Kentucky weekly editor-publisher dies; stores close

Stores in Dawson Springs, Ky., closed for the funeral Friday of our friend Jed Dillingham, who was the editor and co-publisher of the weekly Dawson Springs Progress, circulation 2,250. He died last Monday at 57.

"Dillingham was a longtime pillar of Dawson Springs, a community mourning the loss of a good friend," reported The Messenger of Madisonville, the daily paper in the same county. He had been editor of the family-owned weekly since January 1980 and co-publisher with his brother, Scott, since October 1980. He graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1974 and did graduate work at Ball State University in Indiana.

Dillingham has been treasurer of the West Kentucky Press Association for 15 years and a director of the Kentucky Press Association for 22 years, holding one of the geographic seats ever since the board created it. He said in a director profile that he belonged to no civic clubs or organizations because “I agree with Groucho when he said he’d never be a member of a club that would have him as a member.” KPA Executive Director David Thompson told the Messenger, “He always had a good attitude and didn’t hesitate to state his opinion. But he was never overbearing about it.”

That's exactly how we remember Jed, going back to our days together at Western, and we will miss him. We're glad he was able to publish in his last paper that Democrat Steve Beshear, a native of Dawson Springs, had been elected governor of Kentucky.