Columnists Honored at NSNC Conference

By: Dave Astor A Tennessee columnist with lung cancer, a Louisiana columnist with a humanitarian bent, and an Arizona columnist who served in Iraq were among the award winners at this weekend's National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) conference here.

Dorothy Brush of the Crossville (Tenn.) Chronicle was named 2004 Columnist of the Year for her work and for never missing a deadline while battling lung cancer.

The Ohio native, who is in her early 80s, was diagnosed in April 2003 and told she had six to nine months to live. She opted not to have chemotherapy or radiation treatments, and the cancer so far has not continued to get worse.

Brush, honored during a luncheon at the Dooky Chase restaurant in New Orleans, was the third recipient of the award. The previous two were Michael Kelly, the Washington Post Writers Group columnist who died last year in Iraq; and Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald and Tribune Media Services.

Sheila Stroup of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. As a columnist, she has helped raise money for a number of projects -- including one that bought musical instruments for a local high school band. And Stroup, through her writing, helped with a Mardi Gras celebration for New Orleans-area men and women stationed in Iraq. "It was a way for people in our area to do something -- they sent money, beads, trinkets, etc. -- and it was a way to bring the war home to Times-Picayune readers," she told E&P.

Stroup, chair of the NSNC conference and a former president of the organization, received the award at a dinner in the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Kem Rogers, grandson of the famous columnist and humorist, made the presentation.

Previous Will Rogers honorees included Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Daily News (2003); Dave Lieber of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (2002); Tim Chavez of The Tennessean in Nashville (2001); and Jeffrey Zaslow, then of the Chicago Sun-Times (2000).

Samantha Xanthos, an Arizona State University student who spent time in Iraq as part of an Army fuel-transport unit, was awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the NSNC. Xanthos had just started working for ASU's State Press when she was called up last year, and she did columns about her Iraq experience for that newspaper. "I wrote them in a tent without a computer," she recalled. "I mailed them to my mom and she typed them up."

The student scholarship is funded by an annual auction conducted at the NSNC conference; this year's auction raised about $3,500. Xanthos also received an all-expenses-paid trip to the meeting.

Winners of the NSNC's 2004 writing contest were announced at the Bourbon House restaurant in New Orleans. First-place honorees included Mike Kelly of The Record in Hackensack, N.J (general interest for newspapers with more than 100,000 circulation); Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle (humor for papers with more than 100,000 circulation); Doug Robinson of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City (general interest for papers with less than 100,000 circulation); Charles Memminger of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (humor for papers with less than 100,000 circulation); Smiley Anders of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La. (Herb Caen Memorial Notes/Items category); and Tim Hanrahan and Jason Fry of The Wall Street Journal's WSJ.com (online columns).

See columnists.com for a full list of contest winners.