Joe Creason (June 10, 1918 – August 14, 1974) was a journalist who wrote for ''

The Courier-Journal ''The Courier-Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), is the highest circulation newspaper in Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett and billed as "Part of the ''USA Today'' Ne ...

'' in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He was born in

Benton, Kentucky Benton is a home rule-class city in Marshall County, Kentucky, United States. The current mayor of this city is Rita Dotson. The population was 4,756 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. History Benton was founded in 1 ...

, which he would later humorously call "the only town in Kentucky where I was born." After graduation from the University of Kentucky in 1940, he became the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of a Benton newspaper, and then the editor of a newspaper in

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...

. He then accepted a position as a sports reporter, feature writer, and columnist for ''The Courier-Journal'' in 1941. His popular column, "Joe Creason's Kentucky," began in 1963 and documented the lives of everyday Kentuckians. Creason traveled through every county in Kentucky in search of material for these stories, and he often printed stories sent in to him by readers. These articles were written in a quirky and simple style, featuring colorful and amusing characters. The articles were collected into two books and a record album. Creason was also an amateur historian, and he co-wrote and edited "The Civil War in Kentucky," an award-winning newspaper supplement. He was also president of the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

Alumni Association. Creason is credited with starting the movement to make the

Kentucky coffeetree The Kentucky coffeetree (''Gymnocladus dioicus''), also known as American coffee berry, Kentucky mahogany, nicker tree, and stump tree, is a tree in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae of the legume family Fabaceae, native to the Midwest, Upper South, ...

the first official state tree of Kentucky, a status it held from 1976 until 1994 when it was replaced by the

tulip poplar ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus '' Liriodendron'' (the othe ...

. Creason continued writing and working until his death, which occurred while playing tennis with WHAS radio personality

Milton Metz Milton Metz (c. 1921 – January 12, 2017) was an American radio and television personality in Louisville, Kentucky. He occasionally did commercial work for local radio and television stations until he was unable to due to his health in the las ...

Joe Creason Park Joe Creason Park is a municipal park in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Located in the Poplar Level neighborhood, it is in roughly the central portion of the city. The park adjoins and connects to Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve, and bo ...

, where he died, is named after him.Welsh, Rev. Joey N., "A Thanksgiving Homage to Joe Creason," ColumbiaMagazine.com, November 19, 2006
/ref> The Bingham family that owned ''The Courier-Journal'', other friends of Creason, and alumni of the University of Kentucky made donations to the UK School of Journalism to establish th

which began in 1977 with a lecture by columnist James J. Kilpatrick. James Reston of The New York Times gave the next lecture, in 1979, and it has been held each year since.

References

External links

*
Guide to the Joe Creason papers
housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Creason, Joe 1918 births 1974 deaths American male journalists Writers from Louisville, Kentucky People from Benton, Kentucky 20th-century American non-fiction writers Courier Journal people Journalists from Kentucky 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists