Obituaries
Dustin Barnes,a
Mississippi-raised journalist who became a USA TODAY trending editor known for his professional acumen and irrepressible joy, was found dead May 11 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 38. Barnes had been recovering from a heart attack and was discovered by co-workers who went to check on him, according to his mother, Sheila Barnes.
The body of Vira
Hyrych, a Radio Free Europe/radio Liberty journalist, was found April 29 after a Russian air strike hit her residential building in Kyiv the night before. RFE/ RL President Jamie Fly said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened by the death of our Ukrainian Service staffer Vira Hyrych in Kyiv overnight.
We have lost a dear colleague who will be remembered for her professionalism and dedication to our mission.”
Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen
Abu Akleh was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin on May 11.
Veteran newspaper executive Jim
Wilson, who served as the publisher of Waco (Texas) Tribune-herald from 2012 until his retirement in 2020, died April 15 after a battle with cancer. He was 68. Wilson, who lived in Robertson County with his wife, Tess, had more than four decades of experience in newspapers. He served as publisher of The Eagle in Bryan-college Station from 2007-2012. Eric Boehlert, a media critic devoted to calling out right-wing misinformation through his writing at Media Matters for America,
Salon, Daily Kos and most recently as the founder of the Press Run website, has died in a bike accident. He was 57.
Jack Ronald, the former editor and publisher of The Commercial Review and a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of
Fame, has died at age 73. Ronald spent decades in journalism in Portland, Indiana, and around the world, training journalists in the former Soviet republics and elsewhere overseas. He died just weeks after being diagnosed with liver cancer.
Joe Worley, former Tulsa (Oklahoma) World executive editor, died April 13 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 74.