Tom Searls, top political reporter in W.Va., dies

Tom Searls, who rose from small-town journalism to become political writer for The Charleston Gazette, was found dead at his home yesterday. He was 54.

"Before starting at the Gazette, Searls worked for several newspapers in West Virginia, including stops in Beckley, Morgantown, Bluefield and Welch, as well as Memphis and Johnson City, Tenn. He was the Morgantown correspondent for United Press International. As a boy, Searls sold papers for the West Virginia Hillbilly," the Gazette reports in a non-bylined story. "He knew more about West Virginia political history than anyone I've ever known," David White, a Charleston lawyer and longtime friend, told the newspaper.

Gazette Publisher Elizabeth Chilton said, "He was an old-fashioned reporter and excellent newsman. He really went after things, and people respected what he wrote." U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd said, "Tom Searls was a reporter's reporter. . . . The Gazette, and most important the people of West Virginia, have lost a talented and valuable voice in the public forum. West Virginia has lost one of its finest." (Read more)