AP editor gave world biggest stories from Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Sue Manning, an editor in the Los Angeles bureau of The Associated Press who for decades coordinated coverage of some of the nation’s biggest news including the Los Angeles riots, the Northridge earthquake, the death of Michael Jackson and the O.J. Simpson saga, has died, her family said Monday. She was 71.
Police officers summoned by family members who couldn’t reach her found Ms. Manning dead on Sunday at her home in Glendale, California, her brother Daniel Manning told the AP. She appeared to have died in her sleep. The cause of death was not immediately known, and an autopsy was planned.
Few knew her byline, which rarely appeared, but millions read the news she assigned, coordinated, edited, rewrote and flashed to the globe.
“So much of the crazy, tragic, extraordinary news the world devoured about Los Angeles for so many years was written — fast and with style — by Sue behind the scenes,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor who worked in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. “She was the rock — and the kind warm soul — of the place.”
Ms. Manning was a magnet for major news from the beginning of her AP career, covering the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, covered in ash as she sent dispatches from the scene.
She moved to the AP’s bureau in Los Angeles shortly before the 1984 Olympics put the region in the world’s spotlight and quickly rose to the essential and influential seat of supervising editor, acting as the newsroom’s decisive anchor at a time when few women had media leadership positions.
“She was part of a growing group of women in critical roles at The Associated Press, and her influence was felt in how she helped drive coverage,” said AP Television Writer Lynn Elber, who became a reporter in the L.A. bureau shortly after Ms. Manning’s arrival. “Sue approached that position as someone who was consistently calm and steady and decisive in a way that made everyone who worked under her feel fortunate.”
Her desk was the starting point and the end point for news in a region where it always seemed to be breaking.
“Sue was the linchpin of AP’s coverage of some of the biggest domestic stories of the ’80s and ’90s, directing reporters in the field, taking dictation, and pulling the various threads together into a coherent, constantly updated story,” said George Garties, who worked as a reporter with Manning and later as assistant bureau chief. “She was often the actual uncredited writer of stories the world saw about Southern California: earthquakes, wildfires, and of course O.J. Simpson, from the Bronco chase through two trials.”
John Antczak, an AP editor who worked next to Ms. Manning for decades, called her a “classic newsroom leader” who was “quick to clear the decks and get everybody rolling when something really big happened.”
Ms. Manning was among the most beloved figures at the AP, a sister, mother and mentor figure to dozens of reporters and editors who passed through her newsroom.
Sometimes called the “den mother” of the LA bureau, she served as its historian, photographer, scrapbooker and party planner, never failing to remember a birthday or to acknowledge births, deaths, anniversaries and milestones in her colleagues’ lives.
She was a devoted fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and organized bureau trips to games and an annual weenie roast for opening day.