Brenda Brown joins News Herald staff

BRENDA BROWN Brenda Brown, former editor of The Gladewater Mirror, has been named editor of the Kilgore News Herald and began her duties at the newspaper Monday.

Brown, who lives in Gladewater, has spent approximately 20 of the past 30 years in the newspaper, beginning at her hometown newspaper, The Citizens Journal in Atlanta, in 1977. Her first job in high school was in the office, but, from day one, she says she longed to be in the newsroom.

"For quite some time I've been looking for someone I felt I could entrust the newsroom to," said Bill Woodall, publisher. "We've been extremely fortunate in recent years in recruiting talented people who have helped us grow the company during a period that's been challenging for most other newspaper companies. Brenda is one of those talented people.

"I've known Brenda and her work since the early 90s. She'll fit herself into the Kilgore area quickly and the community will come to appreciate her."

With Brown on the staff, the newspaper will expand its coverage of Gregg and Rusk county events and of Sabine and Leverett's Chapel schools.

After graduation from high school, Brown took night classes at Texarkana College and worked her way through the ranks at the local newspaper, becoming a typesetter, darkroom tech, photographer and production supervsor for the twice-weekly Journal and its sister publication, The Cass County Sun in Linden.

Brown left to attend Tyler Junior College and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and history at the University of Texas at Tyler. She was a reporter, photographer and editor for both college newspapers and worked part-time at the Smith County Historical Museum.

After graduation, she returned to Atlanta as a reporter and photographer for the Journal and Sun, then went on to become editor of The Wimberley View.

"I love the Texas Hill Country but it isn't home," Brown said.

Brown returned to East Texas after a year, spent some time at Caddo Lake (she's always there in mind, if not in body) and then figured it was time to get back to work. She called a former editor, who told her about a job in Gladewater. Her first day as editor of The Mirror was memorable: it was the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, Jan. 16, 1991.

After nearly four years, Brown left the newspaper business and took on a one-year stint at the East Texas Literacy Council in Longview as an AmeriCorps Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA), with special emphasis on fund-raising and public relations. Afterward, she served on the ETLC board of directors but had to resign a couple of years later when she took a job as an independent insurance adjuster and investigator, specializing in auto liability, commercial liability and worker's compensation claims. Brown, who worked for an adjusting firm in Longview, traveled extensively in East Texas and northwest Louisiana, and managed a claims office in Shreveport for a time.

After six years, she returned to journalism as general manager of a weekly newspaper in Marshall and a year later she returned to the Gladewater newspaper. For the past three years, she worked as a reporter and editor, resigning two weeks ago and landing the editor's post at Kilgore.

"This is my first daily and I'm excited and nervous," Brown said. "I love small towns and small-town news, even though Kilgore is pretty big to me."