Virginian-Pilot Business Reporter Benita Newton Dies at 25

By: E&P Staff

Virginian-Pilot business reporter Benita D. Newton died July 26 after collapsing at work. She was 25.

According to an article in The Pilot, she was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. The cause of death was unknown.

Newton came to the newspaper from the St. Petersburg Times in June 2004 and covered small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

During her time in the University of Alabama's undergraduate and graduate programs, Newton was a resident director and teacher for the school. She also worked for newspapers in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa and served more than two years as a volunteer instructor with West Alabama AIDS Outreach.

After she earned her MBA, Newton completed a yearlong internship at the St. Petersburg Times. She spent nights working as a cashier at a video arcade in the Tampa airport to help pay bills. She used her downtime to work on a novel.

Newton moved to Portsmouth and began working for The Pilot's main office in downtown Norfolk, Va., following her time in Florida.

In February she wrote her former colleagues to tell them that she was teaching an evening journalism course at Hampton University and began a watercolor painting class.

?I don't think Benita ever figured this out, but I purposefully walked past her desk almost every day just to be able to say hi to her and get that sweet 'hello' in return,? said Denis Finley, The Pilot's managing editor. ?Benita will be missed so very much in this newsroom.?