[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S2256]]
               TRIBUTE TO PUBLISHER W.M. ``BILL'' STEWART

  Mr. HEFLIN. Madam President, publisher William Mathews ``Bill'' 
Stewart passed away on January 21 at the age of 74. A noted 
newspaperman in the State of Alabama for many years, Bill had been the 
owner of the Monroe Journal and a Monroeville, AL radio station.
  Bill bought the Journal in 1947, and in 1952 started radio station 
WMFC. He also established WBCA radio in Bay Minette, AL. Since 1958, he 
and his family owned the paper and the radio station. He remained 
editor of the paper until 1989 and was active in its management until 
very recently. He also owned papers in Bay Minette, Brewton, Camden, 
and Jackson, AL.
  A native of Autaugaville, Bill was a former president of the Alabama 
Press Association and the American Newspaper Representatives, an 
advertising agency. He earned his degree in journalism at the 
University of Alabama, was a reporter at the Huntsville Times, and 
served in the Army during World War II.
  Bill was also active in his local community. He was a past president 
of the Monroeville Chamber of Commerce and the Monroeville Kiwanis 
Club, and an organizer of the Monroe Country United Way. He was also a 
Sunday school teacher. The Kiwanis Club named him ``Man of the Year'' 
in 1996 and ``Citizen of the Year'' in 1990. He devoted most of life to 
bringing information to the people in his region of the State.
  Bill Stewart was totally committed to his profession and to serving 
his community through the written and spoken word. He truly understood 
the power of information and the importance of communication. He was 
known in the community as a leader dedicated to making his hometown the 
best place in the world in which to live. He was warm and friendly, and 
the depth of his compassion for people was reflected through his 
employment of the disabled. His demeanor was always that of a true 
gentleman.
  Bill's quiet and calm leadership helped lead Monroeville through the 
social changes of the last 35 years. It is never easy being the 
publisher of a small-town newspaper, but he was more willing than most 
to sacrifice popularity for his conscience. He was referred to by his 
minister as a ``tower of righteousness and integrity.''
  Bill Stewart will be greatly missed by all those who had the pleasure 
of knowing him over the years. I extend my deepest condolences to his 
wife, Carolyn Hall Steward, and her entire family in the wake of this 
tremendous loss.
  I ask unanimous consent that an editorial from the Mobile Register 
commenting on the life and career of Bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Mobile Register, Jan. 24, 1995]

                      Bill Stewart: Editor, Leader

       William M. ``Bill'' Stewart made his money and his 
     reputation the old-fashioned way. He earned them.
       When his family and friends said farewell to the long-time 
     newspaperman Monday in a Monroeville cemetery, they saluted 
     the former publisher of the Monroeville Journal for his 
     contributions to the newspaper profession--contributions that 
     began at the University of Alabama, where he earned his 
     journalism degree. From an early stint in daily journalism at 
     the Huntsville Times, he went on to discover his real love: 
     community newspapers.
       Bill Stewart's ensuing achievements were many. He was a 
     former president of the Alabama Press Association, where he 
     championed the rights of the state's newspapers large and 
     small. For a time, he also headed the American Newspaper 
     Representatives, a national advertising service. He had owned 
     or been a partner in newspapers in Bay Minette, Jackson, 
     Camden and Brewton, and he helped found two radio stations, 
     including WMFC in Monroeville, which his family continues to 
     own.
       But it was his ownership of the Monroe Journal for which 
     Bill Stewart was best known. He bought the paper in 1947 with 
     a partner from Bay Minette, Jimmy Faulkner, and acquired sole 
     ownership of it 11 years later. Devotion to reporting the 
     news of Monroeville and its surrounding rural communities was 
     his hallmark.
       One notable writer who passed through the Journal's 
     newsroom was syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, who 
     now writes for the Atlanta Constitution and United Feature 
     Syndicates. She worked in Monroeville in 1975, by which time 
     Mr. Stewart's son and daughter-in-law were operating the 
     newspaper. Ms. Johnson, who occasionally writes about her 
     days as a young reporter in South Alabama, recently 
     remembered the paper as ``a model weekly'' that was devoted 
     to and in touch with its readers.
       ``And that doesn't come easy,'' Ms. Johnson said. ``It's 
     certainly the cleanest newspaper. There's never a typo in the 
     Monroe Journal; if there is, heads will roll.''
       Today, Bill Stewart's sons Steve and David own and operate 
     the newspaper and radio station. Until their father's death 
     from complications of Parkinson's disease, however, he had 
     maintained a vigorous interest in the family's businesses.
       It is doubtlessly safe to predict that residents of Monroe 
     County can count on the sons, who have won journalistic 
     accolades in their own right, to carry on the senior Mr. 
     Stewart's commitment to community journalism.
     

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