Nine new members will join the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame Friday, April 28. They will be inducted at a luncheon ceremony sponsored by the University of Kentucky’s School of Journalism and Media and the UK School of Journalism Alumni Association.
The new inductees being recognized for their contributions to journalism are:
— Dr. Mike Farrell, professor of journalism at the University of Kentucky, director of its Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, former managing editor of The Kentucky Post and a co-founder of the NKyTribune.
Farrell is also KyForward’s First Amendment columnist and senior adviser to the reporting staff. He is special projects editor for NKyTribune.
— Bettye Lee Mastin, a retired Lexington Herald-Leader reporter and author whose writing about historic architecture helped lead to the preservation of many historic structures in the Bluegrass.
— Tom Butler, retired vice president of news for WPSD-TV in Paducah, a mentor to several outstanding broadcast journalists and an advocate of strong journalism during his 35 years there.
— Lewis Conn and William Matthews, whose 1968 creation of the Newspapers Inc. chain changed the way Kentucky community newspapers were owned and published. (Conn is deceased and will be inducted posthumously.)
— Ron Daley of Hazard, former editor and publisher of the groundbreaking Troublesome Creek Times in Hindman, now strategic partner lead for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. His columns frequently appear in KyForward and NKyTribune.
— Bill Francis, retired reporter and anchor for WLKY-TV, who covered Louisville for 42 years and was the first full-time business reporter on for a Kentucky television station.
— Mary D. Ferguson, who became the first female reporter for Hopkinsville’s Kentucky New Era in 1962, then a columnist and the Pennyrile area’s unofficial historian until her death in 2016 (posthumous induction).
— Joe Palmer, a Lexington native and UK graduate whose Thoroughbred racing coverage for the New York Herald Tribune in the 1940s and ’50s was hailed by many contemporaries as the best (posthumous induction).
The nine honorees will join more than 200 other journalists and news-media executives who have joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame since its 1981 inception. Members are chosen by a committee representing the state’s news media, Hall of Fame members, the UK Journalism Alumni Association and the School of Journalism and Media.
“We are so pleased to see our Mike Farrell join others in the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame,” said Judy Clabes, publisher of KyForward and NKyTribune. “He is a great colleague and a credit to journalism wherever he goes.
“We are also happy to see our columnist Ron Daley inducted. This year’s class is impressive and deserving and we congratulate them all.”
Nominees must be either Kentucky natives or journalists who have spent the bulk of their careers in the state.
To reserve a seat for the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame induction luncheon on Friday, April 28, go to www.ukalumni.net/journalismhalloffame. Tickets for the luncheon are $50 and the deadline to make reservations is April 21.
For more information, call Cheryl Edwards at (859) 257-1730.
UK’s annual Joe Creason Lecture in journalism, which has usually been held the same day as the luncheon, is now a stand-alone event. It will be held April 18 and feature Terence Hunt, recently retired deputy Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent for The Associated Press.
From UK School of Journalism Communications