Donald Lee Eddric Franklin passed away on the morning of May 20, 2017 after a two-year battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He spent 37 years as a journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, formerly a Pulitzer publication. He retired in 2004.
He was born in Marianna, Arkansas on June 1, 1937 to James C. Franklin, Sr. and Bessie (Jackson) Franklin. The family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, where Donald’s father worked as an East St. Louis firefighter, who rose to the ranks of assistant fire chief. His mother was a seamstress in the St. Louis garment industry, in addition to being a hairdresser.
As a teen Don grew to have an unprecedented appreciation for jazz. Don could share his fondness for Sarah Vaughan and local legend Miles Davis with schoolmate and local legendary jazz disc jockey Leo Chears (“The Man in the Red Vest”).
Don attended the reputable East St. Louis Lincoln Senior High School (Class of 1954), where he played trombone in the marching band. He graduated from Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale with a degree in English in 1958, having pledged Kappa Alpha Psi his senior year.
In 1967 Don was hired by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he mentioned during the interview the need to hire a number of black reporters. While employed he received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York. In addition to his studies in the Harlem neighborhood he worked in New Jersey as a stringer for the Newark Star-Ledger.
Upon the Franklins’ return to St. Louis, Don continued his career as a general reporter and eventual assistant city editor (night) at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As one of the founding members of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, Don pursued daily assignments as award-winning opportunities to expand coverage on civil rights, voting rights and exposing police brutality. Near the end of his career Don went back on the streets as the homicide beat reporter.
Don spent his days off building a home for his family in the Central West End. He worked with an architect on the blueprints for his family home, registered for courses on electrical and plumbing at East St. Louis Community College, and launched Franklin Contracting Company. In 1981 Don, his wife and three daughters moved into “The House that Don Built.”
Donald Franklin is survived by his older brother James C. Franklin Jr. and their aunt Ruby Perry (Rubin) of Roswell, Georgia and uncle Nelson Jackson of Los Angeles, California, the last of his parents’ siblings. Don leaves behind his wife Irene, a pianist, church musician, and retired music educator in St. Louis and their three daughters and two sons-in-law: filmmaker and professor Nicole L. Franklin of Long Island, New York, dancer and choreographer Candice Michelle Franklin (Candice Franklin-Cox) and Jerry “Niru” Cox of Harlem, New York and photographer Kirsten M. Petty and Daniel Petty of St. Louis.
Officer Funeral Home, P.C. – Metro East Chapel is handling all arrangements. A celebratory service and “Evening of Jazz” will be held on Saturday, June 24 in Don’s honor. The morning service will take place at 11 a.m. at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 1648 Tudor Ave., East Saint Louis, IL 62207.
