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William Turner Catledge (; 1901–1983) was an American journalist, best known for his work at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. He was managing editor from 1952 to 1964, when he became the paper's first executive editor. After retiring 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 Johnston Catledge and Willie Anna Turner, and older sister Bessie Lee Catledge, on his grandfather's 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. Clayton Rand, the publisher of the Times (a newspaper aligned with the interests of white planters), ran a series of stories denouncing the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and C ...
; under intense pressure from local merchants, Rand sold the newspaper to another publisher, putting Catledge out of work. Catledge later served as managing editor and mechanical superintendent of the ''Tupelo Journal'' (
Tupelo, Mississippi Tupelo () is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,300, Tupelo is the sixth-largest city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and ...
), and then worked for ''
The Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, als ...
'' in
Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. Finally, in the spring of 1929, Catledge began working at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', starting in the
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
bureau, until later when he began work in the company's Washington, D.C. bureau as a reporter covering the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
. In the winter of 1941, he left the New York Times to become chief correspondent and later Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Sun. In 1943, he was rehired by The New York Times as a national correspondent. 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
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
d; he married his second wife,
widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can s ...
Abby Ray Izard, in December 1957. Catledge was a first cousin of the
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
-based journalist Iris Turner Kelso.


Death

Turner Catledge died in 1983, age 82.


Honors and recognition

Catledge was a member of the Century Club in New York, the Metropolitan Club in Washington and the Boston Club in New Orleans, among others, and held honorary degrees from Tulane and Washington and Lee Universities and the University of Kentucky. In 1971, he received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...
.


In literature

*The Broadway play ''
The Girls in 509 ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' by author Howard M. Teichmann was dedicated to Turner Catledge.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catledge, Turner 1901 births 1983 deaths Editors of New York City newspapers The New York Times editors The New York Times writers The New York Times corporate staff People from Ackerman, Mississippi Journalists from Mississippi 20th-century American journalists American male journalists