Obituaries of JULY 1990 Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, La.
Source: The Lafourche Daily Comet
Submitted by: Chris Tidwell
Last modified 5 October, 2014
=============================================================================
Copyright. All rights reserved.
=============================================================================
Note: This file has been divided into sections representing DATE OF DEATH
Because of the method of reporting at that time, only the DAY of burial is
given, not the DATE.
=============================================================================

AUG 12 1990

Former publisher dies at 85
Edward Ray Jackson, a former co-publisher of the Daily Comet, died Sunday at
6:40 p.m. after a brief illness. He was 85.
A funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Thibodaux Funeral Home.
Visitation will be 7-9 p.m. today at the funeral home. Interment will be in
St.
John's Episcopal Cemetery.
Jackson was born March 6, 1905, in West Bellevue, five miles west of
Opelousas. He was the fourth of seven children born to Thomas A. and Josie
Rebecca Blanks
Jackson.
Jackson and Joseph N. Silverberg bought the Lafourche Comet, the Daily
Comet's predecessor, in 1946. They owned the Comet for 21 years. During that
time,
Jackson was active in the Louisiana Press Association as chairman of the
legislative committee for a number of years and as president in 1957-58.
When the two men took over the Lafourche Comet, they planned to make it into
a
parish wide newspaper, carrying the news of each community by having a
correspondent in each of the towns and villages of the parish.
"This we did," Jackson was once quoted as saying, "and increased the
circulation from less than 700 paid subscribers to more than 8,500 when we
sold out. We, in turn, gave to them all of the news from the parish seat,
namely,
reports from the' sheriff's office, assessor, clerk of court, parish courts
and other parish wide news which included the county agent, home
demonstration
agent, etc.
We covered all high school and grammar school activities," he added.
In 1967, Jackson and Silverberg sold the Lafourche Comet to Carmage Wall of
Cleveland, Tenn., and Jackson retired.
Following a line of newspapermen in his family, Jackson began his newspaper
career in 1916 working after school and on weekends as a Printers devil for
the Opelousas Clarion, which his father, owned. Jackson also worked as a
printers
devil at the Crowley Progress where his father became editor in 1920.
Jackson began working in the composing room of the Clarksville Mississippi
Daily Register in 1922 when his father became editor there. In 1923, Jackson
moved to Baton Rouge and worked for the Baton Rouge Morning News. In 1924,
he moved to Selma, Ala., and worked for the Times Journal before returning
to
Baton Rouge and the Morning News.
In 1925, Bill Cabell of the State Times hired Jackson to be the first makeup
man for the new paper - The Morning Advocate. He worked there, for nine
years.
Jackson started his association, with the, Louisiana State University
Reveille
in 1934. He purchased 1/4 interest in the Franklin Press, which had the
contract to print the weekly Reveille. His partners were E.J. Land, Donald
Graham and Jim Kraft.
In 1935, Jackson sold his interest in the Franklin Press to Arthur Pritzen.
When the LSU Journalism Department decided to begin a daily Reveille in
1939,
Jackson was asked to buy and install equipment to print the paper on campus.
He was also hired as production manager.
He is survived by his wife, Lillie Jackson; a son, Dr. James W. Jackson; a
daughter, Janet Jackson Hughes and nine grandchildren.
Thibodaux Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
The family asks donations be *made to St. John Episcol Church and the E.D.
White Catholic High School Foundation.

=============================