John Irvin Keasler (August 3, 1921 – September 5, 1995) was an American newspaper

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

for ''

The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

'', which folded in 1988. Keasler grew up in

Plant City Plant City is an incorporated city in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. The population was 39,764 at the 2020 census. Despite many thinking it was named for flora ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, which is 26 miles east of Tampa. He got his start in journalism with a newsletter he penned while serving in World War II. He parlayed the newsletter into a job with the ''Plant City Courier''. From there, he moved on to the larger ''Tampa Tribune'' and then to ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' and the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'' before settling in for decades at ''The Miami News''. While at the ''Post-Dispatch'', Keasler was one of the founders in 1956 of the Catfish Club, which eventually became the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis. During his 30-year career, Keasler covered both the Kennedy assassination and the 1969 moon landing. Keasler's 7,000 mostly humorous columns about South Florida life were a great favorite, some of which were collected into books. Keasler also enjoyed playing pranks on his fellow reporters, including some at the rival ''Miami Herald''. He and cartoonist Don Wright, who won two Pulitzer Prizes while at ''The Miami News'', in particular played tricks on one another. When the ''News'' folded, no one was more distraught than Keasler. "I feel half numb, like I've got a head full of cold Crisco," he said at the time. "''The News'' was a living thing with a heart and a soul, and it's dying." Keasler′s satirical novel, ''Surrounded on Three Sides'', first published in 1958, remains in print. He died in Plant City, Fla., in 1995, at the age of 74. A scholarship to the University of Miami for a student majoring in print journalism, the John and Marjorie Keasler Journalism Scholarship, is given in his memory.

References

External links

* John Keasler′s column,
Artist takes Dizzy Gillespie to the edge of the future
" ''The Miami News'', 17 December 1985 * ''People'' magazine article o

who had his own advice column, "Hounded by Woes, Miamians Beg for More of Ryan the Advice Dog," 19 October 1987 * University Press of Florida page on
Surrounded on Three Sides
'
John Keasler′s obituary
* Article and photographs o
John Keasler pretending to be hoarding cigarettes, sugar, and other items
while working for ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' in the 21 August 1950 issue of ''Life'' magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Keasler, John 1921 births 1995 deaths American columnists Writers from Miami St. Louis Post-Dispatch people American male journalists American male novelists 20th-century American novelists People from Plant City, Florida The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people American military personnel of World War II 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Florida