Longtime New Orleans Reporter/Editor Dies at 98

By: Longtime New Orleans newspaper reporter and editor Walter G. Cowan has died at the age of 98.

Cowan was a former vice president of The Times-Picayune Publishing Corp. and a former president of the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Association.

The Times-Picayune announced his death Tuesday.

His career began in 1936, when New Orleans was a multi-newspaper city.

Cowan started at The New Orleans Item as a reporter. He left for four years to work in public relations, then returned to work on The New Orleans States, which shared a publisher and building with The Times-Picayune.

After the States and Item merged to form The States-Item, he eventually became that afternoon paper's editor. He retired in 1979.