10/12/95
Bob Lowry (lowrygr@mail.auburn.edu)
AUBURN UNIVERSITY WILL HOST 'MEDIA DAY' ON OCT. 21
AUBURN -- Two South Alabama newspapermen will be inducted into the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor and CNN anchor Mary Tillotson will address broadcasters during Auburn University's "Media Day" on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Eufaula native Will T. Sheehan and Moss Point, Miss., native Robert E. Sutton will be inducted posthumously by the Alabama Press Association.
The ceremony will be at 10 a.m. in the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor Room in the Draughon Library. Registration and refreshments will begin at 9:15 a.m.
Tillotson, host of Cable News Network's CNN & Company, will address members of electronic media from Alabama and Georgia at a meeting at 9:30 a.m. at Foy Union, Room 213. Tillotson, a graduate of the University of Alabama, previously covered the White House and Congress for CNN. She has also worked for Mutual Radio Network and radio and TV stations in Washington and Atlanta.
A barbecue and musical entertainment on the north lawn of the library will follow the APA induction ceremony and Tillotson's presentation.
Sheehan and Sutton will be the 75th and 76th inductees in the Hall of Honor, which was established by the APA in 1959. Plaques honoring the two will be placed in the Hall of Honor Room.
Born in 1874, Sheehan had a 24-year career at The Montgomery Advertiser -- starting in 1902 -- after spending four years as a reporter for the Birmingham Age-Herald and The Montgomery Journal. He became editor and part owner of the Advertiser in 1915.
Sheehan also dabbled in politics, serving as tax collector of Montgomery County from 1913 until 1917 and winning election as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924.
After his death at age 54, his successor as Advertiser editor, Grover Hall, praised Sheehan, saying, "He refrained from bitter or vengeful writing and loathed hypocrisy."
Born in 1889 as the son of a school teacher, Sutton was so well educated that he was certified as a public school teacher at age 11. But the newspaper business captured his interest.
Sutton bought The South Alabamian in Jackson in 1910, and sold it in 1917. That same year, he bought The Democrat-Reporter in Linden, and was editor and publisher until 1965. He sold the paper to his son, Goodloe, in 1982, but remained as editor-publisher emeritus until his death in 1986.
Sutton was a leader in development of new technology, installing one of the first linotype machines in Southwest Alabama and becoming one of the first publishers to switch to offset printing.
In addition to his career in journalism, Sutton served as mayor of Linden and as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives.
oct95:AU-mediaday