Former DM editors do great things, look forward to Centennial Celebration

Not many businesses have survived long enough to celebrate their centennial anniversary. The Daily Mississippian has lasted through 18 presidents and six wars, and is one of the oldest and largest student newspapers in the United States.

Those young journalists have gone on to do great things, with many working for newspapers, magazines and other media around the world.

William Winter, who was co-editor of the paper in 1942-43, was the 58th governor of Mississippi, and in March 2008, he was given the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for his work advancing education and racial reconciliation.

James Autry, who was editor-in-chief from 1954-55, became president of the Meredith Corporation, a Fortune 500 business, and is also a nationally recognized poet. Autry has been given the distinguished alumnus award from Ole Miss and in 1991 was awarded the Missouri State Medal of Honor.

Larry Speakes, who worked on The Mississippian staff in the late ‘50s, became the editor of The Oxford Eagle in 1961, and later was press secretary for  Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi, and press spokesman for President Ronald Reagan. Reagan presented Speakes with the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Charles Overby, who was the editor-in-chief of The Mississippian when it first added “Daily” to its name in the spring of 1968, has had an illustrious career that includes being the chairman and chief executive of the Newseum, an interactive museum of history, news and technology located in Washington, D.C., and the chairman and CEO of the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan private operating foundation that focuses on promoting better understanding of the First Amendment.

Overby said that he accomplished one of his first journalistic goals while he was in college.  

“I remember from the time I was a junior in high school, my goal was to be the editor of The Daily Mississippian,” he said. 

“That’s the reason I went to Ole Miss, was to be editor-in-chief and move on and become a full-time journalist. It was a very satisfying experience.”

Overby said his time at The Daily Mississippian helped prepare him for the challenges of being an editor of a daily newspaper.

“I think the challenges and the highs and lows of producing a daily newspaper helped prepare me to become a full time journalist,” he said. “I loved being the editor. And so when I got out of Ole Miss my next professional goal was to become editor of a daily newspaper.”

Overby will be a moderator for two of the panels during the Centennial Celebration Saturday afternoon. 

“The panelists are former editors that range from the 1950s to the 2000s, so it spans 50 years,” he said. “These are people who have had notable accomplishments in their careers. We’ll be celebrating the past, present and future of journalism at The Daily Mississippian.” 

Overby said he expects that there will be some discussions of memories from former editors’ time at Ole Miss, but that they will also talk about the current realities of journalism, politics and life in general. 

Overby said he is looking forward to seeing some of his old friends but that he is also interested in the current state of the newspaper that he led for a year. 

“It will be kind of a reunion for sure, but it will also be a chance to celebrate the great things that are happening now at Ole Miss in journalism,” he said. “I think a lot of us will enjoy seeing what has gone on recently and will be happy to see the future of journalism at Ole Miss.”

Thomas “Sparky” Reardon was the summer editor of The Daily Mississippian in 1970, and is now the dean of students at Ole Miss. 

Reardon said he remembers covering events such as the voting age being lowered to 18 and Archie Manning’s Ole Miss career during his time at Ole Miss, but one memory stuck out more than the others. 

“I remember we did a special on the Shelby County Fair,” Reardon said. “Otis Tims and I went to the fair and we had great time going out and covering that.”

Reardon said that when he thinks of his time writing for the paper, he always thinks about Brady Hall, where the newspaper staff used to work.

“It was a very small place, and we were in pretty confined quarters there and that will always hold special memories there,” he said.

Reardon said he is looking forward to seeing the people that he once worked with.

“When you write for The Daily Mississippian, or any other newspaper, the story that you report on becomes a part of who you are, as well as the relationships on the staff,” Reardon said. “I’m looking forward to getting back together and hearing about things that I don’t remember, some things I do remember and some things that probably never happened.”

Jesse Holland, who was editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian during the 1993-94 academic year, has also made a name for himself. Holland covers the Supreme Court for the Associated Press and  is the first African American to be a Supreme Court correspondent for a major media organization. 

Holland, who was only the second African American to be editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, was named to the University of Mississippi’s Top 50 Journalism Graduates and received the 1996 Associated Press Managing Editors Association John L. Dougherty Excellence Award.

Jenny Dodson Robertson, editor-in-chief during 1997-98, interned with National Geographic Traveller magazine before taking a job managing media relations for FedEx. 

“I used a lot of what I learned as editor on different campaigns that I have worked on in my public relations career,” Roberson said.

When asked about her favorite memory at The Daily Mississippian, Robertson recalled a time when two papers were printed in one day. 

“The university announced it was going through an image review, which was designed to look at all of the symbols of Ole Miss,” Dodson said. “It was an emotionally charged subject and it was getting a lot of attention.”

The university planned to announce its decision early in the day on a Friday and Robertson said she knew they were going to be late covering the issue if they had to wait until Monday’s paper to print a story about it.

“We decided we were going to be the first to cover it so we did an afternoon edition,” Robertson said. “We went to the press conference and then we all came back to the paper immediately. We had a picture, an editorial cartoon and we put together an 8-page paper that went out that afternoon.”

Robertson said the staff  hand-delivered them to the newsstands.

“We had people standing at the newsstands waiting on the paper to come out at 3 p.m., and we were pretty proud of that,” she said.

Robertson said that was easily her favorite paper that she ever put out.

“This was definitely my favorite paper ever because of the team work and the spirit that everybody had in trying to be the first to cover that story,” she said. 

Robertson has since become part of the “First Family” of The Daily Mississippian. Her husband, Kenneth Rob Robertson, was the editor-in-chief the year before her, and his father, James Robertson, was the editor-in-chief in 1961-62, when the paper first started printing five days a week and Kenneth’s mother was the managing editor in 1962-63. 

“The Daily Mississippian is a tradition for my family,” Robertson said. “It means a lot to us because of that.”

Robertson said she is looking forward to coming back and seeing all of her former colleagues. 

“Being on a staff of the newspaper, it’s almost like being in your own fraternity or sorority because you spend so much time together,” she said. “We’ve worked together till midnight every night. Those are my closest friends from college and I’m looking forward to catching up with all of them and talking about some of the crazier stories that we covered or some of the things that happened at the newspaper.”

Other staff members who have gone on to make a name for themselves include: Bryan Doyle, web producer for Politico; Greg Brock, senior editor at the New York Times; Dan Goodgame, a Rhodes Scholar and managing editor at Fortune Small Businiess; Glen Ballard, Grammy-winning writer and composer; Myres McDougal, Rhodes Scholas and professor at Yale Law School for 50 years; and James Robertson, former Mississippi Supreme Court justice. 

Elizabeth Nichols Shiver, editor of The Mississippian in 1953-54, was chair of the 75th anniversary in 1986, and is co-chair of this year’s centennial celebration along with Jim Autry.