When we first met, I never dreamed that one day I would write her obituary.
Georgia Marie Daily died late Monday, Nov. 23, 2020, at age 96. She was the oldest living staffer of the 1940s Texarkana Gazette newsroom.
She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, David and Becky Daily of Texarkana, Ark. Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Memorial Gardens.
The day we met, I was a teenager after my first year of college, eager to make my mark as a cub reporter. Georgia was starting her second tour at the Gazette, temporarily in charge of the dayside proof desk. She already was a skilled reporter and editor.
Her first instructions were how to spell her nameD-a-i-l-y, as in Daily News.
It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
The proof desk was basic training for aspiring reporters and editors. There Georgia became my first mentor in journalism. Before the summer was over, we had a third proof reader at the crowded desk when Ralph Kessler arrived from New York City. And then Jack Clark. Georgia suggested the Gazette should swap our chairs for one long bench.
At summer's end Georgia and I were assigned new jobs, she reporting and desk editing, I on the Arkansas-side night police beat.
As it happened, we shared the same desk with an old upright manual typewriter in the always noisy city room. She used it by day; at night, it was mine for eight hours.
Georgia wielded a sharp-edged wit redolent of Dorothy Parker, whose writing she admired. One day I arrived at 5 p.m. with doggerel wedged in the typewriter's roller.
Here's to Jim, the byline boy,
The Pecorellamen's pride and joy
The Gazette newsroom's delight,
And am I glad he works at night!
At the time I also covered the Catholic High Eagles football team, coached by Leo Pecorella, hence the name for his team's athletes. Underneath, Georgia added a post script:
"(OK, so it's not Dorothy Parker.)" Well, it was close.
Editor J.Q. Mahaffey's Gazette newsroom was populated by reporters and editors like Georgia who could, and often did, make their way in newspapers over the country. Its journalistic training ground spoke for itself when you applied for a job elsewhere.
Author Prudence Mahaffey Mackintosh, the editor's daughter, remembered Georgia as "part of that team of efficient, fearless, occasionally profane reporters who knew how to ask uncomfortable questions at school board and city council meetings and get answers.My Dad's 'girl' reporters were the loyal, reliable ones he could always count on."
Georgia herself worked at the Gazette several different times, frequently returning from other cities and other jobs to the hometown paper. For example, she worked the desk and put out the paper, in November, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, personally making certain every detail of the story was handled as near perfectly as she knew how.
Just before I met her, she had also worked for a time for American Airlines at the local airport.
By then, she and her family had suffered one of the great tragedies that so many World War II families experienced. Her brother, 2nd Lt. Francis Daily, was killed in action in Italy in 1943. Becoming a Gold Star family inflicted a deep pain that never ended.
In later days Georgia collected her brother's wartime letters, hoping a publisher would be interested. When that hope faded, she decided to find an archival home for them, and I promised to help her. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted our mission for the time being.
Georgia was always generous. While I was researching my book, The Phantom Killer, she offered me her taped interviews of J.Q. Mahaffey and Betty Jo Booker's mother, primary sources available nowhere else.
Georgia was born Dec. 29, 1923, at home in Texarkana, Ark., to George and Marie Kastner Daily. She graduated from Arkansas High and Texarkana College. A lifelong Methodist, she received her degree from Scarritt College (now Scarritt Bennett Center), in Nashville, Tenn., Methodist affiliated and one of the first institutions in Tennessee to integrate its student body. She was a member of Christ United Methodist Church on Rondo Road in Texarkana.
Georgia enjoyed a storied career in journalism and public relations. After graduation from Scarritt College, she worked as a reporter for Arkansas Methodist, covering Methodist churches in Arkansas and Louisiana, and directed the church's public relations.
In addition to her several stints at the Texarkana Gazette, she also worked for the Riverside Press in Riverside, Calif., and the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock.
Georgia and artist Dottie Morrissey, nee Baker, were friends for more than 60 years. They met in Little Rock and quickly formed a friendship that was meant to last.
"The most fun we had together over the years occurred during the several years we spent in Californiathose happy carefree times!" Dottie said.
In the late 1950s they took off for California without promise of jobs. Georgia walked into the Riverside Press office, presented her credentials, they hired her, and she bought a sporty black convertible. Dottie gained certification in California and landed a job teaching. (Dottie met James Morrissey, a clinical social worker, whom she married. In 1969 after a series of moves across the country, Dr. Morrissey died and Dottie moved the family back to Arkansas, renewing personal ties with Georgia. By that time, Georgia was working for Arkansas Gov. Dale Bumpers.)
After California, Georgia returned to Arkansas but ever after remained a loyal California Angels baseball fan.
Kelly Morrissey, Dottie's daughter, said, "Georgia struck me as one of the strongest women role models around me at the time."
In her early 20s Kelly considered dropping out of college for a few years "to see the world." It terrified her mother. When she shared the idea with Georgia, "to my surprise, she supported the plan. I did go on to hitchhike Europe and visit Japan, as well as finish my degree afterward."
Freddie Nixon and her husband Vic, a minister, met Georgia in the mid-1970s when she worked with Vic at Methodist headquarters in Little Rock; Freddie was on the attorney-general's staff. (Vic performed the wedding ceremony for Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham on Oct. 11, 1975, in Fayetteville.)
"It didn't take long for us to figure out that we had many common interests," Freddie said, "in particular, social justice, the program of the United Methodist Church, dogs and a good glass of wine with friends. Eventually, Georgia and I would serve together on the board of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty."
The friendship expanded to a group of five women"The Tweetie Bird Club," after Georgia's favorite cartoon characterthat met regularly at different venues over Arkansas.
"We discussed current events and politics and none of us were shy about expressing our opinions."
As time and aging made get-togethers difficult, some would visit Georgia in Texarkana. Later they resorted to writing and telephoning.
At the Arkansas Gazette, Georgia joined another Texarkana alumnus, Ernest Valachovic, as well as Mike Trimble and Jimmy Jones who had started their careers in Texarkana after she had.
Her related jobs included public relations officer for Model Cities Program and Texarkana, Ark. She also served on the public relations staff of Arkansas Gov. Dale Bumpers. Before retirement, she was editor of the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper in Little Rock for five years.
Jimmie Hays worked with Georgia at the College Hill Community Center when Georgia was the director. Georgia worked with senior citizens; Jimmie, with troubled youth. They were housed in the same building, the stately old Battle Home. They became close friends.
"I learned a lot from working with her," Jimmie Hays said. "I will always hold a special place in my heart for Georgia. She wasn't shy. She spoke what she felt and you better have some thick skin if you wanted to be her friend, 'cause she was going to be brutally honest with you.
"We need more Georgias in this world; we need honest and principled folks among us. She loved this country. We had the United States flag out front and she would take it down and put back each day. She also would have a military band come to the senior center on Fourth of July and play for the community. We had some good times working at the center."
In the summer of 2012, Jimmie was in town briefly, and she, Georgia, and I met at Spring Lake Park and visited while Jimmie's dog exercised. It was the last time Jimmie saw Georgia.
"She looked great," Jimmie said. "She was nearing her ninth decade and was still living independently. I am glad I get to remember her that way. I will indeed miss Georgia Daily."
Freddie Nixon said shortly before Georgia's death, "She is one of the spunkiest, delightful, intelligent and most informed women I have ever had the joy of knowing. As I write this, I know Georgia is not expected to live much longer. A big light will go out of the world when she dies, but her legacy will shine in the hearts and minds of all who knew her forever. It has been a gift to call her friend."