McKnight, Dallas Publisher and Editor, Dies

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(AP) Felix R. McKnight, who covered the horrific New London school explosion as a young Associated Press reporter and went on to become co-publisher and editor of the Dallas Times Herald, has died. He was 93.

McKnight, synonymous with Dallas journalism for six decades, died Saturday at his University Park home, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Sunday editions.

McKnight was 26 and working in the AP's Dallas bureau in 1937 when he got an urgent call from a correspondent about a ""terrible explosion"" at a school in East Texas near Overton. He sent a bulletin across the wire about the gas blast, which killed at least 293.

McKnight was among the first reporters on the scene along with his competitor from United Press, Walter Cronkite. That night McKnight visited a roller rink that served as the morgue.

""The force of that explosion was so great that hardly a child was identifiable except for clothing,"" he said. While there, he was drafted to help sponge down remains with formaldehyde to preserve help preserve them and the horror kept him awake for five straight days.

""It finally got me, and I sorta went berserk one night,"" he said.

McKnight was born in Dallas but his family moved to San Antonio when he was a child. An illness forced him out of Texas A&M University during his junior year but he maintained an interest in journalism that began as a high school newspaper sports editor.

He worked summers for the San Antonio Light and covered games at college as a Southwest Conference correspondent for the Light, the Houston Chronicle, the Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

""I got $2.50 a game,"" he said in a 1994 interview.

His first newspaper job was with the Light, followed by the AP bureau, where he was acting chief of the Dallas bureau when the News hired him in 1941.

After 16 years in which he rose from writer to managing editor, the Times Herald secretly negotiated him away to become vice president and executive editor of the now-defunct paper.

Robert W. Decherd, chairman, president and CEO of Belo Corp., said there was angst when McKnight switched newspapers, but ""the competition he fostered in the ensuing 30 years was one of the best things that happened in Dallas journalism.""

McKnight was named co-publisher and editor of the Times Herald in 1967 and became vice chairman of the board in 1973, and continued to serve the paper as a consultant after his retirement in 1988.

James M. Moroney Jr., retired publisher, president and CEO of the News, said McKnight was popular along with being a good journalist and public speaker.

McKnight is survived by his wife since 1934, Elizabeth, a daughter and son-in-law, and three grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a daughter.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Burial will follow at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas.