SPJ members inducted into Hall of Fame
The Women’s Press Club of New York State Inc. celebrated its 40th anniversary in May by inducting two of its founders — both SPJ members — into the club’s Hall of Honor. They are freelance writers Kate Reinert Fleisher of Horseheads, N.Y., and Kay Lockridge of Santa Fe, N.M., the first female president (1981) of SPJ’s Deadline Club in New York City.
Fleisher is a graduate of College Misericordia in Pennsylvania, where she was editor of the Miss Recordia and did graduate work at Syracuse University. She was women’s editor of the Schenectady (N.Y.) Union-Star and education writer/general assignment reporter for the Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette.
A graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where she was editor of The Miami Student, Lockridge has an M.A. in journalism from Syracuse and was an instructor in journalism at Michigan State University. She was a reporter and editor for The Associated Press in Buffalo and Albany. She is now a features writer for the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Both women served as legislative correspondents for Cuyler News Service at the New York Capitol in Albany and have extensive writing and editing experience with local and national business publications.
Natz leaves WTHR, heads to New York
Jacques Natz, former news director for Indianapolis-based WTHR-TV Channel 13, left the station on Sept. 15 to become director of digital content for Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. in New York. In his new position, Natz will be charged with upgrading and expanding the Web presence of the company’s 28 television stations. Natz had been at Channel 13 for 10 years.
Performing Songwriter adds Taylor as editor
SPJ member Rick Taylor has joined Performing Songwriter magazine as managing editor. Based in Nashville, Tenn., he will oversee editorial operations.
Taylor most recently was group managing editor for American Media’s Country Weekly and Country Music magazines.
A Leadership Music alumnus, Taylor serves on the board of directors of the Academy of Country Music and is a member of the Country Music Association.
Obits
Longtime SPJ member Edley Wilbur Cox, 85, died Aug. 3 in Dallas. Born into a newspaper family, Cox enrolled in John Tarleton College in Stephenville, Texas at the age of 15. He later transferred to the University of Texas at Austin where he earned high honor degrees in government and journalism.
Following his stint with the Navy during World War II, Cox was employed by Tracy-Locke Advertising Agency, Southwestern Bell Telephone and the U.S. Regional Office of Price Stabilization during the Korean War. In 1953 he began a 32-year career with the Dallas Area Home Builders Association, eventually leading the association as executive vice president. He had been an SPJ member since 1941.
