Leeming, former editor of Hot Springs Village Voice dies at 84

Frank Leeming Jr. died February 25 at his home in Hot Springs Village. He was 84.

A graduate of the University of Missouri in Columbia, he started his career as a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a correspondent for LIFE magazine. He was credited by LIFE with unearthing critical information and a previously unpublished photograph of James Earl Ray, the man responsible for the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the May 3, 1968 edition of LIFE, the Editor’s Note states, “As soon as it was announced that James Earl Ray was the real name of the man wanted for the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, we set out to unearth and reconstruct the life history of this once obscure, now notorious human being. … and we had an invaluable ally in our St. Louis correspondent, Frank Leeming Jr., a veteran reporter on the Post-Dispatch.”

Leeming served as editorial editor of Lindsay-Schaub Newspapers in Decatur, Ill, then business editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and later city editor and assistant to the executive editor. In 1976, he became circulation sales and marketing manager for the Inquirer and its sister newspaper, the Philadelphia Daily News

In 1978 Leeming was named publisher of the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee. In 1983, he and wife Joyce Leeming purchased The Journal of the San Juan Islands in Friday Harbor, Washington, which they published for nearly nine years.

The Leemings retired to Hot Springs Village in the early 1990s. Leeming became vice president of the Village Concerts Association, the largest in the nation with more than 2,700 members, a director of the Village Community Foundation and a director of the Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association. In 2005, he came out of retirement to become editor of the Hot Springs Village Voice, serving in that position until 2008.

Leeming was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Over his career he was a member of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and National Conference of Editorial Writers, and served as a director of the Tennessee Press Association and Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

He is survived by his wife, Joyce, and their five children, William C. (Dusty) Leeming and Scott (Barbara) Leeming of Friday Harbor, Washington;

Judges still needed for editorial contest

More volunteer judges are needed to review submissions from the Mississippi Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Contest. All judging will be online in April.

Categories in the Mississippi contest include News Writing, News Columns, Feature Writing, Profile stories, Sports News and Sports Feature writing, Sport Photos, News or Feature Photos, Graphic or Layout Design and Special Sections. You may request more than one category to judge.

“APA member newspapers are known for consistently turning out quality journalism year after year,” said APA Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley. “Our friends at the Mississippi Press Association are counting on our membership’s expertise for help in critiquing these entries.”

Please volunteer by Friday, March 31 by filling out the form at forms.gle/kk9AcoiU9y6frejs9.

Patricia (Ron) Barrett of Charlotte, North Carolina; Frank Leeming III of Waynesville, North Carolina and Lewis C. Leeming of Haskell; sister Susan Leeming Barnett of Montgomery, Alabama, brother-in-law Joe Thomas (Beth) Barnett of Courtland, Mississippi and six grandchildren. Per his request there will be no service.