Grady Crenshaw, longtime Memphis journalist, has died
Grady Crenshaw, a career journalist whose more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at The Commercial Appeal encompassed some of the biggest news stories to come out of Memphis, has died.
Crenshaw was 96. This means he had been in the newspaper business for more than 80 years, including his job as a “paper boy” who rode a bicycle to deliver copies of the Meridian Star to families in Meridian, Mississippi. He worked at The Commercial Appeal from the mid-1960s until 1988, a period that saw the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the death of Elvis, and the election of Memphis’ Harold Ford Sr. as Tennessee’s first Black Congressman.
Crenshaw died of congestive heart failure Oct. 16 at the Sunrise of Decatur assisted living facility in Georgia, according to his daughter, Holly Crenshaw, who carried on the family tradition as a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-constitution.
Holly Crenshaw said her father had survived a bout of COVID-19 in August, after which he “resumed his daily routine of smoking cigars, solving crossword puzzles in ink, watching sports and British mysteries, and following the stock market...”
Born in Lisman, Alabama, Grady Walton Crenshaw spent most of his childhood in Mississippi. He served a stint in the Air Force, and also attended classes at various times at Meridian Junior College, the University of Southern Mississippi and Elon College in Burlington, North Carolina.
After World War II, he returned to the Meridian Star, this time as a reporter. (He learned how to type on the job, having lied about this skill in order to get hired.) He married Zada Mccarver (the daughter of a newspaper linotype operator), and worked on the sports desk in Tupelo and again in Meridian, as a city hall reporter, before being recalled to Air Force duty during the Korean War.
Now the head of a growing family, Crenshaw worked various newspaper and news service jobs in Jackson, Mississippi, before relocating in the mid-1960s to Memphis. At The Commercial Appeal, he started as a copy editor and worked his way up the ranks, from foreign news editor to assistant news editor to news editor and, finally, to the position of assistant managing editor. He retired in 1988.
“There’s nothing like having a levelheaded professional in the newsroom as a gatekeeper,” said then-editor Lionel Linder, in a story in The Commercial Appeal announcing Crenshaw’s retirement. “He has been one of the most valuable people to me... He’s doubly likable because he’s soft-spoken and straightforward.”
He was “the calm at the center of the storm,” said Holly Crenshaw, pointing out that her father was on staff as The Commercial Appeal grappled with such crucial stories as the 1968 sanitation strike, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the death of Elvis Presley. As foreign news and news editor he also was a key decision-maker in much of the newspaper’s handling of major national and international events, such as the first moon landing.
In his later years at the newspaper, Crenshaw frequently wrote wry, gently humorous columns reflecting on quirks of grammar, idiosyncrasies of home life, and other topics, including health issues (one column included a photograph of himself with a patch over his eye, following an operation for a detached retina).
More seriously, his occasional “How and Why We Did It” column gave readers a peek into the decision-making process at The Commercial Appeal. One of these columns, inspired by the death of John Belushi, examined the newspaper’s policy regarding obituaries. Another explored whether readers really crave the “good news” they so often tell news professionals they prefer.
Said Holly Crenshaw: “He was a classic, old-school newspaperman, a cardcarrying guild member and lifelong hunt-and-peck typist who took his pica pole with him when he retired.” (“Guild” refers to the Newspaper Guild, the union that represents workers in the newspaper industry, while “pica pole” is a type of ruler used to measure the length of story columns, headlines and other aspects of a page of newsprint.)
Crenshaw later moved to Oxford, to be closer to what his daughter called “his beloved Ole Miss Rebels.” Later still, he relocated to the Atlanta area to be closer to family.
Wherever he was, he remained, according to Holly, a lover of hummingbirds and cardinals, Big Band music, Ernest Hemingway and James Thurber, gin-and-tonics, the Masters golf tournament and “a strong cup of coffee with his morning paper.”
In addition to Holly, Crenshaw leaves two daughters: Lisa Crenshaw of Wichita, Kansas, and Celia Pope of Atlanta. He also leaves two granddaughters.
A private memorial service will be held later this year. The family requests that any memorials be made to the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society or the World Wildlife Fund. Condolences may be submitted online at asturner.com.
Added Holly Crenshaw: “Another fitting tribute would be to please subscribe to your local daily newspaper.”