Obituaries:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

PANU, BEATRICE — Beatrice Panu was an administrative retiree who worked in Human Resources. She died August 3, 2003.

PARKS, ADRIENNE WEILL — Adrienne Weill Parks, a longtime Associated Press editor who launched her career amid the nation's "Rosie the Riveter" hiring wave, has died in New York at the age of 96.

Parks, who worked for the AP for 60 years as an editor and supervisor on the New York City Desk, died March 30, 2008, at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center, said her sister, Vivienne Merin. Parks had suffered from a number of ailments, including Alzheimer's disease, in the last few years of her life.

The sisters shared an apartment in Manhattan until three weeks before Parks was hospitalized, Merin said.

A talkative and colorful figure with an extensive knowledge of even the obscure history of New York City, Parks joined the AP as a newswoman in December 1942, when World War II offered new opportunities for woman as men joined the armed forces.

She worked various stints during her long career at the AP, including night supervisor and weekend day supervisor. She retired in 1978, at the age of 67, and immediately went back to work part-time as weekend daybook editor, preparing the daily schedule of city events relied upon by editors making news assignments. She was a walking encyclopedia of every publicist in New York City, and knew many of them personally.

Jerry Schwartz, AP's NewsFeatures editor, recalls working with Parks during his three-year stint on the weekend desk in the late 1970s and 1980s.

"As such, I heard many retellings of Malcolm X's murder, usually inspired by my unfortunate mention that the day was quiet."

"'I'll never forget how quiet it was the day that Malcolm X was killed ...' she would begin, and she was off and running," Schwartz said.

One day in 1979, Schwartz recalled, the bureau got a tip that the Roman Catholic Church would not allow a funeral Mass for mobster Carmine Galante, and he and Parks set out to confirm it.

"Adrienne was amazing; she was determined. We called everyone ... and eventually we had the story exclusively," Schwartz said.

For as long as anyone can remember, Parks always had gray, chin-length hair worn with a side part, and usually wore floral print dresses.

Long Island Correspondent Frank Eltman also remembers Parks as someone who wore a ready smile and could be counted on.

"It didn't matter if there was 18 inches of snow on the ground, or if we were wilting in a summer heat wave, Adrienne was always there," he said. "She was always on time, ready to do her job."

Former AP reporter Larry McShane also recalled her dedication.

"She once slept in the ladies room ... during a Saturday snowstorm because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it in on Sunday morning to do the daybook," McShane said.

Parks also was a longtime member of The New York Press Club.

She was buried in a family plot at Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens.

Parks and her late husband, Albert, had no children.

PEECOOK, JAMES PATRICK — an AP technician and leader of the union representing AP's technical employees, died Aug. 23, 1999 in Atlanta of complications from a stroke. He was 57.

Peecook headed the negotiating team for the Communications Workers of America in each of the last four contract talks with the AP. Peecook had been hospitalized since suffering a stroke Feb. 26. He had undergone three heart operations, most recently in 1998.

Peecook started his AP career in 1960 as a 19-year-old office assistant in Cleveland. He moved up to operator attendant in 1961 and transferred to Atlanta in 1968 as an automatic operator, typing news copy on the Teletype machines that distributed AP stories around the world.

As computers replaced Teletypes, Peecook became a technician in 1974. He installed and repaired equipment in AP offices, member newspapers and broadcast stations throughout Georgia and Alabama.

He was active in union affairs throughout his career, becoming chairman of the General Committee of the United Telegraph Workers in 1987. When the UTW merged with the CWA later that year, his title changed to president of CWA Local 1314. Peecook was the fifth president of the union representing AP's technical employees.

Survivors include his wife, Terri; three children, Renee, Jimmy and Lenny; his mother and three brothers.

PEERSEN, GARY —   A memorial service was held in New Jersey Oct. 15 for AP technician Gary Peersen of the Cranbury Technical Center. Peersen died Oct. 6 at the age of 48 after a long bout with cancer, said Cranbury technician supervisor Carmelyn Marinaro yesterday. Hundreds attended the memorial service in Medford, N.J., Marinaro said, including about 50 former and current AP staffers. Marinaro, a member of a choral group, sang at Peersen's service at the request of the family. Peersen joined the AP in 1982. His bout with cancer began two and a-half years ago, Marinaro said, and he was working at the AP as late as the spring of this year. "He trained me," said Marinaro, who described him as "an incredibly amazing guy" and a "true inspiration." He is survived by his wife and daughter.

PELKEY, HERBERT GEORGE (HERB) — for many years, organized AP coverage of the primary and general elections in Pennsylvania with meticulous coordination.

“He spent months setting up coverage of each election and worked closely with the Pennsylvania AP Managing Editor’s,” said retired Philadelphia Bureau Chief George Zucker. “He was widely respected both by his colleagues and AP member editors.”

Pelkey died March 14, 2003 after a month in Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at Philadelphia. He was 69.

Pelkey started with AP in 1961 in the Albany, N.Y. bureau and was named correspondent at Syracuse in 1964. He moved to Pennsylvania five years later when he was named news editor in Philadelphia. In 1993, he was appointed the bureau’s first assistant chief of bureau.

Pelkey had served as a sergeant in the U. S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. Poor health forced him onto the AP disability roll in 1997 and he retired in 2000.

In 1984, Pelkey was the first recipient of the AP Staffer of The Year Award presented by Pennsylvania AP Managing Editors.

His wife preceded him in death. Survivors include a daughter, Kim, three sons, Mark Chris and Brian, and eight grandchildren.

“He really taught me to appreciate books and learning,” Kim said of her father. “I think one of the highlights of his life was when he and my mother got to travel to Europe. He loved to travel and to read and to learn. “And he was very patriotic.’

PERKES, DANIEL N.— Perkes, a longtime Associated Press newsman who retired as an assistant general manager and vice president and then returned to reporting at a newspaper, died of cancer April 27, 2004. He was 73.

Perkes, who retired from the AP in 1989 after 32 years, died at his home in East Orleans, Mass., his family said.

Popular with AP member newspaper publishers and those who worked for him, Perkes was a convivial and gregarious executive who kept close to his reporter roots.

After retiring from AP, he worked in public relations at New York's NYU Medical Center and later as a reporter for The Cape Codder newspaper in Orleans, Mass. A recent article on the editorial page of The Cape Codder noted that Perkes joined the staff because he wanted to be a reporter again, "because that is what he truly enjoys doing."

Born in New York, Perkes served in the Air Force in Texas and then started working for the Lubbock (Texas) Morning Avalanche. He joined the AP in Lincoln, Neb., in 1957 and quickly moved on to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was statehouse correspondent. He then worked in Pierre, S.D., and Oklahoma City, where he was chief of bureau, before returning to Des Moines to head that bureau.

He transferred to APNewsfeatures in New York, where he spent 20 years as director of APN, managing AP's feature, books and filmstrip service.

Survivors include his wife, Noni, a clinical nurse specializing in psychiatric nursing; son, Daniel, 43; daughter, Kim, 47, and six grandchildren. A previous wife, Norma, predeceased him.

PETERSON, MARK — former AP St. Louis correspondent, died April 9, 1999 of apparent heart failure in St. Louis. He was 44.

After learning of his death, colleagues in the Post-Dispatch news room, where he was assistant business editor, paused for a moment of silence in tribute to his family. His wife, former AP newswoman Deborah Peterson, is a reporter at the paper.

Peterson began his journalism career with United Press International in 1979. A year later, he joined AP in Kansas City. In November 1984, he was named correspondent in St. Louis, where he stayed until July 1989.

Peterson joined the now-defunct St. Louis Sun as assistant managing editor and in 1990, he joined the Post-Dispatch as Illinois editor. He was named assistant business editor in fall 1996.

Peterson, a native of Chicago, received his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University and a master's degree in public affairs reporting from Sangamon State University.

Survivors include his wife, two sons and a daughter.

PIKE, MARVIN R. — led an Army photography unit into World War II combat and later covered the Buffalo Bills and other major league sports during his 31 years with The Associated Press. Pike died April 22, 2001 in Fort Myers, FL. He was 85.

The New Jersey native was a decorated Signal Corps lieutenant who commanded photo teams that recorded battle scenes in the Pacific.

He joined the New York AP broadcast desk after the war and later became correspondent at Buffalo, overseeing general news and sports in western New York. He retired in 1977.

Survivors include his wife and two daughters.

PLOTNER, BILL — Bill Plotner's love of the water and boating moved from hobby to avocation after he retired as an automatics operator in Columbus in 1979. He and his wife, Eunice, moved to the Florida Keys where he quickly became affiliated with the U. S. Coast Guard auxiliary.

"He was active in the auxiliary for at least eight years," Mrs. Plotner said. "He received several Coast Guard awards for his service."

They moved back to Ohio in 1990, settling in a Cincinnati suburb. William O. Plotner was 78 when he died in Cincinnati, OH, March 27, 2002. His wife said he was being treated for Parkinson's disease when lung cancer was discovered last year. "The chemotherapy treatments really got him down," she added.

Plotner first joined AP here as a copy boy in 1939. He left for service with the U. S Navy during World War II, but returned to the Cincinnati bureau after the war, working as a copy boy and learning the Teletype trade. The Navy imprinted an interest in boating and while working in Columbus, the couple frequently spent weekends and vacations on his boat on the Ohio River.

Mrs. Plotner said Bill acknowledged that he was "goofing off" in the late `40s when he was fired by then Traffic Chief George Snyder. They were married in 1949 and she said Snyder called her husband in 1951, asking if he would work vacation relief. "He worked in a number of offices," she said, "Chicago, Lansing, MI., Nashville, Cleveland two times, and the New York Shop before we came to Columbus about 1960 or `61."

His wife is his only survivor.

POHL, EUGENE — CWA retiree, died January 27, 2004.

POWERS, TED — a former Marine who survived Iwo Jima and spent half a century photographing presidents, natural disasters, sports games and everything in between for The Associated Press, has died. He was 83.

Powers died Feb. 22, 2005 after a long battle with acute lung disease, said his stepson, Denny Baylor, of Austin. Powers' death comes three months after that of his wife, Kay, a longtime reporter and columnist for the Austin American-Statesman.

Friends and family said Powers was the consummate gentleman whose considerate approach and warm sense of humor disarmed the crustiest of politicians, earning him the trust of Lyndon B. Johnson and other presidents and governors.

"He had a real sense of decorum and good taste. He didn't take pictures to embarrass some people," Baylor said. "Politicians who wouldn't put up with any other newsman, they liked him."

Still, he was a fierce competitor who braved hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, and, on the day of President Kennedy's assassination, jumped on a plane in San Antonio and arrived in Dallas in time to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald on a stretcher headed to the hospital, Baylor said.

Powers, who worked as a copy boy for the Kansas City Star in his youth, joined the AP in November 1938. After working in the Dallas and Austin bureaus, he retired in 1986.

In a 1999 AP story, Powers recalled that many of his favorite moments in his 48-year AP career involved beating the opposition, specifically United Press International.

He said the most memorable assignment was covering the 1947 Texas City disaster, in which several hundred people died after a chemical plant explosion near Houston.

"As I walked across the parking lot at Monsanto Chemical, where so many people died, it was a grim reminder of the carnage I witnessed two years earlier as a combat Marine on Iwo Jima," Powers wrote.

Baylor said Powers was one of few in his company to survive one of World War II's bloodiest battles in the Pacific. At one point, Powers was listed as killed in action after playing dead during a machine gun attack that left the rest of his patrol dead, Baylor said.

"He landed on the shores of hell 60 years ago today, and the shores of heaven today," said Baylor, a 60-year-old retired principal.

Bob Jarboe, a retired AP photographer and photo editor who worked with Powers in Dallas, said Powers had a natural talent for spotting the best picture.

"He was just a thorough newsman who could quickly come to the focus of whatever it was that you were covering," Jarboe said. "He just seemed to have a confidence that, wherever he went, he was doing the right thing."

Jarboe said that at football games, the other photographers would tease Powers about being lazy or not wanting to get his hands wet because he'd only shoot half a roll of film when most others shot a dozen rolls.

"It was just a talent," Jarboe said. "Of course, the rest of us just teased him to death and made up all sorts of charges and he just would smile and come up with the good photo."

Jarboe said Powers was a spiritual man who carried a Bible in his trunk and told infamous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair after a photo shoot, "take care Madalyn. I'll pray for you."

Baylor said his mother was divorced with three wild sons when Powers strolled into the bar where she played piano at night.

"He was in there and asked her if she knew 'Hi Lilly' and she played it and they were on," Baylor said. "He was a great guy. He adored my mom and treated her like a queen and he taught me so much about how to treat a wife."

After Powers retired in 1986, he and his wife traveled the globe, from South America to Europe and Russia. They were married for 44 years.

See the March 14, 2005 Texas State Senate resolution honoring the memory of Powers at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/79R/billtext/SR00386F.HTM

PRICE, LEMUEL R. — a former photography intern for The News Tribune of Tacoma and the Seattle bureau of The Associated Press, died April 27, 2002 when he lost control of his car on a curve and struck a tree, the Montana Highway Patrol reported. He was 24.

Patrol officer Alex Betz said Price, of Missoula, Mont. lost control of his car while returning from a party on Pattee Canyon Road southeast of Missoula. Price overcorrected, swerved across the oncoming lane and hit the embankment on the other side. That pushed the car back across both lanes and into a tree, which hit the driver's side door. Price was dead when a passer-by noticed the car in the ditch, about 20 minutes after the 3 a.m. crash.

Price was a single father raising two young children. He had worked as a free-lance photographer for the Missoulian newspaper and worked last summer as a photography intern for AP and The News Tribune. He was recently hired as a staff photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal in Kansas but had not yet started work. Read more from Missoulian.com .

PRICE, WOODROW — an ex-AP newsman in North Carolina and former managing editor of The (Raleigh) News & Observer, died Dec. 2, 2000 in Carteret County, N.C., of cancer. He was 86.

Price took a job with The Raleigh Times in 1939 and two years later became managing editor of the Kannapolis Independent.

After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he became a reporter for the AP in Raleigh, then joined The News & Observer in 1946.

In 1948, he began his "In The Open," column, which ran for 28 years and won him a regional conservation award by the N.C. Wildlife Federation in 1963. Two years later, the federation named him outdoor writer of the year.

He became managing editor in 1957, stepping down in 1972. He retired in 1976.

He also served as chairman of the State Ports Authority working to protect North Carolina's coastline and other natural areas.

Survivors include his wife, two sons, two daughters and a brother.