working in composing and running the mail room.

An old Linotype machine, which still looms in the back of the newsroom, was Kincheloe's avocation and love. Even today, he remembers making the transfer to offset and sadly recalls retiring the letter press.

"It used to take us three days to print an eight-page paper," Kincheloe said. "Once, in 1956 on Llano's Centennial, we printed a 44-page paper. It took us three months to get it printed."

He recalled that time was running out and they were forced to take some of the pages to an eight-page press in Georgetown.

Over the years, Kincheloe has worked under six different publishers.

After Collins, publishers at the News included John Cordwell, Lewis Reddell, Hal Cunningham,Walter Buckner and finally Ken Wesner, the current publisher of The Llano News.

Kincheloe, 77, married Jo in 1948. They have two daughters, Beverly Inman (husband Valton) and Sandy Utterback (husband Gen. Chip Utterback), seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He served for 28 months active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps in Guadalcanal, Guam and Okinawa.

He is a past post commander of the VFW and is an active member in the Masonic Lodge. He is an active golfer and is a member of First Baptist Church in Llano.

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Gene Snyder

Gene Snyder, publisher of the Denver City Press, began his newspaper career in 1939, hand-spiking heads for his father's newspaper, the Cherokee Courier, in Cherokee, Iowa.

The one Linotype in the printing plant had only three magazines, with 8, 10, and 14 point mags, so any larger type than 14 point had to be hand set from the old California type cases.

Snyder graduated to the Linotype machine when he was 11, and when he was the ripe old age of 12, he was featured in the Linotype News, a publication of Mergenthaler Linotype Co., as one of the youngest Linotype operators in the country.

Snyder, whose grandfather was a pioneer newspaperman in Western Wisconsin at the turn of the 20th century, moved with his family to California in 1951, where the family purchased the Lodi Times. He continued his work as foreman of mechanical and photography departments after spending 18 months in Japan in the employ of Uncle Sam, until 1955.

The family sold the Times in 1955, and Snyder and his older brother, Cal, purchased the Denver City Press in Denver City, Texas. The brothers purchased the Morton Tribune in 1961, and Gene moved to Morton at that time as publisher of that newspaper.

Following Cal's death in 1963, Gene purchased his brother's interests in the two newspapers from Cal's widow, and became sole owner of both papers. He sold the Morton Tribune in 1968.

Snyder has served several terms as director of the West Texas Association and the Press has won numerous area and statewide awards as well as local honors for the newspaper's dedication to its community.

Snyder's daughter, Elizabeth Sanders, has joined him at the Denver City Press, and a granddaughter, Brenna, an eighth-grader, a fifth generation, is now learning composition at the Press.

SARAH GREENE

Sarah Greene received her bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in May 1949 and went to work as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News in June. So that began her formal association with the newspaper business.

Her newspaper career actually started more than a decade earlier, however, when she had her first jobs at the family newspaper, The Gilmer Mirror, then a daily.

"Most subscribers paid by the month and I walked from door-to-door collecting a 10 percent commission. When the occasional subscriber forked over $5 for a year I got an early taste of how slot machine players feel on hitting a jackpot," Greene said. She also recalls the excitement of being her father's "runner" with election returns from courthouse to newspaper office when he reported Democratic primary results ("tantamount to election," newspapers always noted then) to the Texas Election Bureau. Learning to do "single wrap" in the mail room, and failing to persuade her father to teach her the Linotype machine are other memories.

During World War II, when the absence of advertising lead to cutting back The Mirror from a daily to weekly publication, the staff dwindled down to a basic two -her parents, Russell and Georgia Laschinger. These were Sarah's high school years and she remembers telling her mother that she would never go into the newspaper business for she never meant to work that hard.

She went to Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., for two years. It was not until her junior year at UT that she capitulated into the journalism news sequence. She recalls volunteer work on the Daily Texan, late night trips to the campus press as news editor to put the paper to bed and reporting experiences that proved invaluable when she hit. the job market.

Greene moved to Fort Worth in 1952 after her marriage to UT classmate Ray H. Greene, then a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter. That ended her daily career. So it was a pleasant surprise in 1996 when the Association for Women Journalists, at a banquet in Dallas, honored her and 89 other "trailblazers" with a "Woman of Courage" award for showing "leadership, tenacity and integrity in working to improve conditions for women both in and out of the profession."'

In 1953 Sarah and Ray accepted her parents' invitation to join The Mirror, as they themselves had done in 1923 when invited by Georgia's-father, George Tucker, who bought the weekly newspaper in 1915 and took it daily.

While the Greene children, Sally and Russ, were small she worked mostly as a reporter, feature writer and proof reader, gradually taking on more duties as they grew up. She became co-publisher after the death of her father in 1974, and remains active as publisher today.

Representing the fourth generation, her son, Russ, now shares duties on the news and business side; daughter, Sally, is vice resident of the family corporation and sends in a regular column by email. She lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., with her husband, Paul Jones, and son, Tucker, 6.

"I appreciate. that the community newspaper business has given me the opportunity to be where the action is, and to promote my town and county," Greene said. She has served on numerous boards, been president of the Upshur County Chamber of Commerce and has various awards on her office wall, a side effect which, she says, goes with the territory. Since 1971 she has been a director of Gilmer National Bank.

Milestones have been The Mirror's conversion to semiweekly in 1983, and publishing on the Internet this year.

Greene is proud to be a founding director of the Historic Upshur Museum and the Upshur County Arts Council, which provides a performing arts season at the new Upshur County Civic Center another project close to the publisher's heart.

Since The Mirror is the oldest business institution in Upshur County, Greene has naturally had an interest in local history and folklore. She has presented papers for the Texas Folklore Society, of which she served as president in 1985, the Texas State Historical Association and the East Texas Historical Association.

Greene attended her first Texas Press Association convention in 1949, when she met her parents in Galveston. Dinner at the Balinese Room, reached by walking through a casino, was her most lasting memory. But before another decade had passed, she had learned how essential the association would be in keeping her abreast of our unique industry.

Regular attendance at the North and East Texas Press Association conventions lead to her being a director and, in 1986, president. She served on the board and the ladder of offices before becoming TPA president in 1986. She was the TPA representative to the National Newspaper Association for three years, ending with the 1997 Fort Worth convention when Roy Eaton was NNA president.

"Working with Lyndell Williams and the friendly, efficient staff made all the jobs a pleasure," she said.

Many of her most cherished friendships also were formed in the three associations. Committee meetings, conventions and conferences have given her the chance to travel to interesting destinations in Texas and beyond. Many times she uses the excuse to detour by North Carolina, home of her only grandchild:

"Looking back on full, interesting years, I don't find writing a news story much easier than it was 50 years ago. But I have developed an unerring eye for which envelopes contain checks and which are junk mail," Greene said.

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DONALD SLOAN

On April 1, 1949, Donald Sloan began work as a printer's devil at the San Saba Star The job required sweeping, washing windows, cleaning up metal shavings under the Linotype and melting lead into pigs to be used over again the following week.

In those days, Sloan said, he and his peers worked for very little to have the privilege of being associated with a newspaper. After school on Wednesdays, he said they would work all night to print the paper on a hand-sheet fed Cranston press, four pages at a time.

After the paper was printed it was hand-fed through a folder. The circulation list was placed on a galley consisting of Linotype slugs and hand inked with a roller and each paper had the subscriber's named placed on it.

"Back then the paper was bundled in alphabetical order and next day delivery by the post office. No problems with the Postal Service back then," Sloan said.

The backbone of the newspaper at the time was the Linotype operator. He said it took years to manage to operate this 96-key machine.

In those days we were very dedicated to our work. There was no competition because you had to know the trade and it usually took about 10 years to acquire the knowledge.

"Today, a kid can start a newspaper overnight with a computer and call it total market coverage," Sloan said.

Tramp printers were very common in those days, moving from town to town, only working long enough to buy something to drink and then move on, he remembered.

Sloan finally advanced into hand-setting type, feeding a job press and Linotype machinist. He was called on by neighboring towns to assist when a machine broke down.

"I have seen the newspaper industry go from hot type to Justowriters, Compugraphics and computers," he said. "These are just a few of my 50 years experience in the newspaper industry, which most of the younger generation will not be able to understand."

The San Saba Star was consolidated with the San Saba News and now is called San Saba News & Star Donald Sloan and Gail, his wife of 45 years, own the publication. On March 5, 1999 he celebrated his 65th birthday.

"I can probably say I have been in the same location for 50 years," Sloan said.

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JOYCE ATKINS LATCHAM

Joyce Atkins Latcham started in the newspaper business shortly after World War II and she continues to write a weekly column today.

She is the daughter of the late, George H. Atkins longtime publisher of the Beeville Picayune and then the Beeville Bee-Picayune following the two newspapers' merger in 1928. The newspaper has been in the family since 1907, but the Picayune was purchased by her grandfather, Thomas Atkins, before 1947 Joyce Atkins the turn of the century. He later sold it, and his son bought it back.

A 1939 graduate of Beeville's A.C. Jones High School, Ms. Atkins enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin at age 16. There she earned a bachelor of arts, majoring in Spanish and minoring in Portuguese. She achieved membership in Phi Beta Kappa honorary society.

During World War II, Ms. Atkins went to Washington, D.C., where she worked in the Nelson Rockefeller offices of InterAmerican Affairs. She translated speeches for the Brazilian consultant to the United States.

At the end of the war, she returned to Beeville in 1947 and took her place on the staff of the Bee-Picayune as general news reporter and author of a popular column called "Buzzin' Around," which she writes to this day.

She also submits the "50 Years Ago" column, which appears on the editorial page every Wednesday, and writes and edits much of the club news in the Family Focus section.

She married Fred C. Latcham Jr. in 1953 and, except for breaks to take care of her two sons Chip and Jeff Latcham, she has filled any position at the newspaper office where she was needed. She served temporarily as editor while the staff sought a permanent replacement after the death of Camp Ezell, who had held the job for more than 30 years.

Mrs. Latcham continues to work at Beeville Publishing Co. almost every day and staff members say she "is a valuable asset as the office historian, remembering many facts about the city and its families."

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H.V. O'Brien

H.V. O'Brien's newspaper career began with a walking delivery of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Carbon in the 1940s while he was still in high school.

"I think I remember 20 or 30 customers. In the summers, I sold subscriptions to the Eastland Telegram for O.H. Dick and with each order he gave a two-place setting of hand-painted Mexican pottery dinnerware," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said his good hand-to-eye coordination earned him good marks in typing and a good impression with his typing teacher who helped him get his first job with J.W. Sitton at Cisco Press counting out papers to the carriers and collecting and tallying their money.

"Sitton also recognized that if I was ever able to make a go of it, I needed to learn a trade, so he sat me down to an old Model 14 Linotype machine and very patiently exhorted me to learn a good for-a-lifetime skill," he said. "After many magazine dumps, hot metal squirts and smashed fingers, I finally became fairly proficient and finished the junior college work, as well as providing a livelihood for myself and my widowed mother."

O'Brien then went to work in the circulation department at the Abilene Reporter-News so he could continue college.

"Since I'd come out of a country shop, I'd been exposed to everything and did well there," he said. He later moved up to the tape punching machine on the night shift and the correction mill where he set agate baseball scores "by what seemed to be the dozens."

After graduating in 1953, O'Brien entered the Army for basic training in El Paso. When re-enlistment time came, he didn't, and instead went back to the Reporter-News, finally making scale pay as an operator. When he married, O'Brien went back to night shifts as a cub reporter, eventually working his way up to military editor.

O'Brien then returned to Eastland as manager/editor of the Telegram and after seven years bought that paper, Ranger Times and Cisco Press from Sitton in 1968.

He remodeled the Telegram building, bought an offset press and moved printing of all three papers to Eastland in 1971.

He later bought the Rising Star and in 1985, moved into a new building and added the Callahan County Star to his group, Eastland/Callahan Co. Newspapers.

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TED ROGERS

As a teen-ager in 1932, Ted Rogers had routes with The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Press in his hometown Breckenridge.

Little did he realize then that he would be a vital part of the newspaper business for years to come and participate in most of the major revolutionary developments in newspaper printing.

In 1936, he worked for the Breckenridge American, doing all the things that beginners in "hot shops" did in those days: mail hand, janitor, press helper and printer's devil.

He became proficient on the flatbed Duplex and moved over to the Cisco Press in 1940 as a pressman, working for AB. O'Flourdy and with Benny Butler and Truett LaRoque.

Like many others, he left a job in 1942 and became a serviceman, serving in the U.S. Navy in the Far Pacific until his discharge in 1945.

Having seen a major part of the world, he branched out and found a pressman's job at the Odessa American for a year and then was at the Borger Herald as pressman for another year. He went to Las Cruces, N.M., and was a pressman for the Sun News before returning to the Cisco Press in 1950.

In 1961, J.W. Sitton, publisher of the Press, bought the Eastland Telegram and Ranger Times and moved the printing from Ranger to the Cisco plant. This tripled Rogers' responsibilities, but he did find time to get married in 1965.

The Press had for many years printed three issues a week, but Sitton killed the Tuesday paper so the Press, Telegram and Times were each printed twice a week.

Ownership of the papers changed in 1965 but the printing cycle remained the same for Rogers until 1971 when he was expected to forget all he knew about hot metal printing and learn the new offset printing, which added water to the printing process.

He has remained steadfast and always been ready when it was press day. Since 1932, Ted Rogers has been a good and faithful newspaper person into the second quarter of 1999.

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James H. Winter

James H. Winter, owner and publisher of The Bowie News, began his newspaper career in 1947 at The Western Observer in Anson while still a student at Abilene Christian University and Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

Following graduation from Hardin-Simmons in 1950, Winter worked for the Winters Enterprise and worked briefly for the Rosenberg Herald as advertising manager before moving back to Abilene in 1952.

He began as a retail advertising salesman for the Abilene Reporter-News and later was named retail advertising manager of the Harte-Hanks flagship newspaper.

The "I want to own my own newspaper" bug bit nine years after he joined the Abilene paper so he purchased the Mason County News in 1963. Two years later he bought The Bowie News where he has been owner and publisher. The Bowie News is a twice-weekly newspaper with a paid circulation of 4500.

The paper also publishes the Adviser, a total market coverage product with circulation in Montague and Wise Counties. Bowie is the largest city in Montague County, located between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls on U.S. 81/287. Winter graduated from Merkel High School in 1942 and served in the U.S. Army in the Southwest Pacific in World War II. He served as an infantry sergeant in the American Division on the Solomon Islands and in the Philippines. He received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Infantry Badge for his military service.

Winter is the father of three sons and a daughter. His oldest son, Norman, is with Mississippi State University, James Michael is executive vice president of marketing at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Lance is the publisher of The Colorado County Citizen in Columbus. His daughter, Susan, works for Texas Christian University.

He has been active in the Bowie Chamber of Commerce, the Bowie High School Jackrabbit Club and has provided community wide leadership on water and parks issues.

Winter and his wife, Connie, are active members of the First Baptist Church in Bowie.

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W.H. "BILL" ELLMAN

W.H. "Bill" Ellman had his first job in the newspaper business at age 16.

"I used to deliver handbills door-to-door for a small store in Federalsburg, Md.," Ellman said. "I'd have to go by the newspaper office to pick up them up. When I saw the Linotype machine, I was hooked. It just fascinated me. As soon as I graduated high school at age 16, I went back there to get a job," he said.

"They didn't let me start out on the Linotype machine, though," Ellman said. "I started out as a printer's devil, sweeping floors and melting metal."

His journalism career was interrupted early on when World War II broke out. After a two-year stint in the Army, Ellman returned to newspaper work.

"I've always worked in weeklies," he said. "I just can't stand the big papers because they categorize you."

In 1950 Ellman worked as printer at the Town and Country News in New Braunfels. He worked there one year, setting type with hot lead, before moving on to the Williamson County Sun in Georgetown, north of Austin.

In 1958, Ellman went back to the New Braunfels paper, purchased it and turned it from a free-circulation paper into a paid-subscription paper. "I had to do that before the Texas Press Association would let me join," Ellman said.

The winds of fate are fickle though, and after a financial shake-up, Ellman left New Braunfels to become managing editor of the Overton Press in 1963. Ellman, whose philosophy is "it's no shame to fail, only to quit," became the owner of the Press after the previous owner, George Manning, passed away. The Overton Press sold in 1987.

Ten years ago, in March of 1988, Ellman and his wife Glynda, began the Tri County Leader in Whitehouse, as newlyweds. The Leader replaced the two previous newspapers, the Troup Banner and the Whitehouse Journal.

Among his credits, Ellman currently serves as the first vice president in the North and East Texas Press Association, and is on the board of the Texas Press Association.

He has served as president of the Overton and the Troup Rotary Club; past president of the Overton Chamber of Commerce and a recipient of its Citizen of the Year award; past commander of the Troup Veteran of Foreign Wars post and current senior vice commander; past chairman of the Whitehouse library board; current secretary of the YesterYear organization; and past director on the board of the Whitehouse Chamber of Commerce.

Sammie Franklin

Over the last 50 years, owners and editors have come and gone at the Pleasanton Express. Computers have replaced typewriters and hot-lead composition has given way to cold type and offset printing.

And one outstanding staffer has been there for it all: Sammie Franklin.

Franklin, 70, joined the Express in 1947, five years after contracting polio and losing full use of her legs and leaving her with limited use of her hands. Though she uses a wheelchair, she has refused to acknowledge barriers in pursuit of a story - or in life.

Her first job was as Poteet correspondent. "At that time, the paper was so rural you wouldn't believe it," Franklin recalled. "Nothing was too small - new babies, weddings, and of course, obituaries, where the Joneses went for vacation and who spoke at the Rotary Club."

Through the years, she has become especially well known and appreciated for her detailed wedding stories. "When you read her wedding story, you know you're married," said Bill Wilkerson, publisher of the Express since 1975.

"A small newspaper does a lot more than a big city newspaper for a couple getting married," Franklin explained. "People involved are your friends and neighbors, and they want something more than just their names in the paper.

"I often think they'll stay together and on their 50th anniversary they'll read this and their grandchildren will read it."

Franklin combs South Texas for stories of rural life and times, and though she moved to Midland in March 1996, she continues to write stories for the Express.

Express editor Jerry Black said he can't remember the last time anything but a computer problem kept Franklin from making a deadline.

Franklin said she will keep writing "as long as I can type, I guess" which means using two pencils with new erasers "for good traction" to tap out her stories on her computer keyboard.

"I have no plans to retire. What else would I do?" she asked.

"I'm like an old fire horse. When the fire bell rings, they go beserk. And I cannot let a telephone go unanswered. It might be the next big story."

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Antonio Herrera Mendoza

Antonio Herrera Mendoza began working at The Hondo Anvil Herald on Sept. 16, 1946, about four months after Jerry and Bill Berger purchased the publication. Except for his military service in Europe during the Korean War (while his younger brother Alex was serving in Korea), his entire career has been with The Anvil Herald.

Everyone knows him as Tony, and he has attended many press conventions, especially South Texas Press Association meetings.

Tony has two sons, Ted Anthony Mendoza, who is the father of his grandson Jacob Anthony, 3, and Michael A. Mendoza, who fathered his granddaughters, Mercedes, 9, and Olivia, six months old.

Tony's first job was cleaning and sorting leads and slugs, and throwing in hand set type. All headlines and most of the ads were composed with handset type when he started. He also remelted the metal and cast the Linotype pigs. He soon graduated to running the Linotype, feeding presses and helping with all facets of the old hot metal newspaper operation.

He learned every phase of job printing, and ran platen presses ranging from 9 x 12 size up to the Miehie Vertical. When new technology came along, he learned maintenance of the Compugraphics. He also took and developed pictures sold advertising.

Early one morning, at 4:35 to be exact, he learned about Linotype squirts the hard way. Molten metal went all the way to the ceiling, and some of it landed on his head, leaving him with a small bald spot, which remains to this day an unwanted souvenir.

Tony has taught the printing trade to many apprentices, everything from the Linotype to bookbinding. He now operates a small offset press along with some of the old presses, and even pitched in during the difficult days of starting up the web offset plant located in Hondo and jointly owned by the Pleasanton Express and the Uvalde Leader-News. The plant now produces up to 17 publications.

Tony can explain type lice, and the bones once used for hand folding the newspapers. He has also found time to serve for several years in the Air Force Reserves with the 433rd wing at Kelly Field. He has been commander of his American Legion post, and is a long-time member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Hondo.

His current duties include supervision of the printing department and circulation department of The Anvil Herald.

He recalls helping Jerry Berger run the old newspaper folding machine, which required two feeders whenever there were more than eight pages in the section.

Tony's newspaper experience runs from the old hot metal days to today's pasted up pages - and he says the new way is a lot easier on his back. All those night sessions making up pages and feeding the press are a thing of the past, but late hours are still part of his routine because of his circulation duties every Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

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Wendell Tooley

Although Wendell Tooley received more than 50 press association awards while editor and publisher of The Floyd County Hesperian and The Tulia Herald, his greatest contribution to journalism and newspapers was probably the establishment of three offset printing plants.

Blanco Offset at Floydada, Brazos Offset at Slaton and Palo Duro Offset at Canyon, print over 55 newspapers and publications per week.

Tooley was also a stockholder in the second offset printing plant in the Panhandle of Texas, Southwest Offset in Hereford. His partners were Jimmy Gillentine, Sam Williams, Bill Turner and Troy Martin.

Tooley's greatest honor was his selection by his peers into the Panhandle Press Association's Hall of Fame in Amarillo.

He owned all or part of several weekly newspapers at Littlefield, Floydada, Lockney, Crosbyton, Olton, Slaton, Tahoka and Canyon.

He wrote a weekly column "Caprock Chat" every week at The Hesperian and "Country Editor" at the Tulia Herald.

He usually wrote an editorial also. His most controversial and successful editorial campaigns caused the school board in Floydada to fully integrate the school system and helped to prevent the Department of Energy from digging a nuclear waste repository in Swisher County.

Upon graduation from Kress High School in 1944, Tooley's newspaper career began with a job at The Plainview Daily Herald sweeping the floor and delivering office supplies.

He then attended McMurry University for a year before being drafted into the U.S. Army where he served in the 38th Regimental ski and mountain troops.

When released from service he completed his bachelor of science in journalism at McMurry in 1949. He worked nightside at the Abilene Reporter News while at McMurry.

After McMurry, he and his wife, Mary Tom, spent a year in Missouri where he received his master's degree in advertising from the University of Missouri. He worked part time for Brown's Advertising Agency while in Missouri.

In 1950 he was back at The Plainview Daily Herald in the display advertising department.

In 1955 and 1956 he was professor of advertising art Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash.

He returned to the Daily Herald as advertising manager.

In 1958 the Tooleys moved to Littlefield when newspaper publisher Sam Williams offered him a chance to buy stock in the Littlefield newspapers. He was a partner with Bill Turner and Williams until 1963, when he sold his stock to Dick Reavis.

The Tooleys moved to Floydada when they purchased The Floyd County Hesperian from Syl McBeath, picking up McBeath's note to longtime Floydada publisher Homer Steen.

While at Floydada he and Speedy Nieman bought the Slaton Slatonite. Tooley also bought the Tahoka newspaper from Frank Hill and the Crosbyton newspaper from Hubert Curry. He later traded Crosbyton to Jim Reynolds and converted Floydada and Lockney into a twice-weekly.

In 1979 he sold The Hesperian to the Bluebonnet group and bought the Tulia Herald from H.M. Baggarly. He was editor-publisher of the Tulia Herald until 1992 when Reynolds became editor and co-publisher. Then Tooley taught a semester of journalism at West Texas A&M University in Canyon.

Reynolds published The Herald until Tooley sold it to Chris Russett in 1994.

Tooley remains president of the three printing plants and a partner in the Canyon News. He sold the Slatonite to Jim Davis in 1996.

He was president of the Panhandle Press Association; served on the Texas Press Association and West Texas Press Association boards. He has served on the United Methodist Reporter board in Dallas for over 20 years and the McMurry University board for over 20 years. He was on the Texas Tech Mass Communications School advisory board for six years.

In closing, Tooley pays tribute to his wife of 48 years, Mary Tom Kirk, a Methodist minister's daughter he found at McMurry. She has worked for the Tooley newspapers, taught school and is a fantastic homemaker.

Tooley adds, "I'm also extremely proud of our children." Brad is editor-publisher of the Canyon News; Keith, editor publisher of North Lake Travis Log; Karla and Chuck Hutchison, publishers of the Thrifty Nickel in Abilene; and Wendy and Kent Bridenstine, stockholders and manager of Palo Duro Offset in Canyon.

Wendell and Mary Tom sang in the Methodist choir 38 years, and he has held about every office in the church. He is a past president of Rotary, Kiwanis and chamber of commerce.

The couple has traveled to over 20 foreign countries, now seeing the U.S. in an RV. They have seen it all except two states. Mary Tom is an accomplished artist. Wendell plays tennis, golf, fishes and plays guitar. They sing gospel at church and RV camps.

Oh yes The Tooleys have seven grandchildren!

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Richard E. "Dick" Dwelle

Richard E. "Dick" Dwelle's 50 years in the newspaper business began in 1946, a month after he was discharged from the U.S. Army.

A community leader and active Presbyterian, Dwelle has always been "the guy everybody comes to when there is a job to be done. Then, without waiting, he turns to the next task," it was written of him in 1979 in The Southlander, a publication of St. Regis Paper Company.

In June 1946, Dwelle moved his wife, Peggy, and daughter, Donna, to Kermit, where he was named c publisher of the Winkler County News. It was there he began his long, successful career.

In January 1949, he moved the family to Athens, having purchased the Athens Daily Review from his father-in-law, Meyer M. Donosky Mr. Donosky previously had served as treasurer and member of the board of director of the A.H. Belo Corp., publisher of the Dallas Morning News, and was instrumental in the establishment of Southland Paper Mills.

Dwelle published the Daily Review from 1949 to 1986, and was joined as co-publisher by his son, Dan, during that span.

He sold the Daily Review to Donrey Media Group in 1986, but went on to serve as a consultant to Donrey from 1986 to 1994. Since 1994, Dwelle has been an editorial writer for the Daily Review.

A few of his many accomplishments include the bachelor of arts degree he earned in 1943 from Rice University; his being named All-Southwest Conference tailback in 1942; his World War II military service with the 83rd and 42nd Infantry Divisions in Europe, in which he attained the rank of captain; and his being named Athens Citizen of the Year in 1971.

Dwelle, a past president of the North and East Texas Press Association, formerly served as a board member of TDNA and TPA. He is a former member of the board of the Athens Literacy Group, and is a past district chairman of the Boy Scouts of America.

He has co-owned many newspapers, in addition to the Daily Review, including: the Marlin Daily Democrat and Marlin Weekly Democrat, 1960-81; Winkler County News, Wink Bulletin, Jal (N.M.) Record and Eunice (N.M.) Press, through 1987; and the Athens Weekly Review, Malakoff News and Cedar Creek Pilot, through 1986.

In addition to their son, Dan, current publisher of the Daily Review and division manager of Donrey Media Group, the Dwelles have a daughter, Donna Dwelle-Marchum of Houston.

In 1980, Dwelle was presented Texas Daily Newspaper Association's Pat Thggart Texas Newspaper Leader of the Year Award.

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Paul I. Griffith Jr.

Paul I. Griffith Jr. was in the newspaper business at the Cleburne Times-Review for more than 50 years until his retirement this year, climbing from sales manager to publisher.

At an early age, Griffith showed a talent for music and graduated from the Harris School of Music, playing trumpet in his high school band. He played trumpet for four years while attending Southern Methodist University.

He met Margaret Spruce at SMU and they married in 1941. After war was declared on Japan, he entered military service spending one year in Guadacanal, where the first South Pacific battle was fought. He wound up in a military hospital in Longview, Texas with jungle rot.

After the war, Griffith came back to Dallas without a job. His uncle, William Rawland, owner of the Times-Review, asked him to come to work for him.

Griffith was hired as advertising manager in 1945. He recalls selling advertising for 35-cents a column inch. He also got to write a weekly hunting and fishing column.

The Times-Review was sold by Rawland in 1976 to the Donrey Media Group, which owns 53 newspapers across the United States.

Rawland, though no longer the owner of the paper, still comes to the office each day as he has for the past 62 years. He says Griffith was an excellent advertising manager. "He was strong on public relations and a very good newspaperman. I was pleased when he was promoted to publisher."

Bill Rice, current general manager of the Tunes-Review, sees Paul Griffith Jr. as his mentor. "I learned a great deal from this man," he said. "Whatever I might say about him could never be enough."

 Once an avid golfer, Griffith's favorite assignment was covering the Colonial Invitational Golf Tournament in Fort Worth, which he covered for 49 years. "I've had four heart surgeries since July, but I still wish I could cover the Colonial this year," he said.

Married for 55 years, the Griffiths have three children: Paul I. Griffith III, of Whitney; Peggy Griffith Rawls, of near San Francisco; and Spruce Griffith of Cleburne. They have six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

"Before I started work here at the newspaper, I had an interview with the Dallas Morning News. They told me to work awhile at a smaller paper and then come back and see them. I never did. This is what I wanted. I stayed for 50 years," Griffin concluded.

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Vernon Greer

Vernon Greer has not only been in the newspaper business for 50 years, he's been at the same newspaper  -- The Clay County Leader. Greer was born in 1932, the same year the Leader began publication.

Soon after his family moved from Fort Worth to Henrietta in the summer of 1945, Greer, then 12, showed up at the Leader office where he began hanging around and cleaning up. Soon he was running errands for D.H. "Uncle Dave" Germany, who was running the paper for the owner, T.B. O'Bryan Sr., who was ill and died soon after.

Greer wasn't on the payroll at first, but when he was sent to pick up sandwiches, they included one for him.

He eventually graduated to putting the hand-set type back in its cases, and was paid $4.50 a week, working after school.

Tom O'Bryan Jr., who worked in the production department of the Wichita Falls Times and Record News, helped his mother run the paper until it could be sold to Jerry Sitton in 1946.

In 1948, the Leader was sold to Jack Wettengal and Ross Strader. Wettengal subsequently bought out Strader in 1950. The rival Henrietta Independent, which had been purchased by the Leader in 1945, was published simultaneously for a period, and finally consolidated into one newspaper during Greer's tenure. That was where he first learned to run a Linotype while helping to put out the Independent, which was an eight-page paper with four pages preprinted. Wettengal ceased publishing the Independent soon after acquiring the papers.

Greer served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955, during which time the Leader moved from the east side of the courthouse square to its present home on the north side.

It was also during the mid-1950s that the Leader acquired a Heidelberg press that Greer still operates today.

Greer got another new boss in 1961 when Bill and JoAnn Glassford of Morton made Wettengal an offer he couldn't refuse.

By then Greer was proficient on the Linotype machines that set the hot type for the Leader, and running the Babcock letter press and folder in the back shop.

The Leader switched to cold type, shutting down the Babcock in 1975 and taking the pages to Wichita Falls 20 miles away for printing on an offset press.

Like most small papers, the Leader went through the photo typesetting days, then switched to desk top computer publishing in 1987. Greer kept abreast of the changes every step of the way.

He began another longtime association in 1980 when Lewis Simmons s hired as editor, and Glassford scaled back his role in the paper, retaining the publisher's title.

Glassford sold the paper to Phil and Lesa Major in 1995. Glassford retired after 49 years in the newspaper business.

Greer was honored with a reception in September 1995 for his 50 years' service to the Leader. Along with the Glassfords, Jack and Wynona Wettengal and ibm O'Bryan Jr. attended.

 Today Greer still sets the ads and job work on a Macintosh, but you'll occasionally find him setting a hot type job on the Linotype, still in perfect working order. He prints job work on the Heidelberg, also utilizing the Leader's extensive collection of hand-set type, and farms out other offset jobs. He still handles page paste-up, a much simpler task since the Leader went to pagination and photo scanning earlier this year.

Greer is in charge of the weekly mailing on Wednesday, and is Mr. Find and Mr. Fix It around the office.

He is also a devoted husband, making the thrice daily trip to feed his wife, Frankie, at a local nursing home. That's why he can't be here today to accept this honor.

Frankie, whom Greer married 13 years ago, is a former Linotype operator at the Leader, where she worked for 20 years beginning in the mid-1950s.

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Earl Gwinn

On April 1, 1946, Earl Gwinn went to work at the Baylor County Banner in Seymour and has been with the Banner Publishing Company ever since.

He was born in Seymour in 1922, but was raised in Phoenix, Ariz., where he received his first newspaper experience as a carrier for the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette.

Following graduation from school, he entered the U.S. Navy in February 1943, served in the South Pacific, and was honorably discharged in February 1946. Hope for a career in the newspaper business came while Gwinn was in the Navy. His brother, Kloyce, and his friend, Doyce Mouse, co-owned and operated the Firestone store in Seymour.

"Kloyce kept writing me to come back to Seymour, as I could go to work at the Banner Publishing Company. Hankering to see where I was born, I returned to Seymour and went to work at the newspaper," Gwinn said.

When Gwinn joined the newspaper, 0. C. Harrison and Gene Carter were co-owners with Harrison serving as editor. After a few years, Harrison bought out Carter's 49.5 percent of the stock in the company and sold Carter's shares to Gwinn and Bill Unsell.

Harrison died in 1967 and Unsell and Gwinn purchased Harrison's interest and Gwinn became editor. In 1979, Unsell died. Gwinn purchased his stock and became sole owner of the company.

He's been a strong supporter of his community for decades. He is proud of his 36 years of perfect attendance at his Lions Club. He is a past president of the Seymour Chamber of Commerce, and in 1986, the chamber named him outstanding citizen of the year. Last July, he put out a special edition celebrating The Banner's 100th birthday. Gwinn said he is looking forward to the 100th Annual Old Settlers Reunion and Rodeo, July 11-13, in Seymour.

Today, Gwinn continues to work hard in the newspaper business, as he has for 50 years, even though hampered with arthritis that's made him live with artificial hips and an artificial knee.

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Ed Haby

Ed Haby, manager of Hornby Press, celebrated his 50th year in the newspaper business in March. The presses he knows so well are in the back of the Uwlde Leader-News building.

After he served four years in the U.S. Army, Haby came home to Uvalde in 1946. He learned commercial printing at Hornby press, under the G.I. Bill. Haby's brother, James, was the printer. At the time, H.P. Hornby Sr. was in the process of turning over the newspaper and printing company to his son and daughter-in-law, Harry and Kathryn Hornby.

In 1955, Haby learned to use a camera and took on added duties as a photographer and darkroom worker for the Leader-News. He has taken many memorable photos over the years, including one of Ronald Reagan, when he spoke to the Uvalde Chamber of Commerce before he was elected president. He also shot 8mm movies of John Nance Garner's 90th birthday celebration and of the former vice president's funeral.

In 1957, Hornby press purchased a new offset press; it was the only new machine Haby has had to learn to operate.

Haby has taught the printing trade to many apprentices, instructing them on how to run offset presses and bind books. And though the Haby brothers only worked with the commercial printing done by Hornby Press, they usually were on hand on press night at the Leader-News. Ed Haby sometimes helped with folding newspapers and preparing them for delivery. For many years, he delivered newspapers around Uvalde, beginning at 5 a.m. and getting through in time to get to work at Hornby Press at 8 a.m.

Today, Haby is the manager and only employee of Hornby Press and his services are indispensable, says Leader-News publisher Craig Garnett. "In recent years, Ed's talked more about retiring altogether, but we simply refuse to let him go. In addition to being a talented printer, he is a delightful man in all regards. He's hardworking, dependable and the epitome of integrity."

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Emmett H. Whitehead

In November 1945, Emmett Whitehead returned from military service and stepped into the shoes of his father, Emmett H. Whitehead Sr., who had died the February before, as publisher of the Polk County Enterprise in Livingston.

Whitehead, working with his mother, Tommie Lee Whitehead, and sister, Alice Elizabeth Whitehead, assembled the newspaper and used a hot-type press in the basement of the Polk County court house, just as its previous owner, L.R. Wade had done. The Whiteheads supplemented their income with a commercial printing business and went on to purchase the Corrigan Tunes.

In 1948, Whitehead married Marie Hall of Huntsville, and the young couple moved to Rusk when they purchased "Texas' oldest continuously operated weekly," The Rusk Cherokeean, in June 1950. Whitehead, then 24, enjoyed the distinction of being "the youngest publisher of the state's oldest weekly."

In 1952, he purchased The Citizen, a Cushing weekly that he merged with The Cherokeean after publishing it for two years. In 1955, he acquired a radio station serving the Rusk area. He sold the Polk County Enterprise before purchasing the Jacksonville Journal in February 1959 and invested in a web press, replacing the Babcock with a Duplex. He operated the Journal for three years before selling it to his editor, E.B. Jolley, who sold it a few days later to the owners of the Jacksonville Daily Progress.

Whitehead then became a partner in a community antenna television system and in 1964 bought out his partners. In 1966, he converted his publications to offset.

In 1973, he was in his sixth year as mayor of Rusk when he s elected as a state representative. He served eight years in the Texas House.

Whitehead purchased The Alto Herald in August 1978 and the Wells News 'n Views in January 1979. He established radio station KWRW-FM in 1980. In 1988, he sold his cable company. In 1989, he merged the Alto Herald with The Cherokeean and converted to desktop publishing.

Today, he and Marie remain active in the management of their weekly newspapers and radio stations and the farm they purchased in 1964. And, Whitehead's life of public service remains in full swing: last year, he once again was elected mayor of Rusk.