Turner Catledge

Columnist Joseph W. Alsop Jr. (right) sitting with Turner Catledge (left) at the White House.

Turner Catledge ( /ˈkætlɨdʒ/; 1901–1983) was an American journalist, best known for his work at The New York Times. He was Managing Editor from 1952-1964, at which time he became the paper's first Executive Editor. After his retirement in 1968, he served briefly on the board of the New York Times company as a vice president. He published his autobiography, My Life and The Times, in 1971.

Early life

Catledge was born on March 17, 1901 to his parents, Lee and Willie Catledge, and sister Bessie, on his grandfather’s 900-acre (3.6 km²) farm in Ackerman, Mississippi. When he was three, his family moved to Philadelphia, Mississippi; after graduating from Philadelphia High School in 1918, he enrolled at Mississippi A&M with a science major.

Career in journalism

Catledge's first news job was at fourteen years old for the Neshoba Democrat, setting type. After college, the Democrat offered him another job but instead he became editor of the Tunica Times (Tunica, Mississippi) in 1922, and later managing editor and mechanical superintendent of the Tupelo Journal (Tupelo, Mississippi). At the Journal he campaigned against the Ku Klux Klan, who were most active during this time period; in response, the Klan burned down the newspaper plant.

After Catledge lost his job due to the Tupelo Journal incident, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee; there, he worked for the Commercial Appeal, the city's daily newspaper.

Finally, in the spring of 1929, Catledge began working at The New York Times, starting in the New York bureau, until later when he began work in the company's Washington, D.C. bureau as a reporter for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Over the remainder of his career, he worked for the Times as managing editor, executive editor, and last as the company's vice president.

Family life

On March 19, 1931, Catledge married Mildred Turpin, with whom he had two children, Mildred Lee in 1932, and Ellen Douglas in 1936. They married at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York. In 1949, Catledge and wife Mildred divorced; soon after, Catledge married widow Abby Ray Izard in December 1957.

Death

Turner Catledge died in 1983, age 82. A memorial service for Catledge was held June 28, 1983 at 11 A.M., in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In literature

• The Broadway play, "The Girls in 509", by author Howard M. Teichmann, was dedicated to Turner Catledge:

To TURNER CATLEDGE, gentleman journalist, who nightly played his role faultlessly, whose behavior before, during, and after each performance was exemplary, and whose good humour and graciousness are deeply appreciated.