Loyal Jones, interpreter of Appalachian culture, dies at 95

Loyal Jones

Loyal Jones, whose Kentucky pastor called him "the indefatigable and beloved interpreter of Appalachian life and culture," died Saturday morning in Black Mountain, N.C. He was 95.

The author and co-author of several books and dozens of published articles about Appalachian culture, people and humor, Jones wrote about the resiliency of mountain people and their culture and said the region should be judged by its own values—family, land, and traditionalism—rather than mainstream values of accumulation, wealth and power, said Ron Eller, former director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky.

When he received the top award from the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation in 2017, Jones said, "We have a viable culture here. We have a lot of problems, but we have a lot of people with great values."

Jones, a native of western North Carolina, held degrees from the University of North Carolina and Kentucky's Berea College, where he ran its Appalachian center in 1970-93. It is named for him. Jones "had been diagnosed with cancer, and earlier this year had decided that he didn’t wish to continue treatment," center Director Chris Green, who is editing Jones's memoirs, said on Appalnet, the list-serve for Appalachian academics, whose discipline Jones helped create. "Despite this, he kept up correspondence, worked on his memoir, and was only occasionally down with his afflictions."

The Rev. Kent Gilbert, pastor of Union Church in Berea, wrote, "He loved good dry and wry humor, music of all kinds, a lively conversation, and was a craftsman, musician, and an appreciator of the arts in every form. Truly a man of many talents! A fierce champion for those whom the world had handed a bad hand, he worked hard against the causes of poverty and injustice. If he had impatience with anything it was the too-evident arrogant hypocrisy of politicians who said much but did little to improve other’s lives."

George Brosi, another Appalachian academic who lived in the same retirement community as Jones, wrote on Appalnet, "Nobody devoted more of their life to Appalachia than Loyal Jones, and he contributed as much as anyone to Appalachian studies. He set the tone for our field with humor, grace, integrity, erudition, and wisdom."

J. R. 'Robbie' Robertson, who 'turned old American folklore into modern myths' with The Band and others, dies at 80

Robertson at his Santa Monica studio in 2019. (Photo by Carolyn Cole, L.A. Times)

Robbie Robertson, a native Canadian who helped create the muscal genre Americana or "roots music," did Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 80.

James Royal Robertson was lead songwriter and guitarist of The Band, which started out as The Hawks, often a backup group for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, and "ended up as The Band — a conceit their fans would say they earned — because people would point to them when they were with Dylan and refer to them as 'the band'," writes Hillel Italie of The Associated Press. "The Band profoundly influenced popular music in the 1960s and ‘70s, first by literally amplifying Dylan’s polarizing transition from folk artist to rock star and then by absorbing the works of Dylan and Dylan’s influences as they fashioned a new sound immersed in the American past. . . . They remain defined by their first two albums, 'Music from Big Pink' and 'The Band,' both released in the late 1960s." Robertson's works "offered a rustic vision of America that seemed at once mythic and authentic," writes Jim Farber of The New York Times.

Robertson "had the knack of making everything he recorded sound fashioned by hand, produced in a barn and played from the heart," Ty Burr writes for The Washington Post. "But his influences and inspirations came from all over the map: the lost colony of Acadia and Louisiana’s Cajun diaspora, deep-blues juke joints in the Mississippi Delta and rockabilly rave-ups at a Midwest county fair. There was jazz in there, and folk music and country; there was a lot of backwoods front-porch hootenanny. There were the atmospheric orchestrations of modern film scoring, too, and underneath it all and increasingly on the surface there was Robertson’s birthright: the sounds of Ontario’s Six Nations people and, by extension, the indigenous tribes of an entire continent — the roots music whose roots go deepest of all. Robbie Robertson didn’t make Americana. He made North American music."

The Band's songs, sung by drummer Levon Helm, keyboardist Richard Manuel and bassist Rick Danko, "were unlike anything on the AM or FM dial — older, wiser, sadder and friskier, with bones that went back to a time before electricity," Burr writes. "Parables like 'The Weight,' which straddled the Bible and the tall tale; 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,' which sounded like it really was sung by a defeated Confederate soldier in 1865; ''King Harvest Has Surely Come', a busted Depression-era farmer’s lament; 'Up On Cripple Creek,' a truck driver coming home to Bessie in 'Lake Charles, Looozeyana'. . . . Like Dylan, Robertson was a self-taught musicologist and storyteller influenced by everything American from the novels of William Faulkner to the scorching blues of Howlin’ Wolf to the gospel harmonies of the Swan Silvertones." Farber says Robertson's lyrics "conjured a wild place, often centered in the South, peopled by rough-hewed characters," such as "the shady creatures in 'Life Is a Carnival'."

In death, Robertson has a final hit: His 2017 memoir Testimony "has returned to the top of the bestseller lists," Variety reports. Here are "15 essential Robbie Robertson songs," from the Los Angeles Times, whose Stephen Thomas Erlewine says "Robertson turned old American folklore into modern myths" and "acted as the ringleader in 'The Last Waltz,' widely regarded as one of the greatest concert films ever made." Erlewine reports on Robertson's later work and notes, "In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Center."

Jim Boone, who built a chain of newspapers, dies at 87

Jim Boone

James B. “Jim” Boone Jr., who built the ninth largest newspaper company in America, by number of newspapers (about 70), died Feb. 13 in Birmingham after a brief illness. He was 87.

Boone succeeded his father, Buford Boone, as publisher of The Tuscaloosa News in 1968 and built "a community media company that now owns or manages 91 newspapers and related print and digital products in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia," the Boone Newsmedia Inc. obituary said, adding that he "remained active in BNI and with its affiliate newspapers until his death."

"He worked until 5 p.m. on Friday of this past week," his youngest daughter, Vicksburg Post Publisher Catherine Boone Hadaway, told the News. "He believed in the mission of newspapers, to make the community better; to be an advocate and voice for the community."

A 1958 graduate of the University of Alabama, Boone received many honors, including the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alabama Press Association; the Casey Award from the University of Minnesota for leadership in the newspaper industry; and the Frank Mayborn Award from the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association for leadership.

“Jim Boone, by his example, set the highest bar for so many for how to lead and serve a community, civic organization, church, a business organization or his family,” said Todd Carpenter, president and CEO of Boone Newsmedia and Carpenter Newsmedia. “Put simply, he made doing the right thing the main thing and that guided his every choice and decision. He was also dedicated to recognizing talent in every person that perhaps they did not know they had, then with sincere determination he dedicated himself to guiding, leading and driving them to reach their highest potential. All who knew Jim benefitted from his benevolent interest, first in their welfare as a human being, followed by wisdom and guidance he gave generously to all that is both uncommon and special.” 

Boone is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and five children. His funeral is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Lowndesboro Methodist Church, followed by a graveside service at Oakview Cemetery in Lowndesboro and a gathering at The Marengo House, 100 N. Broad St., Lowndesboro.

Joe Edwards, a Corn Belt native who went on to chronicle country music in Nashville for The Associated Press, dies

Loretta Lynn and Joe Edwards (AP photo, undated)

Joe Edwards, who "documented the ascent of country music through interviews with stars ranging from Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift," died Friday in Nashville after a lengthy illness, reports The Associated Press, for which he worked for 42 years, retiring in 2012. He was 75.

Edwards was a product of rural America who worked his way south. Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in the Eastern Corn Belt, he worked in Vincennes and Cincinnati before graduating from Eastern Kentucky University and joining AP in Nashville in 1970, working most of the jobs in the bureau. But his byline soon became familiar to country-music fans, and he had superb entré into the music industry.

Edwards had influence in Tennessee. "In 1982, a story Edwards wrote about the popularity of the song 'Rocky Top' led the General Assembly to declare it a state song," AP reports. "He got the ball rolling," said Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote the song in 1967 with his wife Felice at The Gatlinburg Inn (Rocky Top is a peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, not the Tennessee town that adopted its name 50 years later). It was first recorded by the Osborne Brothers, a Kentucky-born duo; a more mainstream version by Lynn Anderson in 1970 led to its adoption by the University of Tennessee band and finally to Edwards' September 1981 story, which said the song "has become as beloved in Tennessee as the immortal, but more sedate, 'Tennessee Waltz'."

Edwards "specialized in writing obituaries, including those for music stars Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Roy Orbison, Bill Monroe and Carl Perkins," AP reports. "In 2010, he wrote extensively about the Nashville flooding that left much of the city submerged for several days. But he preferred reporting about more light-hearted topics, such as the taster at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee."

UPDATE, Feb. 7: Former AP Tennessee staffer Beth Miller tells Connecting, the newsletter for AP retirees and friends: "I cannot even begin to stress how huge of a force Joe Edwards was for the AP both in Tennessee and afar, even in his always unassuming demeanor. He was a masterful interviewer, and he could tell a story like none other (and boy, did he have the stories!)"

David Sawyer, who built an international consulting career on his work in rural Kentucky and Appalachia, dies at 71

David Hartwell Sawyer (Photo via Legacy.com)

David Sawyer, who built an international consulting career on his work in rural Kentucky and Appalachia, died Nov. 25 in of heart failure in Portland, Oregon, after a year of declining health. He was 71.

Sawyer was president of Context, a consultancy on strategy, leadership and culture, and a cofounder of Converge, a network of consultants who help form social-impact networks. He worked in many fields, including sustainable agriculture, education reform, national service, social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, the emerging green economy, and multisector collaboration.

For a decade, Sawyer directed leadership and service-learning programs at Berea College in Kentucky, earning him the nation's highest award for voluntary service from the White House. He designed Save the Children's Appalachian Teen Leadership Program and traveled to India to meet with the Dalai Lama to help design a Tibetan refugee education program at Berea. He worked with the Clinton administration to help launch Americorps and facilitated The New Generation Training Program and other national leadership programs.

Sawyer spent four years working with BP, coaching senior leaders, designing the cultural dimension of the BP-ARCO merger, and facilitating a conference on global climate change in Washington, D.C. He was executive-in-residence for the Kauffman Foundation, promoting citizen engagement and civic innovation; first executive director of Social Venture Partners Portland, and was chief culture officer for gDiapers, maker of the world's first flushable and compostable diaper.

"Though Sawyer's professional accomplishments are vast, his lasting impact lives in his deep love for his people, his community, and our planet," his obituary says. "Sawyer was a dedicated and generous friend to many. He was clever and wise, fun and funny, deeply serious, and eternally committed to creating positive futures for all. His life's work could perhaps be summed up by a simple tattoo on his arm that read: 'maximum positive impact'."

Sawyer, whom his Kentucky family called "Buzz," is survived by his brother, religious artist Stephen Shelby Sawyer of Versailles, Ky. Their cousins include Diane Sawyer of ABC News.

UPDATE, Dec. 4: A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at Union Church in Berea. Live streaming will be available and a reception will follow; details to come. Organizer Peter Hille writes, "In lieu of flowers we request that you consider making a contribution in David's honor to an organization of your choice. Or, if you prefer, send flowers to someone you love."

Lewis, 'grandmother of Appalachian studies,' dies at 97; paper in her native Ga. county paid tribute before her death

Appalachian historian, sociologist, and women's rights activist Helen M. Lewis died Sunday at age 97 following complications from Covid-19. From her obituary: "Helen spent a lifetime as a radical educator and activist, working for justice from the Deep South to Appalachia and internationally. Helen taught in colleges and prisons; went to jail for civil rights and stood on picket lines; planted gardens and wrote poetry. In all her work she connected, supported, and pushed people to work together and go a little farther to build communities and make change."

Helen Lewis in a coal mine in the 1960s
(Appalachian State University photo)

Lewis often advised organizations such as the Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes The Daily Yonder. The Yonder called Lewis a "towering figure in the fields of Appalachian studies and scholar activism," and noted: "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while on the faculty of Clinch Valley College in Wise, Va. (now the University of Virginia College at Wise), she pioneered new courses that opened mountain students’ eyes to their history, culture, and pressing social issues like the environmental cost of strip mining. She later joined the Highlander Research and Education Center, where she developed techniques for communities to conduct their own solutions-oriented research on local social and civic issues. Her areas of scholarship and activism included environmental justice, community development, empowerment of women, and community health."

Mike Buffington of the Jackson Herald in Jefferson, Ga., in Lewis's native county, wrote a tribute to her last year, which concluded: "While she lived in Georgia with her sister, she gave a sermon to the small church she attended in Cherry Log. In that sermon, she said the following: 'We don't all have to be protestors, but let us remember those who have confronted pharaohs, governors, county commissioners, corporations and unjust laws. Let us remember those who broke the law to do the right thing, and those who are developing alternatives and building and rebuilding communities.' Helen Matthews Lewis lived a remarkable life of purpose and protest."

In its tribute, the Yonder excerpted two of Lewis's essays from a 2012 book with writings by and about her. In the essays, "She argues that rural community development must begin with a moral economy," the Yonder says. From "Rebuilding Communities: A Twelve-Step Recovery Program":

Rural communities are still part of national and international economies, the agendas of which do not include preserving or reviving small rural communities. Until the needs and agendas of these communities are included in national and international development plans, community efforts will be stalled and short-circuited. Rural communities will continue to be disposable, and the creativity and participation, which these grassroots movements encourage and develop, will be ignored. That is why communities must also enter the policy arena, change development policies so that this vigor, energy, and social capital can be used to develop socially responsible, democratic, and sustainable communities throughout the world.

From "The Highlander Center: Working for Justice and a Moral Economy": I am seeing the beginnings of a new social movement of students and young people questioning the status quo and asking for a new social order. There are many community grassroots groups trying to rebuild their communities, deal with environmental problems, develop coalitions. Many women have emerged as leaders trying to rebuild communities. But people seem less confident of what to do about the many problems. The inaccessibility of economic decisions leaves people feeling both frustrated and very vulnerable. We need something today to bring people together to deal with the destruction of our communities, degradation of the environment, growing poverty, economic distress and alienation and not just in our country but worldwide. We cannot hide from the fact that we are part of a global economy, but we can work to be cooperative, helpful and not exploitive. We live on a fragile planet—we are all spinning around together and need to come together to save us all.

America's 'cowboy poet' Baxter Black dies at 77

Baxter Black performs in 2010 (Getty Images)

"Baxter Black, the nationally popular cowboy poet, storyteller, and philosopher of rural life in America," died June 10 at age 77 at his home in Benson, Ariz., Terri Jo Neff reports for the Arizona Daily Independent. The family didn't specify the cause of death, but a January Facebook post from his wife Cindy Lou said he had blood leukemia and dementia.

Black was born in Brooklyn, but grew up in Las Cruces, N.M. He competed in rodeo through high school and college, and graduated from veterinary school in 1969. He was a practicing vet through the mid-1980s as he honed his skills as a poet and public speaker at Future Farmers of America functions, Neff reports.

"Black's first column was published in Colorado's Record Stockman in 1980. Several years later, he made his way to public radio," Rachel Treisman reports for NPR. In the mid-1980s, NPR played a recording he sent in of his poem about wildfires in Yellowstone National Park. Listeners loved the poem, and Black went on to offer commentary for "Morning Edition" for the next two decades. 

"When he wasn't on the air, Black spoke at conventions and events across the country, appeared on television programs including "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson," wrote a weekly column and published and recorded audiobooks — of which Ag Daily says he sold more than a million," Treisman reports. "His column, "On the Edge of Common Sense," was published by more than 100 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada over the years."

Black retired at the end of 2021 due to health problems. "In his undated website FAQ, Black dodged a question about his top three accomplishments, saying, 'I haven't accomplished them yet'," Treisman reports. "But he did reflect on how he'd like to be remembered: 'As someone who didn't embarrass his friends.'"

Popular journalist in western Massachusetts dies at 54; 'When you heard what he said, you believed him'

Chris Collins
(Greenfield Recorder photo by Paul Franz)

Western Massachusetts broadcaster and newspaper columnist Chris Collins died over the weekend after recent surgery for longstanding heart problems. He was 54.

Those who knew Collins "say he made a big mark as a small-town journalist," Alden Bourne reports for New England Public Media. "Over a career spanning decades, Collins served as program director at WHMP radio in Northampton, news director at WHAI radio in Greenfield and as a columnist for the Greenfield Recorder. He was also a regular guest on New England Public Media's 'The Short List.' Most recently, Collins was the general manager for Frontier Community Access Television in Franklin County."

Collins was instrumental in launching local news site Franklin County Now, Domenic Poli reports for the Recorder. Several local politicians praised Collins, saying he was "very fair and impartial" and "a just-the-facts man."

"You know the old saying, 'You got the pulse of the county?' You know you put your thumb down and you knew exactly what was going on? That was like Chris," longtime friend Bobby Campbell told Bourne. "People trusted him so much that when you met him, you trusted him. So when you heard what he said, you believed him."

Robert J. Dole, whose small-town roots and virtues were central to his politics, dies at 98

Bob Dole (Photo: David Ake, AFP/Getty)

Bob Dole, a son of small-town Kansas who dominated the Senate for a decade and was the 1996 Republican nominee for vice president and president 20 years apart, died Sunday morning. He was 98.

Robert J. Dole was born in Russell, a county-seat town in the heart of the state. It had about 2,000 people at the time, grew to 6,500 by the time he was elected to the state House in 1950 and now has 4,400. The story of his upbringing there, and the town's efforts to help him recover from the nearly fatal injuries he suffered in World War II, were central to the narrative of his political career.

"Russell was a speck on the flat Kansas prairie, but in the Dole biography it took on mythic significance. In his political campaigns, Russell was cast as the shaper of noble, small-town virtues and Mr. Dole as their personification," writes Katharine Q. Seelye of The New York Times.

"Remembering that period, and the generosity of his neighbors, often brought him to tears. In his first appearance with President Ford in Russell in 1976, with 10,000 well-wishers crammed into the downtown business district, he thanked the townspeople for their support after the war. Then he started to cry and couldn’t go on. The audience fell silent. Finally, Mr. Ford stood and began clapping, and the audience joined in. Regaining his composure, Mr. Dole said: 'That was a long time ago.' And yet even in 1996, long after Russell and his recovery had become a staple of his origin story, he could hardly mention that period without choking up."

"Bob’s lifetime of service was rooted in a simple mission: looking out for his neighbors," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a press release. "His Dust Bowl roots fueled a special commitment to vulnerable Americans, and sure enough, Bob’s work on food security, veterans’ issues, and the rights of disabled Americans have continued to have an especially lasting impact."

Dole also ran for president in 1988, winning the Iowa caucuses but losing to George H.W. Bush in New Hampshire after refusing to pledge not to raise taxes. "If he had won the nomination, he almost certainly would have won the White House because Americans then wanted something more like a third Ronald Reagan term than a first Michael Dukakis term," writes columnist George Will in The Washington Post. "Dole probably would have won that nomination if he had won New Hampshire’s primary. And he could have, if he had campaigned as what he really wasn’t — a fervent conservative."

Will adds, "Dole was never one of those puffed-up politicians who constantly act as though they are unveiling statues of themselves. He had a Midwestern cheerfulness — see Ronald Reagan, of Dixon, Ill. — about the United States’ possibilities, but his mordant, sometimes acidic wit fit a man with some grievances against life’s close calls."

"Though Mr. Dole had promised that he would return to his Russell roots if he lost the race, that didn’t happen," writes Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal. "He was far too much a fixture in the nation’s capital by then, both in his own right and as the spouse of former senator and Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole. So he became a high-powered member of Washington law firms, working for clients such as the government of Taiwan."

The Everly Brothers are both gone now; Don passes at 84

Brothers Phil and Don Everly performed at the 10th annual Everly Brothers Homecoming concert in Central City, Kentucky, in 1997. They had a fraught relationship and broke up in 1973, but reunited. Phil, who was two years younger, died in 2014. (Photo by Suzanne Feliciano, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, via The Associated Press and The New York Times)

Don Everly, who with his brother Phil influenced popular music well beyond their first stint as a duo, and are in both the rock and country music halls of fame, died in Nashville Saturday. He was 84.

Don was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, made most famous by John Prine's "Paradise" and next door to Ohio County, the home of Bill Monroe. That's in the West Kentucky Coalfield, not the one to the east, but there are other similarities with Appalachia, and they all tapped into the culture of the rural upper South; the Everly famiily also lived in Indiana and Iowa.

The brothers' "fusion of Appalachian harmonies and a tighter, cleaner version of big-beat rock ’n’ roll made them harbingers of both folk-rock and country-rock," Bill Friskics-Warren writes for The New York Times. Their first big single, “Bye Bye Love”, spent four weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 1 on the country chart. "Many of their early recordings, including the No. 1 pop hits 'Bird Dog' and 'All I Have to Do Is Dream,' 'Bye Bye Love' was written by the husband-and-wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant." Don wrote hit songs before they recorded their own; he "tapped into a strain of Appalachian gothic despair that was absorbed by audiences as teenage heartache,"  notes RJ Smith of the Los Angeles Times.

The duo "rivaled Elvis Presley and Pat Boone for airplay, placing an average of one single in the pop Top 10 every four months from 1957 to 1961," Friskics-Warren notes. Even as they faded, "They influenced generations of hitmakers, from British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Hollies to the folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel and the Southern California country-rock band the Eagles."

“Phil and Don were the most beautiful sounding duo I ever heard. Both voices pristine and soulful,” Paul Simon told the Times after Phil's death. “The Everlys were there at the crossroads of country and R&B. They witnessed and were part of the birth of rock 'n' roll.” They sang on the title track of Simon's Graceland and were guests on Simon and Garfunkel's reunion tour in 2003-04. In 1986 they were inaugural members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Some of the duo's influence stemmed from Roots, a 1968 album "that found the duo interpreting material by pioneer Jimmie Rodgers and contemporary star Merle Haggard," Chris Morris writes for Variety. "Some critics rank it with the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, released the same year, as among the most important early country-rock albums. A 1958 album that was a commercial dud but an artistic success, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, which "a pronounced impact on country-rock, alt-country and Americana performers of all stripes," Morris writes. Their parents were musicians Ike and Margaret Everly, who survives; Ike was a contemporary of fellow singer-guitarist Merle Travis and Mose Rager, who taught Travis the thumb-picking style popularized in the coalfield by Black musician Arnold Schultz, who had taught it to Bill Monroe, Smith notes. Ike's regular trade was barbering, and one of his customers in Nashville was Boudleaux Bryant.

The downside comes most from Terence McArdle of The Washington Post, who reports that Don "twice attempted to kill himself with an overdose during an English tour in 1962," during addiction to uppers and downers. "When they returned stateside, he received electroshock therapy, which he said blocked his ability to write songs for several years." After long-simmering conflicts, they broke up at a 1972 concert where Don "came onstage drunk. Irate, the venue’s manager stopped the duo in the middle of the show, causing Phil Everly to smash his guitar and walk offstage." They reunited in 1983, and Don told the Sydney Daily Telegraph, “We have separate lives, but when we walk out onstage, it comes back, and it amazes me that we can do it. It’s like riding a bicycle. I don’t know how it’s done but I know it can be done.”

Trumka, who mined Pa. coal, then became a UMW lawyer and the labor leader of all labor leaders, dies suddenly at 72

Rich Trumka spoke to the International Brotherhood
of Boilermakers convention in 2016. (IBB photo)

Richard Trumka, who went from mining coal in rural Pennsylvania to the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America and the AFL-CIO labor federation, has died. He was 72.

Trumka's death was announced on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, "his voice breaking as he patted the lectern to compose himself," CNN reports. "The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most," Schumer said.

Trumka was born in Nemacolin, Pa., originally a coal camp, and became a third-generation miner in 1968. After getting a law degree, he was a UMW staff attorney, and became president of the union in 1982. His high point there was a successful nine-month strike against Pittston Coal Co.,"which became a symbol of resistance against employer cutbacks and retrenchment for the entire labor movement, Wikipedia says. He became AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer in 1995 and president of the federation in 2009.

"President Biden called Trumka a 'very close' friend and said he was more than head of AFL-CIO,' in brief remarks to reporters," The Washington Post reports. "The president added that Trumka had died during a camping trip with family members." Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who grew up less than an hour away from Trumka, said of him, “He never forgot where he came from. He dedicated the rest of his career to fighting for America’s working men and women. He was a fierce advocate for working people, and a truly decent man.”

Richardson, who had 13 papers in Ky. and Tenn., dies at 70

Dennis Richardson

Dennis Richardson, who published newspapers in Kentucky and Tennessee and was the first in Kentucky to consolidate newspapers across county lines, died suddenly at his home in Camden, Tenn., Monday, July 26. He was 70. Funeral services were held this morning at Plunk Funeral Home in Camden.

Dennis and his wife, Lisa, owned Magic Valley Publishing, which has 13 newspapers and two radio stations. In 2017 they consolidated three newspapers at Kentucky's southwestern tip  — the Fulton Leader, the Hickman Courier and the Hickman County Gazette, into The Current, a weekly named for the Mississippi River and serving Fulton and Hickman counties, which are heavily agricultural and have lost population for decades. MVP sold The Current to Missouri-based Lewis County Press in 2018.

Richardson began his career as sports editor of the Paris Post-Intelligencer and was editor of the Weakley County Press and a copy editor at the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. He was a director of the National Newspaper Association and the Tennessee Press Association, of which his son, Daniel, is president.

Heath, icon of community newspapers and rural journalism, and top expert on newspapers and the mail, dies at 75

UPDATE, July 30: Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. ET Monday, Aug. 2, at Parrott & Ramsey Funeral Home in Campbellsville, which will hold funeral services at 1 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Max Heath (Photo from Southeast Outlook)

Max Heath, an icon of community newspapers and rural journalism, died today at 75 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke Friday, July 23. 

Heath was executive editor and then vice president of Landmark Community Newspapers, which was based in Shelbyville, Ky., where he lived. After retiring from Landmark, he was postal chair for the National Newspaper Association, helping countless community newspapers negotiate the often confusing world of the U.S. Postal Service. At his death, he was NNA postal chair emeritus and a consultant to the organization's Postal Committee. He was also a consultant to Landmark until it was bought in May by Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group.

Heath's passing "set off a period of mourning across the community newspaper industry," NNA said in a news release. He was known across the country as the leading expert on newspaper mailing, and before that was an editor and manager of weekly papers, starting in his hometown of Campbellsville, Ky. He was Landmark's executive editor for 21 years, overseeing 52 newspapers in 12 states, seven collegiate sports newspapers, seven free newspapers, 30 shoppers and more than 30 specialty titles. He was in charge of Landmark's acquisition development from 2001 to 2008, when the company announced that it was exploring a sale. It sold most of its dailies but kept its weeklies until May.

In 2012 Heath won the Al Smith Award for public service through community journalism by a Kentuckian, presented by the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog. "Few journalists have had as much positive impact on as many communities as Max Heath," we said at the time. "He left a strong legacy of leadership during his years as executive editor of LCNI, recruiting, training and advising editors at the company . . . Heath largely established the editorial principles that earned LCNI national recognition. "He is and always will be a country editor," Benjy Hamm, Landmark's executive editor at the time, said at the awards dinner. Heath told the crowd, "Country editor is still the highest title one can hold, for its community impact."

Heath became NNA's point man on postal policy in 1989 when he joined the Postmaster General’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee. The Postal Service gave him its first Special Achievement Award in 1998. "He served on numerous task forces and special committees to oversee the many changes in USPS and to guide its technical and logistical initiatives to preserve the affordable national mail delivery options of the community newspapers he so cherished," NNA said. "As NNA’s top guru, he conducted dozens of training seminars for NNA and other newspaper associations through the early 2000s, retiring only from the travel and never from the advisory function." He testified several times before the Postal Regulatory Commission, "often educating the commissioners, staff and USPS logistics experts on how newspapers were being handled in the field by USPS," NNA said.

“Max has long been a legend in the newspaper industry across the country as the go-to guy for anything postal, and has always been a stalwart ally of newspapers of any size and shape, “ NNA Foundation President Matt Adelman said. “He will be greatly missed as a true friend as well as a mentor, industry leader and invaluable partner in our constant struggle with postal issues on all fronts. His commitment and dedication to NNA and NNAF mirrored his passion for the newspaper industry throughout the many decades we have held him in such high regard. We look forward to honoring him and his immense level of service to our industry as we continue his work.”

NNA Executive Director Lynne Lance said, “Max’s generous way of helping people to understand the ins and outs of using the mail will live on in the education he provided his successors. No one will ever replace the knowledge Max had. But we pledge to honor his legacy by making sure community newspapers remain in the forefront of the Postal Service’s mission.”

Heath was on the advisory board of the rural-journalism institute and the governing board of the Southeast Outlook, a weekly published by the large, nondenominational Southeast Christian Church in Louisville. He is survived by his wife, Ruth Ann, and son Jason, of Louisville. Funeral arrangements are pending.

David Hawpe, who advocated for rural Kentucky as head of the state's largest newsroom, dies at 78; here's a tribute

By Al Cross

Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

David Hawpe died last night at 78. He was my friend and colleague for more than 40 years, and he was a great friend to rural journalism in Kentucky, where we both lived almost all our lives.

David V. Hawpe (1996 C-J photo)

David was editor of the Louisville Courier Journal (formerly The Courier-Journal), and before and after that managing editor and editorial director. During that span, I was a regional reporter, city reporter, state-capital reporter and political writer, and I still write a political column that appears in the paper.

When another longtime friend and colleague, CJ reporter Andy Wolfson, asked for David's legacy and accomplishments for his story, I said for that me his greatest legacy was the preservation of the newspaper as a statewide voice until his retirement in 2009.

The C-J had a statewide system of news bureaus that I do not believe was surpassed by any other paper, and it was one of the last to close its far-flung bureaus, in 2005. The one closest to David's heart was in Hazard, where one of his first big stories was the Hurricane Creek coal-mine explosion that killed 38 miners at the end of 1970. He told Alan Maimon, the paper's last Hazard reporter, that he vowed after the disaster to "do what he could as a journalist to bring attention to, and advocate for, mine safety," Alan writes in his new book, Twilight in Hazard.

David made good on that promise as managing editor from 1979 to 1987, as editor from 1987 to 1996, and even as editorial director, a job that had no news responsibilities. Hazard reporter Gardiner Harris's revelatory 1998 series about dangerous coal dust in mines might not have been published if David hadn't pushed for it. It helped to have a ranking person in the building who had lived significant pieces of his life in Eastern Kentucky; he was born in Pikeville, in the state's easternmost county, and grew up in Louisville.

Even from an office that was on a floor below the newsroom, David had influence, and people listened to him, because beneath the initial bluster that he would often use to start a conversation, he was a first-class journalist dedicated to our craft's role essential role public service. I have no doubt that without him, the paper would have closed its bureaus earlier; outside the Louisville television market, they made no commercial sense, because Louisville advertising sold very little goods and services in the farther reaches of Kentucky, a state that lies in 10 TV markets.

Map shows TV market areas that include Kentucky.

The state's Balkanized media landscape meant that even after TV became the leading news source for Kentuckians, The Courier-Journal had reach and influence. It was a statewide institution, helping Kentuckians in cities, small towns and rural hamlets realize that they had something in common, and the newspaper was a place to find it. It still plays that role online, but to a much lesser degree.

When Alex S. Jones, then of The New York Times, asked me in the C-J newsroom the day Gannett Co. bought the paper from the Bingham family in 1986 what the test of the new owner would be, I said it would be the maintenance of the statewide news operation. That faded in fits and starts, and it was a proximate reason that I left the paper in 2004. But I am sure that if it hadn't been for David, the fade would have come sooner. For that, rural Kentucky owes a debt to David Hawpe.

Eula Hall, one of the best friends the poor in E. Ky. ever had, dies at 93; one of the region's saints, congressman says

UPDATE, May 17: The New York Times obituary gives a more complete view of Hall's life.

Hall is the subject of this book, published in 2013. In the cover
photo, she stands in her clinic's ruins after a fire destroyed it.
For an Appalshop film about Hall and her clinic, chick here.

Eula Hall, who founded a clinic to serve the poor in one of the poorest parts of the nation, the heart of Central Appalachia, died Saturday. She was 93.

An anti-poverty worker in the 1960s, Hall founded the Mud Creek Clinic, Kentucky's first rural clinic for low-income families, with $1,400 in donated money in 1973. It is now named for her.

“Nothing comes easy up on Mud Creek,” Hall’s longtime friend and ally, former Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It was always a fight.”

Hall was also president of the Kentucky Black Lung Association and "fought for better water service and free lunches for schoolchildren," reports the Herald-Leader's Karla Ward. "Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Hall Funeral Home in Martin. Visitation will begin after 6 p.m. Sunday will continue all day Monday at the funeral home."

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article251262069.html#storylink=cpy

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called Hall a "one-of-a-kind Kentuckian . . . She was among the toughest women I’ve ever met, overcoming one challenge after another to serve those who had nowhere else to turn. Even after a fire burned down the clinic, her team didn’t miss a single day. Slowing down was simply never an option. When we spoke on the phone just a couple of weeks ago, Eula’s entire focus remained on those she could help.”

Hall's congressman, U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, said in a release, “Eula Hall was one of Eastern Kentucky’s greatest saints. . . . Driven by her own experience with poverty, Eula dedicated her life to ensuring every person had access to medical care, regardless of their ability to pay for services or prescriptions. She pioneered hope on Mud Creek and far beyond the borders of Floyd County. When I called Eula on her 90th birthday, she was doing what she loved most: working at the clinic that she transformed from a home-grown operation into a modern facility with state-of-the-art equipment. She will always be a legend in Kentucky’s Appalachian region and an inspiration to never stop serving those around us.”

Walter Mondale, whose rural roots helped make him a success in Minnesota but a flub for president, dies at 93

Walter Mondale in his hometown, 1984
Photo: Thomas Arndt/Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Walter Mondale, who was Jimmy Carter's vice president and lost the 1984 presidential election to Ronald Reagan in record fashion, died Monday at 93. He and Carter are the president and VP from the same administration who lived the longest since leaving office; Carter, 96, survives.

Mondale was Minnesota attorney general in 1964 when he was appointed to Hubert Humphrey's Senate seat after the ex-mayor of Minneapolis was elected Lyndon Johnson's vice president. Mondale's roots were different. He was the son of "a poor farmer who had become a Methodist clergyman," frequently reassigned by his denomination, reports Bart Barnes of The Washington Post.

"Winters in the country towns and villages of his boyhood were desolate and lonely, and the Scandinavian culture pervasive," Barnes writes." It was a culture that left a lasting imprint on the young Mr. Mondale, who learned the value of restraint and self-control. Years later, as a nationally known politician, he would recall only two acts that during his growing-up years were certain to result in a whipping: lying and boasting. The reserved youth grew into a low-key politician, never much good as a backslapper or a special pleader. He hated plastic smiles, and he was uncomfortable using the personal pronoun 'I'."

Mondale on his 90th birthday, with Jimmy Carter
(Photo by Anthony Souffle, The Associated Press)

Mondale shared credit with Southern ruralite Carter's 1976 win over President Gerald Ford of Michigan and Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas by helping carry Northern states, and Carter made Mondale the first VP to be a full-fledged member of an administration, but Reagan and George H.W. Bush swamped them in 1980. As the 1984 Democratic nominee, he told voters that he or Reagan would have to raise taxes, but “He won't tell you. I just did.” Later, he said, “My opponent was handing out rose petals; I was handing out coal. . . . I’m not trying to excuse what happened in 1984 on the basis of television technique, even though I think Reagan’s a genius and I’m not very good at it.”

Barnes concludes, "In 2002, Mr. Mondale was drafted into one more campaign, for him a sad last hurrah. He agreed to run for his former Senate seat after the incumbent, Democrat Paul Wellstone, was killed in a plane crash within a couple of weeks of the election. He was narrowly defeated by Republican Norm Coleman, a former mayor of St. Paul and a former Democrat. Years later, in an interview with the University of Minnesota Foundation, he begged off reflecting on his legacy. 'Well, you know, Minnesota doesn’t believe much in bragging. I did the best I could.'"

At left: Mondale sent this remarkable email saying farewell to more than 300 associates and staffers. Click on it for a larger version.

Larry McMurtry, novelist who shaped Texas' view of itself, and America's view of Texas and the Old West, dies at 84

Larry McMurtry posed for Dallas Morning News photographer David Woo in 2012 as he disposed of two-thirds his collection of half a million books, which filled several store buildings in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.

Larry McMurtry, "whose novels about small-town life and the cowboy era of the American West chiseled him into the folklore of his native Texas," died Thursday night at 84, the Dallas Morning News reports.

"McMurtry shaped Texas’ view of itself far more than any contemporary writer," writes Michael Granberry. "None achieved his level of critical acclaim or rivaled his Hollywood success, as he simultaneously shattered and celebrated the mythology of his native state."

Lonesome Dove, which Granberry calls "an elegiac study of the Old West," won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He wrote 45 other books, including The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and Brokeback Mountain, novels that became Oscar-winning movies. He shared an Oscar for adapted screenplay for Brokeback. with Diana Ossana, his partner in writing and much of his life.

Google map

McMurtry grew up the son of a rancher in Archer City, which became the setting for The Last Picture Show. His first novel, Horseman, Pass By, was reworked to become the multiple-Oscar-winning movie Hud, starring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal.

“Larry is someone who took on the stereotypes and busted them. He was willing to say that the cowboy myth was just that,” his friend, retired University of North Texas writer-in-residence George Getschow, told the Morning News. “He wrote about things that disturbed and challenged convention in a way that was piercing, indelicate and right on.”

The New York Times' Dwight Garner notes, "For two years in the early 1990s he was American president of PEN, the august literary and human rights organization. He was a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, where he often wrote on topics relating to the American West. . . . There was a comic brio in his best books, alongside an ever-present melancholy. He was praised for his ability to create memorable and credible female characters. . . . McMurtry had reportedly completed a draft of a memoir titled 62 Women, about some of the women he knew and admired. He had an unusual arrangement in the last years of his life. In 2011 he married Norma Faye Kesey, Ken Kesey’s widow, and she moved in with Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Ossana. “I went up and drug Faye out of Oregon,” he told Grantland.com. “I think I had seen Faye a total of four times over 51 years, and I married her. We never had a date or a conversation. Ken would never let me have conversations with her.”" He also leaves a son, James, "a well-regarded singer and songwriter."

Al Smith, who co-founded the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and left a broad legacy, dies at 94

Al Smith in 2010

Albert Perrine Smith Jr., a noted Kentucky journalist, public citizen and co-founder of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog), died peacefully Friday, March 19 at home in Sarasota, Florida. He was 94.

Smith, who was born in Sarasota and grew up in Hendersonville, Tenn., once owned seven weekly newspapers in Kentucky and Tennessee. For 33 years he was the host and producer of Kentucky Educational Television’s “Comment on Kentucky,” the longest running public-affairs show on a PBS affiliate, taking leave in 1980-82 to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission for Presidents Carter and Reagan.

After selling his newspapers in 1985, Smith broadened his civic work. He and his friend Rudy Abramson, who died in 2008, thought up the Institute for Rural Journalism in the late 1990s, and he persuaded his onetime intern, Hodding Carter III, to take it past the study stage with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which Carter headed, to the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky. He was chair emeritus of the institute’s Advisory Board. He was a charter member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and a fellow of the national Society of Professional Journalists, and former chairman of the Kentucky Arts Commission and former president of the Kentucky Press Association.

At 15, Al beat out 100,000 contestants to win the American Legion’s national oratorical contest. He traveled the country for a year speaking to raise money for the war effort. After high school, he proudly served stateside in the Army during World War II. He attended Vanderbilt University (spottily) before beginning his journalism career in New Orleans, where he was an editor and reporter for two daily papers. Though his 10 years in New Orleans were colorful and fueled a lifetime of stories, alcoholism derailed his career there. He relocated to Russellville, Kentucky, where he became the editor of The News-Democrat, and quit drinking in 1963. He went on to accompany countless others to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and was a “friend of Bill W.” for 58 years.

In 1966, he met his future wife, Martha Helen. They married in 1967. The next year, he left the News-Democrat to start his own weekly, The Logan Leader, and soon purchased The News-Democrat. Through the 1970s, Smith was editor and publisher of the Russellville papers, and with partners acquired other weeklies. The papers took strong stands on public issues, particularly education. In 1974, he began a broadcasting career, hosting “Comment” on Friday nights. The show featured a panel of Kentucky journalists discussing and analyzing that week’s news and soon became popular.

In the 1970s and 80s, Al became involved in several statewide public-service organizations. He was founding chair of the Kentucky Oral History Commission and chaired both Leadership Kentucky and the Shakertown Roundtable, a forum on challenging issues facing Kentucky. He hosted and produced a daily radio show, “Primeline,” from 1990 to 1996, and wrote two books, Wordsmith and Kentucky Cured. He was always an advocate for rural journalism, as noted in this sidebar.

Smith’s greatest legacy was the many people he helped along the way. He mentored younger journalists and others who crossed his path. He was a kind, generous man and a wonderful (if long-winded) storyteller, with a Shakespearean grasp of political foible and triumph. His curiosity was more than a journalist’s quest for a story; it was a wider curiosity that reflected his love for humanity and its condition. That quality brought him a wide circle of friends from all walks of life. He loved his family, Kentucky, political stories, his dogs Chloe and Coco, chocolate and Willie Nelson. Fats Waller’s “Your Feet’s Too Big” transported him to the snowy rifle range at Fort Sill, Okla., or to New Orleans, where he loved the food, the music and the people.  

    
Smith received honorary doctorates from the UK and eight other colleges and universities. He was a Distinguished Rural Kentuckian of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and a Rural Hero (for journalism) by the National Rural Assembly. He received the Medallion for Intellectual Achievement from the UK Library Associates, the Media Award of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, the Kentucky Press Association’s Lewis Owens Award for Community Service, the Kentucky Broadcasters Association’s Ralph Gabbard Distinguished Kentuckian Award, and the Flame of Excellence Award from Leadership Kentucky.

Two statewide awards are named for him. One is given by the rural-journalism institute and the Bluegrass SPJ Chapter for public service through community journalism (he was its first recipient); the other is a $7,500 award from the Arts Commission to a Kentucky artist who has achieved a high level of excellence and creativity.

He was the son of Albert Perrine Smith and Elvira Mace Smith. Survivors include his beloved wife of almost 54 years, Martha Helen Smith; his children, Catherine McCarty (William) of Birmingham, Ala.; Lewis Carter Hancock of Louisville and Virginia Major (William) of West Hartford, Conn.; an “adopted” son, Huaming Gu of Shanghai, China; and his sister, Robin Burrow, of Abilene, Texas. He is also survived by five grandchildren, Evan and Connor (Ikue) McCarty, Lauren Hancock, and Susannah and Ava Major; and numerous cousins.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. The family suggests instead that memorial contributions may be made in Al’s honor to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, 343 S. Martin Luther King Blvd., #206 BLD, Lexington KY 40506-0012, and to The Hope Center.

Charlie Daniels, whose music had broad roots and flowered across genres, dies in Nashville at 83

Daniels in 2019 (Photo by Alan Poizner, the Tennessean)

Charlie Daniels, a versatile musician and songwriter who was one of the rockingest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died Monday in Nashville of a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

Years before the Charlie Daniels Band had a No. 1 hit in 1979 with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the Wilmington, N.C., native "had long established a remarkable, multifaceted career in Nashville," the Tennessean notes. "As a session musician, he played on three of Bob Dylan’s albums — including the revolutionary 'Nashville Skyline' — as well as recordings for Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen. He was a fixture of the touring circuit for the next 40 years, became a tireless advocate for servicemen and women, and entered the information age as one of country music's most outspoken conservative voices."

The broad roots of his music were illustrated by the Volunteer Jam, the freewheeling Southern music festival that he started in 1974, featuring Roy Acuff, Stevie Ray Vaughn, James Brown and the Marshall Tucker Band," Bill Friskics-Warren notes in The New York Times. "Modeled after the Allman Brothers, another regular act at the Jam, Mr. Daniels’s band used dual lead guitarists and dual drummers in the service of an expansive improvisational sound that included elements of country, blues, bluegrass, rock and Western swing."

From "Uneasy Rider" and "Long Haired Country Boy," mid-1970s songs that embraced marijuana, Daniels did "Devil" and "In America," the first of many patriotic numbers. He trended toward country and gospel music in his later years, joining the Grand Ole Opry in 2008 and the country hall of fame in 2016. The hall's CEO, Kyle Young, told the Tennessean, "His music fused the immediacy of Southern rock with the classic country storytelling that he heard as a child. He brought new audiences to country music, pointing people to the sources even as he explored the edges."

Deal Funeral Directors of Statesboro, Ga., is handling arrangements and says it is "hosting a register signing Tuesday-Friday 9-3 this week for fans of Charlie Daniels to come by and sign."

NYT page with covid-19 obits relied on local newspapers

Screenshot of page, near halfway through, with largest text box; for a larger version, click on it.

The New York Times all-text front page with names and short descriptions of covid-19 victims was a remarkable piece of journalism, but the online version is even more so. It's one long page of nearly 100,000 silhouettes, with text boxes appearing at different scrolling points.

The names and descriptions came from more than 250 local newspapers, which are each given credit at the bottom of the page. A Times editor cited the obituaries as an example of why "local journalism matters, now more than ever."