Hello, St. Louis.
This is your interim managing editor, happy to make your acquaintance.
As I move to fill in for Chris King, who has led the St. Louis American for these past 16 years, I thought I would take a little time to introduce myself. Chris is leaving to become the public information officer for St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. He is well known by many of you and will be greatly missed.
Let me start by saying I am a proud daughter of north St. Louis. In my early years, I lived with my parents, Cornelious and Laura Lockhart, first in the 4500 block of Evans Avenue near Marcus Avenue, and later in the 5200 block of Terry Avenue, between Kingshighway and Union Boulevard. Later, with my younger sister Connie, we moved to Webster Groves, where my parents had a home built in north Webster. My roots run deep there, too, through the McCall and Walker families.
Further solidifying my StL credentials, my maternal grandparents were Harry and Augusta Boulding. My grandfather taught math for many years, at Vashon and Beaumont high schools. They were among the first African-Americans to purchase a home on Lewis Place.
I won’t bore you with too many details of my upbringing, but there are a few things of which I am most proud.
I was the first African American student to graduate from Lutheran High School South. I attended the University of Missouri and received my B.J. degree from the School of Journalism, enabled by a full scholarship from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
I started my career as a reporter at the PD and learned a lot about this craft, covering general assignments, along with the police and education beats.
I am a founding member of the Greater Association of Black Journalists and former secretary for the National Association of Black Journalists.
I was working at the Post when I met Steve Korris, the man who would become my husband. At the time, Steve was working at the American, where he was an ace reporter under the much beloved editor Bennie G. Rogers. Steve later worked at the St. Louis Argus, which, sadly, is no longer in publication. Those were the days of fierce competition between the two Black-owned newspapers.
Steve and I left St. Louis and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where we were married. I worked as a copy editor at the Milwaukee Journal. I still have in my wedding scrap book the announcement that appeared in the American, under the headline, “Two Former St. Louis Reporters Marry.”
From there we moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where I worked in several editing positions at the Pioneer Press. That’s where our children, Rachel and Paul, were born.
While we managed to embrace the cold and snow, we missed being so far from home. We cut the distance in half by moving to Madison, Wisconsin, where I continued editing, first at the Wisconsin State Journal and later, The Capital Times. Steve took up freelance writing while he was the stay-at-home parent for our children and is extremely proud of his service at the Madison Times, the Black weekly paper there.
After nearly 20 years away, I got a call from the Post-Dispatch, when then-recruitment director Cynthia Todd asked if I would be interested in returning. I said yes, and in 1998, our family came home.
I worked at the Post as a copy editor, Metro Section editor, editorial writer, and editor on the national/international news desk. But after about 10 years, things began taking a dark turn for daily newspapers. The Post-Dispatch I had known, long-owned by the Pulitzer family, was sold to Lee Enterprises, ironically the same company that owned the Wisconsin State Journal, back in Madison.
In those changing times of the early 2000s, newspapers across the country began downsizing. The Post was no exception. In 2007, I accepted a buy-out offer for early retirement. But I wasn’t really ready to retire.
It was to my great fortune that I was invited to join a crew assembled by Margaret Wolf Frievogel, when she launched the St. Louis Beacon, an online news organization. I was thrilled to be able to work again with many of my former PD colleagues, including my good friend Robert Joiner, who also served for a time as editor of the American.
It was part of the Beacon’s mission to address issues that mattered most to African Americans in greater St. Louis: health care, education and equality. “Race, Frankly,” was a special print edition produced by the Beacon staff that looked closely at these issues.
After about five years, the Beacon merged with St. Louis Public Radio, and I moved into what for me was a whole new world of broadcast journalism. I learned a lot, working primarily for the station’s website. While I didn’t do much on air, I greatly loved my role as outreach specialist, where I worked to add diversity to the voices of people who shared their stories with the station.
In 2019, I decided that my journalism career had come to an end. I was happy to sleep late, have long lunches with friends and play with my grandchildren. These days, daughter Rachel lives with her husband in St. Louis as Mr. and Mrs. Jermal Seward II, and is mother of my Grand Darlings, Avery Augusta and Jermal Leon III, better known as Leo. Son Paul lives in Sunnyvale, California.
I was caught completely off guard when I received a phone call a few weeks ago from Fred Sweets, contributing editor to the American, asking me to help out while the paper searches for a permanent newsroom leader.
I am deeply honored to be chosen, and I thank Dr. Donald Suggs, publisher, for putting his trust in me.
I promise to do my best to not let him down. I especially want to do my best for you, our readers.
You may contact Linda at llockhart@stlamerican.com