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Obituaries published in the January 2021 edition of the Texas Press Messenger

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Obituaries published in the February 2019 Messenger

-30- January 2016

Stephanie Michelle Cherry Sandoval died Nov. 16, 2015. She was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News until 2009. 

She attended the University of Texas at Arlington. She began working at the Grand Prairie Daily News, part of Dallas-Fort Worth Suburban Newspapers Inc., in 1996 In 2000, she was transferred to The News, when the newspaper consolidated its suburban operations into the Dallas daily. 

-30- July 2015

LYNWOOD ABRAM

Lynwood Abram, a newspaper reporter for most of his 88 years, died June 23, 2015. 

He was born on Oct. 16, 1926, in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1949. He worked for the Houston Chronicle for five decades and was known for beautifully polished and concise stories.

Before joining the Chronicle, he worked for the Austin-American Statesman, the Galveston Daily News, El Paso Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Riverside, CA Press.

CHUCK HLAVA

-30- July 2015

Clara Jo Davis

Clara Jo Davis died Sunday, June 7, 2015 in Athens.

She was a community news writer for the Athens Daily Review for more than 30 years covering the Cross Roads and Shady Oaks areas. Those writings reflected her passion of food, church and her friends.

-30- June 2015

George La Don Hamilton

George La Don Hamilton died April 15, 2015, at age 78. He was known for dedicating much of his life to bettering the small community of Fritch.

Hamilton was born April 6, 1937, in Rifle, Co., to Charlie and Verda Hamilton. He was husband to Fern Sheets.

With his first wife, Cherry Hamilton, he founded The Eagle Press on Aug. 19, 1987. The Eagle Press graduated from the back room of their home to a building he designed and built expressly for the paper. 

-30- May 2015

Claudia Poff Gill

Claudia Gill, 86, of Tuleta, died Sunday, April 12, 2015. 

Gill was born April 18, 1928, in Beeville to Christine Holly Stoftzfus and Dr. C.M. Poff. She married Truman Flournoy Gill in Tuleta on April 28, 1945.

She was a housewife, rancher, retired newspaper reporter and a member of First Presbyterian Church. 

She raised registered Brahman cattle and was a member of the American Brahman Breeders Association. 

Robert Lee Jenson

-30- April 2015

-30-

Mark Engebretson

Mark Engebretson, former editor of the Lake County Sun, died March 22, 2015, in Graham after a battle with cancer. 

Engebretson was born in Stephenville, on Sept. 10, 1947, to Oscar and Ethel Engebretson. 

Nessye Mae Proffitt Roach

Nessye Mae Proffitt Roach, 91, former columnist for the Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch, died Jan. 26, 2015, after a lengthy illness. Her column “Long Ago” ran for 13 years and received an award from West Texas Press Association in 1998.

Roach was born on June 4, 1923, on a ranch near Junction, Texas, after her father rescued the doctor from the flooding Llano River. Her father taught her to ride and train horses and cut cattle. She learned to sing from her mother and to play guitar by listening to the shearing crews and Jimmy Rogers records.

-30- February 2015

JACK D. LOFTIS - Jack D. Loftis, who led the Houston Chronicle newsroom through space shuttle flights, the Enron scandal and the 9/11 terror attacks, died Dec. 29 at the age of 80 after a long illness. Loftis served as the Chronicle’s vice president and editor from 1987 to 2002. Loftis joined the Chronicle in 1965 as a copy editor, often working the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. Soon he was named editor of Texas Magazine, the Chronicle’s Sunday supplement.

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