Texas Newspaper Oral History

Mary Henkel Judson was the first woman elected president of Texas Press Association, the 113th person to lead the 110-year-old association. She was the daughter of Cap and Kitty Henkel and a “newspaper brat.” Her parents were publishers of the Mid-County Review in Nederland when Judson was born in 1953. Her first paying job was [...]

Earl Milton “Milt” Morin Jr., 67, died May 20, 2009, while in Austin working on legislative issues in support of Texas newspapers. Morin was owner and publisher emeritus of the Daily Court Review, Houston, a newspaper founded in 1889 and continuously owned by his family. Morin earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University [...]

It’s Saturday, January  23, 2010.  We’re at the mid-winter convention of the Texas Press Association and this morning we’re going to have a conversation about Rigby Owen, Sr. I’m Rigby Owen, Jr., born in 1938 in Ada, Oklahoma. I’m Willis Webb born in 1937 in Freestone County, Texas. Cash: And tell us how you knew [...]

Roy J. Eaton, 110th president, bought the Wise County Messenger in 1973. In January 2009, Roy and Jeannine Eaton sold the Messenger to Phil and Lesa Major. Eaton was state chairman for the National Newspaper Association when he was elected Texas Press Association president. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Texas Newspaper [...]

Sarah Greene was born in Gilmer, Texas on January 11, 1929. Her grandfather bought the local paper in 1915 and her parents ran it. She began selling subscriptions to the paper at the age of 8 and worked around the office, including running election returns from the courthouse. She attended Stevens College in Columbia, Mo. [...]

In purchasing the Dawson County Free Press in Lamesa, Walter Buckel entered the newspaper business in 1967. In 2008, Buckel, the 108th president of the Texas Press Association,  was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame. Forty years earlier, in  March 1968 Buckel merged his paper with the Lamesa Reporter. James Roberts had [...]

William E. “Bill” Berger was born in Ferris, Illinois on June 6th 1918. His father ran a small grocery store and Berger sold magazines and later had a newspaper route. He later became a country correspondent for the weekly county journal, located in Carthage. He went to college in Carthage and dropped out after two [...]