OBITS - WASHINGTON STAR ALUMNI

Lance Gay; November 20, 2011, SHNS war and Washington correspondent, dead at 67

Lance Gay died last night - his health had been bad for a few weeks. He was taken to the hospital yesterday because he was having trouble breathing-his COPD had gotten worse. No word yet on services. I'm at work and don't have access to anyone else's email (I am guessing Joan's). If you do, can you forward the news. If not, I'll do it when I get home.No word yet on services. -Jody
This is merely a quick notice. Details to follow when we know.

WASHINGTON - Lance Gay, who roamed Washington and the world as a senior correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service for more than two decades, died Sunday at his family's home in Brookville, Md., from respiratory failure. Gay, 67, had retired from Scripps Howard in 2006 but continued researching several historical writing projects in recent years.

Stroube J. Smith, a D.C. native whose long journalism career included service as an editor at U.S. News & World Report and a stint at The Washington Times, died on Oct. 30 in Lewisburg, Pa. He was 77.

Mr. Smith was born Aug. 21, 1934. He attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria and earned an English degree in 1956 from the University of Alabama.

He began his career in 1953 at Alabama's Tuscaloosa News, then moved three years later to the Birmingham News, the state's largest daily paper. Mr. Smith traveled overseas in 1959 to work in Germany for Stars and Stripes, then to Paris to work for the New York Times.

He returned stateside in 1964 to work for the now-defunct Washington Star, then went on to work for 20 years at U.S. News, for which he was a senior editor and columnist on regulatory and federal court issues.

Mr. Smith worked on the copy desk of The Washington Times from the early 1980s through 2005. He retired from full-time journalism in 1992, marking a nearly 40-year career in the industry.

John Anthony Neary Jr., ex-LIFE Magazine reporter who later took up metalsmithing, dies at 74

TESUQUE, N.M. — A family member says John Anthony Neary Jr., a journalist who worked as a LIFE magazine reporter and editor and later took up metalsmithing, has died.

Ben Neary, an Associated Press reporter in Wyoming, said his father died Friday at the family home in Tesuque of complications from cancer. He was 74.

A native of suburban Baltimore, John Anthony Neary Jr., began his career at the Washington Star and joined LIFE magazine in 1961. He was known for writing the 1969 LIFE cover story, "The Magical McCartney Mystery," about the hoax that Beatle Paul McCartney had died.

Neary and his wife, Joan, moved to Tesuque in 1973.

His remains are scheduled to be donated to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

Steve Daley, Chicago Tribune journalist at 62, October 2, 2011

Like the best reporters, Steve Daley could talk to anyone about anything, but unlike a lot of daily scribes, he could also write about anything.

In his 20-plus years as a journalist — including 15 at the Chicago Tribune — he covered sports, media and politics, even the occasional music review.

“Even when he started out in sports, he was a guy who always had a huge interest in everything,” said Mr. Daley’s friend, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. “He was just somebody whose mind was broad enough to understand that everything is everything else. The distinction between sports and politics really isn’t that big.”

Edna R. Patton; Evening Star Librarian, September 18, 2011

On Sunday, September 18, 2011, of Silver Spring, MD. Beloved wife of the late Donald Frazier Patton; loving mother of Donald "Wayne" Patton; sister of Mary Wells of Springfield, VA.

Ymelda Chavez Dixon; August 8, 2011 while with her daughter in Madrid, Spain at the age of 97.

Passed away August 8, 2011 while with her daughter in Madrid, Spain at the age of 97. Her wide circle of family and friends will miss her and treasure the memory of her indomitable personality, quick wit, devotion to country, and fierce love of literature. Ymelda was a long-time Washingtonian, coming as a girl to Washington from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she was born, after her father, Dennis Chavez, was elected to the U.S. Congress from that state. He later was elected to the U.S. Senate where he served until his death in 1962.

Earl H. Voss, 89, a journalist with the old Washington Star newspaper and a government public affairs officer, died July 30 at Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield, where he had lived for the past seven years. He had Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.From 1951 until 1964, Mr. Voss wrote foreign news and served as the Star’s diplomatic correspondent.
He won a Washington Newspaper Guild’s “Front Page” award in 1954 for interpretive reporting on the Far East. He was the author of “Nuclear Ambush: The Test Ban Trap” (1963), a book that explored U.S.-Soviet negotiations on nuclear disarmament and resulting implications for national security.

Bonnie E. Aikman, a feature writer and columnist in the Washington Evening Star's entertainment section, died June 20. She was 77.

Bonnie interviewed many Broadway and Hollywood stars for the newspaper, and innocently "fell in love with several," she often said. Through her column "DC Studios" she got to know such local radio and TV pioneers as "The Joy Boys" and "Cousin Cupcake."

After graduating from American University in 1955, she began her newspaper career as an assistant to famed theater critic Jay Carmody and pioneering TV critic Bernie Harrison.

Longtime journalist Tom Breen, who headed FLORIDA TODAYs Space Team coverage from 2000 to 2002, died suddenly at his home earlier this week, June 22, 2011, in Indian Harbour Beach, Fl, of cardiac arrest. He was 65, with a vigor and insatiable curiosity about life that led him back to school to pursue a late-in-life masters degree from Rollins College in Winter Park in 2005, and then a doctorate in liberal studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., which he still was pursuing. He completed "all but the dissertation," an academic saying that used to annoy him greatly. But for the past five years, he used his newfound academic credentials to teach as an adjunct professor of humanities at Brevard Community College on both the Palm Bay and Melbourne campuses. He also recently became a member of the Brevard County Historic Commission.

Philip Evans, journalist who helped launch Washington Times, dies at 77

By Emma Brown, Published: May 12

Philip Evans, a journalist who served as managing editor of the Washington Star during the 1970s and later helped launch the Washington Times, died May 8 of cancer at his home in Silver Spring. He was 77.

Mr. Evans began a journalism career after working as an oilfield roughneck in Morocco and an Army paratrooper. He wrote for the Associated Press and then became a top editor at the Baltimore Evening Sun, Annapolis Capital and Philadelphia Bulletin.

Carter, aka “Dee,” was born February 26, 1925, and raised outside of Washington, D.C. She died March 7, 2011.

After graduating from Bethesda -Chevy Chase High School 1943, she joined the Washington Star Newspaper, as a copy girl. Over the next 30 years she was the dicationist who filed the story when the US dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Unfamiliar with the term “atom,” she simply wrote “Adam” bomb. She covered White House events and interviewed countless celebrities including Rosy Greer (his shoulders were so wide he had to go sideways through a door), Clark Gable, Tony Curtis (who answered the hotel door wrapped in a towel), became the “TEEN” Editor, under a pen name Fifi Gorska, for a section dedicated to 13-19-year olds, a novelty for the late 1950s and 60s.

David S. Broder, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and one of the most respected writers on national politics for four decades, died Wednesday at Capital Hospice in Arlington of complications from diabetes.

Mr. Broder was often called the dean of the Washington press corps - a nickname he earned in his late 30s in part for the clarity of his political analysis and the influence he wielded as a perceptive thinker on political trends in his books, articles and television appearances.

Malcolm Douglas Lamborne, 69, writer, editor, and teacher, died December 22, 2010 at his home in Warrenton, Virginia surrounded by his loved ones. The cause of death was lung cancer.
Douglas was born in Alexandria, Virginia, attended Gonzaga High School, and received a Masters Degree from American University in 1971. During his long career in journalism, Douglas worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, The Washington Star, and the Washington Times. He served as managing editor for Annapolitan Magazine, consulting editor for Inside Annapolis Magazine, and as a senior writer and editor for Catholic University. Douglas also taught at American University, Anne Arundel Community College and, more recently, Lord Fairfax Community College.

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Mrs. Naomi Bradford entered into eternal rest. Her husband, James J. Bradford predeceased her. Beloved mother of Patricia Long, Jacqueline Buggs, Roberto Anderson, James C., Franklin D. and Herbert L. Bradford.

Full obit and Guestbook: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=naomi-w-bradford&pid=147159800

Burt Hoffman, Deputy Managing Editor; November 17, 2010

Burton Hoffman, 81, a Washington journalist for two decades who became editor in chief of National Journal magazine in the mid-1970s and had a second career on Capitol Hill and abroad as a political and economic consultant, died of lung cancer Nov. 17 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

He owned a restaurant in the northern Thai city and had lived there intermittently for the past three years.
Mr. Hoffman moved to the Washington area in 1955 and was a reporter and editor with Congressional Quarterly before joining the Washington Star in 1958.

He spent 14 years at the newspaper, including stints on the city, national and foreign desks, and was promoted to assistant managing editor in 1968.

John Holusha, who reported on business affairs for The New York Times for nearly three decades, died on Thursday in Montclair, N.J. He was 67 and lived in Glen Ridge, N.J.

The cause was a heart attack, his son, Terry, said.

By Adam Bernstein
Monday, August 16, 2010; 11:44 AM

James J. Kilpatrick, 89, a fiery advocate of racial segregation as a Richmond newspaper editor in the 1950s who became a sparring partner of liberals on the television show "60 Minutes" and a syndicated columnist who offered conservative views on subjects ranging from politics to proper use of the English language, died Aug. 15 at George Washington University hospital. He had congestive heart failure.

Raymond G. Dick, 73, a former editor with the now-defunct Washington Star and editor of Nation's Cities Weekly, died after a long illness Sept. 21 in Austin, Texas.
Mr. Dick was a native of Lawrence, Mass. He spent most of his professional career as a journalist in Washington. He joined the Washington Evening Star in 1967 as a copy editor and over the next 10 years, he served as copy-desk chief, assistant news editor and assistant managing editor.
He was active in the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, serving as president in 1969.

Lyle Denniston | Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 1:58 pm
David Pike, who covered the Supreme Court for 11 years for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, died Monday night at his home in Washington, D.C., after suffering a heart attack. He was 68 years old. Pike had spent much of his career as a courthouse journalist, covering the U.S. District Court and the D.C. Circuit Court for the Washington Star. He later covered legal news for the National Law Journal, and was the first first-time journalist at the Supreme Court for the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He retired at the end of 2004, and was succeeded on the “beat” by Brent Kendall.

Crane joined The Washington Star sports staff in 1961, and was appointed scholastic sports editor in 1965, and held that position until the Star’s demise in 1981. Crane’s work pushed high school sports to the public forefront.

Charlotte S. Burton - April 23, 2010

Charlotte S. Burton, 85, formerly of Belvidere, entered into rest Friday, April 23, 2010. Born: October 26, 1924, to the late George M. Shipman, Jr., and Rachel W. Shipman, both of Belvidere. Personal: She attended Belvidere schools and graduated from Vassar College in 1945. She worked for the Easton Express, the Washington Star and the Belvidere News, and in social services at Warren Hospital.

Doris K. Deakin Writer

Doris K. Deakin, 82, a freelance writer who contributed stories to The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun, died April 21 at a nursing home in Warren, R.I. She had complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Constance Holden, 68, of Mount Pleasant, was struck by a 5.5-ton National Guard truck about 6 p.m. at New York Avenue and 12th Street NW. A veteran journalist and painter affectionately known to friends and colleagues as "Tancy."

Mary Lowry Vaughan, 86, of Sarasota, formerly of Washington, D.C., died April 10, 2010. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the chapel of Church of the Palms Presbyterian Church, followed by a reception. Arrangements are by Toale Brothers Funeral Home.

Donnie Radcliffe, 80, a Washington Post journalist who chronicled first ladies and high society from the Watergate era to the Clinton administration, died Feb. 19 at her home in South Acworth, N.H. She had lung, thyroid and adrenal cancer, her son said.

Beloved wife of the late Thomas Armat, Jr.; and cherished mother of Virginia Armat Hurt, died at her home February 16, 2010, surrounded by the love of her family with whom she had lived since 1999. Daughter of George Marsh Newall and Anna Marie Walch, she was born in Cheshire, England, October 3, 1917. She was raised in Syracuse, NY. and attended Syracuse University, majoring in fine arts.

Joseph Roy Martin Jr., of Roanoke, Va., passed away on Thursday, November 19, 2009, at the Lewis Gale Medical Center in Salem, Va. Roy was born on April 28, 1939, and grew up in Greenville, N.C., graduating from Greenville High School and East Carolina University with a Masters in English.

Alan Bruns, Reporter and Editor, on Oct. 21, 2009

Alan Martin Bruns, 82, a retired reporter and editor died Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at his home in Falls Run, Fredericksburg. He had been in hospice care since mid-September. His death was attributed to congestive heart failure.

Beloved husband of Renee Borden; loving uncle of Belle Ulander and Charles Borden. He was an editor and writer for the Washington Star for 19 years.

Mary Lou Werner started at the Washington Evening Star in 1944 as a seventeen-year-old copy girl. In 1959, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the Virginia school crisis touched off by the state's determination to oppose school integration. "Integration anywhere means destruction everywhere, " Governor J. Linsay Almond, Jr. said in January 1958 in an inaugural speech reported by Werner in the Star.

Charles William “Charlie” Barbour of Reston, a longtime editor and executive in the sports departments of two defunct Washington newspapers, died at Loudoun (Va.) Hospital Center on June 25 after a short illness. He was 89.

Deidre M. Pierce, June 19, 2009, One Of Washingtonian Magazine "77 People to Watch in 1977"

Deirdre M. Pierce of Key West, Washington, D.C. and Normandy, France died of cardiac arrest June 19, 2009 at Lower Keys Medical Center. She was stricken suddenly at her residence, surrounded by her favorite books and tchotchkes and talking to a lifelong friend. She was 63.

For 21 years (1976-1997) she was restaurant reviewer and food columnist for major Washington, D.C. publications, including the Washington Star, Washington Museum & Arts and Washington Woman. Iron-Chef winner Roberto Donna named her editor of "Il Cuoco," house organ for his nationally known hot spot, Galileo Restaurant.

As creative consultant to upscale D.C. Chanterelle Caterers, she was both hands-on chef and menu designer. A charter member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, Pierce was rather proud of two accomplishments: Picking up Julia Child in a bar in Mougins, France, and a weekend stint as guest chef at Michelin-named Priory Country House Hotel, East Sussex, England.

Accolades include: Washingtonian Magazine "77 People to Watch in 1977," the same year as her great friend Jean Carper, now of K.W.; Panorama TV's Five Most Eligible Bachelorettes (so very 1972) with interviewer Maury Povich; Baltimore's TV News at Noon for a 1979 author's tour with interviewer Oprah Winfrey.

Known in Key West for her popular weekly column, "The Night Stuff," in CELEBRATE! Newspaper (circa 1996), Pierce is also co-author of "The Food Lover's Book of Lists or the List Lover's Book of Foods" and "Literary Sands of Key West," a traveler's guide.

Two completed novels, "Dead Like a Phoenix," set in England, and "Kind of a Drag" about Key West await publication.

The 1968 graduate of Connecticut College for Women (New London, Ct) was married to Aaron Woloshin for 32 years until his death in 2005. Aaron, partner in an international environmental consulting firm, was known in Key West in his own right as a Eurocentric Bronx boy with sartorial flair.

Sometimes accused of having a showgirl complex, Woloshin was the rare man so comfortable in his own skin that he simply kvelled over his leggy wife who had a killer smile and a king-size passion for making all the world in love with night. He was her "true north;" she was his rock & roll.

Full Obit: http://keysnews.com/node/14908

Attribution: keysnews.com

Paul Haney, voice of NASA, May 28, 2009

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- Paul Haney, who was known as the "voice of NASA's Mission Control" for his live televised reports during the early years of the space program, has died of cancer. He was 80.

DEWITT "Dick" SLAY (Age 80) Of Haig Point, SC, died peacefully, Thursday, April 30, 2009, at his home on Daufuskie Island, SC, after a long battle with small cell lung cancer. Dick graduated from the University of Maryland in 1950 and then worked for almost 29 years at the Washington Star in Washington DC.

Thomas Love, 75, a retired reporter and editor with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the old Washington Star, died April 28 at his home in McLean of cancer. Mr. Love came to the Washington area in 1964 to work for a chain of weekly newspapers in Northern Virginia. He later became a columnist and city editor for the Northern Virginia Sun.

Bellows built a career resuscitating underdog newspapers in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. Along the way, he helped turn Tom Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin into stars.
By Elaine Woo, March 6, 2009

I was so sad to see the notice for Nick Blatchford in today's Washington Post. Here it is:
BLATCHFORD NICK BLATCHFORD May 6,1919 - February 1, 2009 On February 1, 2009, Nick Blatchford of Fairfax, Virginia. He was a noted journalist with the Washington Daily News and Washington Star papers, a lover of people of all walks of life, a hiker of North Woods trails, a fisherman, a husband/father/grandfather/great grandfather, a storyteller.

Abbott Combes, an editor at The New York Times Magazine who helped create its “About Men” column, died on Friday in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 64 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was lung cancer, said his companion, Marion McKeone.

Loren Pope, 98, an education consultant whose best-selling books advised college-bound students to look beyond the Ivy League and who as a $50-a-week journalist persuaded internationally regarded architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for him, has died.

Mr. Pope, the original owner of Wright's 1941 Pope-Leighey house in Fairfax County, died Sept. 23 at the Goodwin House Baileys Crossroads retirement community in Falls Church. He had congestive heart failure.

Mr. Walter, of Edgartown, the former editor and publisher of the Vineyard Gazette, died Thursday at Mercy Hospital in Springfield from complications after surgery for a facial nerve disorder. He was 61.

Walter R. Cubbage, Sr. of Neeld Estate, Huntingtown, MD. passed away at home on June 16, 2008 with his family by his side. Preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Josephine E. Cubbage. Walt was born to Henry and Ethel Cubbage on December 24, 1917, on a farm in Stanley, VA., he was one of 11 children.

Jack Mallicote, pressman/ businessman, 80, June 5, 2008

Jack A. Mallicote, 80, a resident of Dunkirk since 1970, died June 5 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. Mr. Mallicote was born Oct. 22, 1927, in Morristown, Tenn. He was a retired businessman in southern Anne Arundel County, and founded Mali Discount with his wife in 1982, an office supply store in Deale. He sold the business in 2007. He served in the Army from 1950 to 1952 and was discharged as a staff sergeant.

William Perkins, 85, April 28, 2008

William Perkins Sr. From Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
William J. Perkins Sr. NORFOLK - William "Bill" John Perkins Sr., 85, passed away April 28, 2008, at his home in the presence of his loving family. A native of Washington, Ind., he spent most of his life in Arlington, Va. After retiring in 1985, he made his home in Duck, N.C., and had lived in Norfolk for the past eight years.

Photo: Washington Post

John "Jack" Lemmon began a distinguished newspaper career at the Washington Star.

Dick Olson, Star advertising, March 20, 2008

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Richard T. 'Dick' Olson Advertising Salesman

Richard T. "Dick" Olson, 74, a retired newspaper advertising salesman, died March 20 of lung cancer at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was a Chevy Chase resident.

Washington Star Alums gathered at a reception after the Memorial Service for Betty (Miles) James at Ingleside of Rock Creek, Wednesday April 2, 2008. Photo courtesy of Arnold Taylor.

National Press Photographers Association - Bernard "Bernie" Boston

Phil Kelley - November 2007

Former Star Head Copy Aide Phillip Kelley(an Institution while he was there!) has died. I do not recall when that happened, but I do know that there will be a funeral service for him in the Arlington Cemetery Columbarium on November 14. Phil served in the Army in Korea.

Dana R. Bullen - June 25, 2007

Dana R. Bullen, 75, foreign editor of The Washington Star when it closed in 1981 and then executive director of the World Press Freedom Committee for 15 years, died June 25, 2007, of cancer at his home in Alexandria.

Ann Cline - Journalist May 10, 2007

Ann Cline, 87, a reporter and editor at the old Washington Star and one of the first women to work in its newsroom, died of congestive heart disease May 10 at Collingswood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rockville. In 38 years at the Star, Ms. Cline rose from copy girl to deputy editor of the Washington Life section. She also worked for two years as a sportswriter during World War II.

He became publicity manager of WTOP radio, then public relations manager of the old Washington Evening Star newspaper. He led publicity for the Community Chest charity before it became the United Way.

Mr. Hempstone had covered the advent of Kenya's independence for the Chicago Daily News and wrote two well-received modern histories of the region. He went on to work for the Washington Star, which his mother's family once owned, and the Washington Times, where he briefly was the top newsroom editor in the mid-1980s.

Robert Menaker, 61; Longtime Washington Journalist - Novermber 8, 2006

He was a news editor at the Miami News from 1967 to 1973 and then moved to Washington to become an editor at the Washington Star. During his two years at the Star, he was a deputy sports editor, an assistant lifestyle editor and editor of the newspaper's weekly arts and entertainment tabloid.

Sachs was awarded the WHNPA Lifetime Achievement Award for Still Photography in 2001. He was a member of the WHNPA for 56 years, during which time he served as secretary, chairman of the photo contest book, and member of the Eyes of History gala committee. Among his awards are numerous first prizes in the WHNPA Eyes of History, the American Newspaper Guild Front Page Awards, and the Hearst National Photo Contest.

Betty Beale, 94, a society writer for four decades whose syndicated column gave readers a close-up, largely sympathetic nibble of Washington's upper crust, died June 7, 2006 at the Washington Home hospice. She had bladder cancer.

Glen Leach; Photographer for The Evening Star Paper - December 15, 2005

Leach, 88 a photographer who got his start with the Washington Evening Star newspaper, died Dec. 15, 2005 at his home in Rockville, MD from a degenerative brain disease.

Philip Robbins, a journalist and prominent authority on the First Amendment and freedom of the press, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 13 at his home in Elkton, Md.

Mr. Robbins dedicated his life to journalism and the principles of a free press and the freedom of information.

Alfred P. "Al" Alibrando, 82, a retired public information officer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - July 1, 2005

Mr. Alibrando was born in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served during World War II as an aviation radioman aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve as a lieutenant.

Anna Katherine Molster - 85, Editorial Assistant for the Washington Evening Star for 40 years - April 29, 2005

Ms. Molster was born in Takoma Park and graduated from McKinley Technical High School in 1935. In 1939, she received her bachelor's degree from George Washington University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Alpha Lambda Delta fraternity.

William M. Hines, 88, a former Washington Star and Chicago Sun-Times reporter who was considered the godfather of NASA space reporting, died Feb. 28 of complications from treatment for pneumonia at Frederick Memorial Hospital. He lived in Washington before moving to Lovettsville in 1987.

Trained as a reporter, Mr. Barron began his career as a spy in Cold War Berlin, working as a clandestine naval intelligence officer in the mid-1950s.

He moved to Washington in the mid-1960s to work for the Washington Star on the sports copy desk. He worked briefly for the Communications Workers of America before he joined the AFL-CIO in 1969 as editor of its monthly journal, moving up to director of information in 1987.

Warren E. Howard - Former WBNG Guild Leader Dies

Warren E. Howard, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild President from 1974-1975, passed away on September 30, 2004 in Washington D.C. Howard began his career at the Washington Star in 1968 as copy editor and remained at the Star until it closed in 1981. Howard also served three years as the Guild's Mid-Atlantic Region International vice president. During his tenur there, he helped create the Guild's Human Rights Committee and served as its chairman. Howard was named Guildman of the Year in 1974.

Earl Byrd - Black Journalist with Raw Talent - August 1,1941 - August 3, 2004

Earl took to journalism right away, recalled Ron Sarro, the journeyman reporter to whom Byrd was assigned when he arrived at the Star. He liked people, so he could elicit information to tell their stories. He could empathize with them. He had a gift for writing.

He joined the Washington Star in 1970 as an editorial writer, working there for six years before returning to Arkansas as associate editor of the Arkansas Gazette. He took over the Examiner's editorial page in 1978. His work earned the Scripps Howard Foundation's Walker Stone Award in 1981.

Woody West - Longtime Washington newspaperman and former executive editor of The Washington Times - 1934-2004;

Woody West died Saturday at his home in Hagerstown, Md., of lung cancer.

"It was my privilege to work with and share a cherished friendship with Woody West for more than 40 years. As we toiled together in the newsroom of the old Washington Star, his zeal to pursue every story, get it right, report it fairly and inform readers with graceful, uncluttered prose became hallmarks of all that he was called upon to write and to edit."
- WESLEY PRUDEN Editor in Chief of The Times

Attribtution: Washington Times

Woody West, 70, a former editorial writer at the old Washington Star and executive editor at the Washington Times, died May 1 at his home in Hagerstown, Md. He had lung cancer.

Mr. West spent 20 years with the Star, which folded in 1981. He started at the Washington Times as an editorial writer in late 1982, six months after its founding. He became managing editor in 1983 and then executive editor, the newspaper's top editor, from 1985 to 1986.

Mr. West told The Washington Post that his decision to leave the executive editorship was based on the all-consuming nature of the job. "After two or three years of six- and seven-day weeks, I'm simply running out of gas, and I don't want to have a cardiac," he said.

He added, "Now I'm going to sit on the porch and read, go out and scare a few geese in the winter."

Since 1986, he held the title of associate editor and worked part time. He edited the weekly Civil War page and served on the committee overseeing the Sunday books pages, choosing books for review and matching them with reviewers.

Wesley Pruden, the paper's editor in chief, said Mr. West took particular delight in his duties with the Civil War page, a job requiring intricate knowledge and immense diplomacy.

In short, Pruden said, "you get a number for a regiment wrong and you hear about it."

He added that Mr. West meted out favorable and unfavorable coverage of Union and Confederate forces with equanimity, maintaining the great journalism tradition that both sides "were happy and dissatisfied in equal numbers."

Mr. West was a native of Helena, Mont., and a history graduate of American University. He served in the Marine Corps from 1954 to 1957. Early in his career, he was a reporter in Nebraska at the Lincoln Star and the Omaha World-Herald.

He settled in the Washington area in the early 1960s as a reporter at the Star. After the Star ceased publication, he briefly was a Washington-based editorial writer for the Milwaukee Journal.

Attribution: © 2004 The Washington Post Company

Mary McGrory - Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist - August 22, 1918 – April 20, 2004

Photo: National Society of Newspaper Columnists

Born in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood, McGrory began her career in journalism at the Boston Herald before transferring in 1947 to The Washington Star as a book reviewer. In 1975, she won the Pulitzer for her coverage during the Watergate scandal. She stayed with the Star until it went out of business in 1981.