Banaszynski Joins Sunday and Feature Editors Hall of Fame

By: Joe Strupp Jacqui Banaszynski, a 30-year newspaper veteran who teaches at the University of Missouri, will join the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors Hall of Fame, the group announced Monday.

She becomes the 20th inductee to the 11-year-old organization that "recognizes individuals who have been supportive of features' missions within the newspaper industry," according to a release.

Banaszynski joins recent inductees Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute (2007), former Knight Ridder editor and executive Scott McGehee (2006), and longtime New York Times reporter and editor Arthur Gelb (2005). In addition, 16 other "distinguished contributors to the world of features journalism" have been named, according to organizers.

"Banaszynski spent 30 years as a reporter and editor for newspapers in the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest," an announcement stated. "She was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for an intimate series on a gay farm couple dying of AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for her on-the-ground coverage of the Ethiopian famine. She won the Associated Press Sports Editors' deadline reporting award for coverage of the 1988 Olympics and has edited several award-winning projects, including winners of ASNE Best Newspaper Writing, Ernie Pyle Human Interest Writing and national business and investigative prizes."

Banaszynski, who also teaches at the Poynter Institute, will be inducted at the 62nd annual AASFE conference Oct. 15-18 in Houston.