Kathy Spurlock
| Kathy Marcia Morrow Spurlock>
(Executive editor and general manager of the Monroe News Star | |||
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| Born | June 8, 1953 Fort Worth, Texas Reared in Bossier City, Louisiana | ||
| Died | September 10, 2021 (aged 68) Monroe, Louisiana | ||
| Political Party | Republican Alma mater: | ||
| Spouse | Lindsey Scott Wilkerson Children: | ||
Kathy Marcia Morrow Spurlock (June 8, 1953 – September 10, 2021) was a Louisiana journalist who was the executive editor and the general manager of the Monroe News Star in Monroe in Ouachita Parish.
Background
Spurlock was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the daughter of Urban and Ruby Morrow. the family moved to Bossier City, where she graduated in 1971 from Airline High School. She received her journalism degree in 1975 from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston under department chairman Wiley Hilburn.[1]
Career
She then interned in Shreveport at The Times was promoted to various editorial positions in the news departments of both The News Star and the defunct Monroe Morning World. She served two stints at The News Star with twenty-one years as the executive editor, when she retired in 2016.[1]
In 1982, Spurlock left Monroe to become editor of Louisiana Suburban Press in Baker in East Baton Rouge Parish, and moved in 1985 to The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, at which she worked in various editing positions there. In 1989, she returned to Gannett as metro editor of The Clarion-Ledger in the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi. She returned to Monroe in 1995 as executive editor and general manager in 2014 for her last two years at the publication.[2]
Active in the community, Spurlock was a past chairman of the trustees of the Twin City Art Foundation Board. She was involved too with the United Way of Northeast Louisiana, the Public Affairs Research Council in Baton Rouge, the Strauss Little Theatre in Monroe, the Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana, and the Salvation Army. She was an advisor of the Junior League of Monroe and the Chamber of Commerce. She was the chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee of the Louisiana Press Association. She also sat on the national board of the American Society of News Editors. In 2002, she was named a "Distinguished Alumnus" of Louisiana Tech's College of Liberal Arts. She mentored the newsroom staff and opened her home to her colleagues on Thanksgiving Day or for celebrations of newsroom awards.[1]
A classically trained pianist, she was also a songwriter, the executive producer for the locally produced film, Cowboy and Indiana.[3] She was a past president of the Louisiana/Mississippi Association for Popular Music Education. She wrote a novella in 2017. She was an avid gardener and engaged in trout fishing on the White River in Arkansas.[1]
Death
Spurlock died at the age of sixty-eight at her home in Monroe after a lengthy illness. Survivors included her husband, Lindsey Scott Wilkerson (born 1957); daughter, Anne Perrone and her husband Jeff, and grandchildren, Kaylin and Grant Perrone.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Kathy M. Spurlock Obituary, the Monroe News Star, accessed September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Greg Hilburn (September 10, 2021). Retired News-Star editor Kathy Spurlock, award winning journalist, dies. The Monroe News Star. Retrieved on September 13, 2021.
- ↑ Cowboy and Indiana. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on September 13, 2021.