La Grange’s Larry Jackson Inducted Into Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame

Retired Fayette County Record publisher Larry Jackson was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame during a ceremony Friday at the Texas Press Association’s annual convention in Round Rock. Jackson, left, is shown being presented his trophy by Texas Newspaper Foundation President Greg Shrader. Jackson began his newspaper career with the Arlington Daily News and served as city editor of the Laredo Times, managing editor of the Henderson Daily News, editor of the Austin Citizen, and publisher of the Round Rock Leader, Pecos Enterprise, Corona-Norcal Independent, Wharton Journal-Spectator and the Fayette County Record. In his speech Friday Jackson applauded the efforts of community newspapers to combat what the U.S. Surgeon General recently billed the “unprecedented public heath crisis of social isolation and loneliness.” “We connect people to other people,” Jackson said. “We foster and nourish their sense of community, With every obituary you publish you affirm the value and meaning of some individual’s life. With every picture you print of a high school valedictorian you affirm the importance of effort and accomplishment ... When you as newspaper editors and publishers and writers sustain and strength the ties that connect people, you are doing God’s work. It matters. You matter.”