George W. Shannon
Encyclopedia
George Washington Shannon (February 20, 1914 - April 25, 1998) was a conservative Louisiana
journalist
.
Shannon was born in El Dorado
, the seat of Union County, in southern Arkansas
. He began his career as a reporter and sports editor at the El Dorado News-Times, one of the Clyde E. Palmer
newspapers (since WEHCO Media, Inc.
). In 1935, he joined the staff of the Shreveport Times, a morning daily, and became assistant city editor. In 1938, he was hired by the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
, then an afternoon daily and Sunday morning publication and the largest newspaper in central Louisiana. The veteran Alexandria editor, Adras LaBorde
, came to The Town Talk after Shannon had already left.
Shannon's career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army in World War II
. After the war, he joined the staff of the now defunct Shreveport Journal, an afternoon Monday-Saturday daily. Shannon was named Journal editor in July 1953 and retained that position until April 1971. At the time, the paper was owned by the family of the publisher Douglas F. Attaway
(1910–1994), and it espoused staunchly conservative
editorials.
Shannon urged the South to leave the Democratic Party
. He first proposed "free electors" in 1964, but then editorially endorsed Republican
presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
in the latter's ill-fated race against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
. The Journal opposed most policies of the John F. Kennedy
and Johnson presidencies. In 1968, the paper endorsed the American Independent Party
presidential candidate, then former Governor George Corley Wallace, Jr.
, of Alabama
, who won Louisiana's ten electoral votes by plurality. Wallace came to Shreveport in 1971 to speak at Shannon's "appreciation dinner".
Even in state politics, Shannon broke with the Democrats in the 1964 gubernatorial general election
, when the Journal urged support for the conservative Republican candidate Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr.
, of Shreveport. Lyons ran strongly in northwest Louisiana but was decisively defeated statewide by the Democrat John Julian McKeithen
. Shannon opposed moderate and liberal Republicans, whose presence in the party, he believed, served to discourage Southerners at the time from switching their partisan affiliation. However, in the 1961 special election for the United States House of Representatives
, Shannon had penned the editorial endorsing the Democrat Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., who defeated Charlton Lyons to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Representative Overton Brooks
. Shannon wrote that "citizens who understand the principles of states rights are not likely to be fooled by the claim that the election of Waggonner could be viewed as a victory for the Kennedy
regime."
After he left the Journal, Shannon was associated with The Citizen, a magazine published in Jackson, Mississippi
. In retirement, he returned to Shreveport.
When the Attaways sold the Journal to Shreveport businessman Charles T. Beaird
(1922–2006), an avowed liberal Republican who had once served on the Caddo Parish Police Jury (since the Caddo Parish Commission), the editorial policy, under editor Stanley R. Tiner
, a Democrat and later an unsuccessful congressional candidate, switched firmly to the political left.
Shannon's professional and civic involvements included the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the National Conference of Editorial Writers, and the Downtown Rotary Club of Shreveport, one of the largest civic clubs in the nation. He was also a past president of the Shreveport chapter of the Reserve Officers Association.
Shannon died of a sudden illness. Services were held in the Frost Chapel of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport on April 28, 1998.
Mrs. Shannon, the former Sidney Anita "Nita" Pearce (1906–1996), preceded her husband in death, having succumbed to complications following an accidental fall at their Shreveport residence. A native of Bunkie
in Avoyelles Parish, she graduated from Bunkie High School and attended Alexandria Business College. The Shannons met while they were both living in Alexandria. Services for Mrs. Shannon were held on May 8, 1996, also at the First Baptist Church of Shreveport, with the Reverend Dr. Jon Stubblefield officiating.
In 1962, the couple sued the Shreveport Transit Co. after Mrs. Shannon was injured on a municipal trolley. They collected some $12,000 for pain and medical bills but tried to amend the suit to claim $30,000. At the time of the accident, a student driver was behind the wheel of the trolley.
The Shannons had no children. They are buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport.
Shannon's archival materials are at the Noel Memorial Library of Louisiana State University in Shreveport
.
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Shannon was born in El Dorado
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...
, the seat of Union County, in southern Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
. He began his career as a reporter and sports editor at the El Dorado News-Times, one of the Clyde E. Palmer
Clyde E. Palmer
Clyde Eber Palmer was the owner of a chain of newspapers and radio stations and a television outlet covering southwestern Arkansas and part of northeastern Texas during the early to middle 20th century. He operated his media conglomerate from Texarkana, Texas.- Early years :Palmer was born to Mr....
newspapers (since WEHCO Media, Inc.
WEHCO Media, Inc.
WEHCO Media, Inc., based in Little Rock, is a privately held media company with holdings that include newspapers, cable television systems, and internet service. Walter E. Hussman, Jr. , is the president....
). In 1935, he joined the staff of the Shreveport Times, a morning daily, and became assistant city editor. In 1938, he was hired by the Alexandria Daily Town Talk
The Town Talk (Alexandria)
The Town Talk, started as The Daily Town Talk in 1883 and later named the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, is the major newspaper of Central Louisiana. It is published by Gannett in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the economic center of Central Louisiana.The daily newspaper has a circulation...
, then an afternoon daily and Sunday morning publication and the largest newspaper in central Louisiana. The veteran Alexandria editor, Adras LaBorde
Adras LaBorde
Adras Paul LaBorde, I , was a reporter, managing editor, and columnist for the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, the largest newspaper in central Louisiana. His career stretched from the mid-1940s into the early 1990s...
, came to The Town Talk after Shannon had already left.
Shannon's career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, he joined the staff of the now defunct Shreveport Journal, an afternoon Monday-Saturday daily. Shannon was named Journal editor in July 1953 and retained that position until April 1971. At the time, the paper was owned by the family of the publisher Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway, Jr., was president and publisher of the defunct Shreveport Journal , a daily newspaper in northwest Louisiana. He was chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the Shreveport, Louisisana CBS affiliate from 1966 until the channel was sold to Viacom in 1979...
(1910–1994), and it espoused staunchly conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
editorials.
Shannon urged the South to leave the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. He first proposed "free electors" in 1964, but then editorially endorsed Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
in the latter's ill-fated race against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. The Journal opposed most policies of the John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Johnson presidencies. In 1968, the paper endorsed the American Independent Party
American Independent Party
The American Independent Party is a right-wing political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate and retired Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay as the vice...
presidential candidate, then former Governor George Corley Wallace, Jr.
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
, of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, who won Louisiana's ten electoral votes by plurality. Wallace came to Shreveport in 1971 to speak at Shannon's "appreciation dinner".
Even in state politics, Shannon broke with the Democrats in the 1964 gubernatorial general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
, when the Journal urged support for the conservative Republican candidate Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr.
Charlton Lyons
Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., also known as Big Papa Lyons , was a Shreveport oilman who in 1964 waged the first determined Republican bid for the Louisiana governorship since Reconstruction. Lyons also made a strong but losing bid for the United States House of Representatives in a special election...
, of Shreveport. Lyons ran strongly in northwest Louisiana but was decisively defeated statewide by the Democrat John Julian McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
. Shannon opposed moderate and liberal Republicans, whose presence in the party, he believed, served to discourage Southerners at the time from switching their partisan affiliation. However, in the 1961 special election for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, Shannon had penned the editorial endorsing the Democrat Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., who defeated Charlton Lyons to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Representative Overton Brooks
Overton Brooks
Thomas Overton Brooks was a Democratic U.S. representative from the Shreveport-based Fourth Congressional District of northwest Louisiana, having served for a quarter century beginning on January 3, 1937. Brooks was a nephew of U.S. Senator John Holmes Overton as well as a great-grandson of Walter...
. Shannon wrote that "citizens who understand the principles of states rights are not likely to be fooled by the claim that the election of Waggonner could be viewed as a victory for the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
regime."
After he left the Journal, Shannon was associated with The Citizen, a magazine published in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
. In retirement, he returned to Shreveport.
When the Attaways sold the Journal to Shreveport businessman Charles T. Beaird
Charles T. Beaird
Charles Thomas Beaird of Shreveport, Louisiana, was an industrialist, newspaper publisher, philanthropist and civic leader. He was a self-identified "liberal Republican" politician and a champion of civil rights. Born to James Benjamin Beaird and Mattie Connell Fort Beaird, his mother died six...
(1922–2006), an avowed liberal Republican who had once served on the Caddo Parish Police Jury (since the Caddo Parish Commission), the editorial policy, under editor Stanley R. Tiner
Stanley R. Tiner
Stanley Ray Tiner has since May 2000 been the executive editor and vice president of The Sun Herald newspaper in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi. He previously served briefly as the executive editor of The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City and as editor of the Press-Register in Mobile, Alabama...
, a Democrat and later an unsuccessful congressional candidate, switched firmly to the political left.
Shannon's professional and civic involvements included the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the National Conference of Editorial Writers, and the Downtown Rotary Club of Shreveport, one of the largest civic clubs in the nation. He was also a past president of the Shreveport chapter of the Reserve Officers Association.
Shannon died of a sudden illness. Services were held in the Frost Chapel of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport on April 28, 1998.
Mrs. Shannon, the former Sidney Anita "Nita" Pearce (1906–1996), preceded her husband in death, having succumbed to complications following an accidental fall at their Shreveport residence. A native of Bunkie
Bunkie, Louisiana
Bunkie is a city in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,662 at the 2000 census.Bunkie is the birthplace of jazz drummer Zutty Singleton. Sue Eakin, Louisiana historian and former publisher of the Bunkie Record, resided in Bunkie for most of her life until her death in...
in Avoyelles Parish, she graduated from Bunkie High School and attended Alexandria Business College. The Shannons met while they were both living in Alexandria. Services for Mrs. Shannon were held on May 8, 1996, also at the First Baptist Church of Shreveport, with the Reverend Dr. Jon Stubblefield officiating.
In 1962, the couple sued the Shreveport Transit Co. after Mrs. Shannon was injured on a municipal trolley. They collected some $12,000 for pain and medical bills but tried to amend the suit to claim $30,000. At the time of the accident, a student driver was behind the wheel of the trolley.
The Shannons had no children. They are buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport.
Shannon's archival materials are at the Noel Memorial Library of Louisiana State University in Shreveport
Louisiana State University in Shreveport
Louisiana State University in Shreveport is a branch of the Louisiana State University System in Shreveport, Louisiana. Opened in 1967, LSUS is the only public four-year university in the Shreveport-Bossier metro area....
.