By: Joe Edwards, publisher of the Bartlesville (Okla.) Examiner-Enterprise and a 30-year veteran of the newspaper business, died after a long bout with cancer. He was 64.
The McAlester native died Saturday at a Bartlesville nursing home. Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
His father, Collins "Plowboy" Edwards, was a longtime member of the Oklahoma Legislature.
Joe Edwards spent many years with the Donrey Media Group, predecessor of the current Stephens Media Group, which owns the Examiner-Enterprise.
In 1978, he joined the advertising department of the Nevada Appeal in Carson City, Nev. He was promoted in 1984 to publisher of the Fort Bragg (Calif.) Advocate-News and Mendicino (Calif.) Beacon.
He was named publisher of the Ukiah (Calif.) Daily Journal in 1989 and returned to Oklahoma in 1993 as publisher of the Examiner-Enterprise.
Edwards was a division manager for Donrey, overseeing newspapers in Claremore, Pawhuska, Blackwell, Henryetta and Okmulgee.
Edwards served in the Army National Guard until his retirement as a staff sergeant in June 2002.
His military service took him to Panama in 1989 as part of the U.S. group that captured military strongman Manuel Noriega.
In the early 1960s, Edwards served a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. At age 50, Edwards was one of the oldest men to ever graduate - at the top of his class - from Army drill sergeant school.
He was honored as an "ambassador" by the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame in 2004.
Edwards also worked as a rodeo bull rider, a boxer and a truck driver.
He is survived by his wife, Linda, of Rochester, Minn., and a son, Wade Edwards, of Ventura, Calif.
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