| Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr. | |
|---|---|
Wiley W. Hilburn (1970) at Louisiana Tech University |
|
| Born | February 20, 1938 Ruston, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, USA |
| Occupation | Journalist; Professor |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1962- |
| Genres | Human interest essays |
| Spouse(s) |
(1) Ellen Riser Hilburn (divorced), now Ellen R. LaCroix |
| Children |
Gregory Todd Hilburn |
Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr. (born February 20, 1938), is a prominent journalist in Ruston, Louisiana, whose communications career began in the late 1950s when he was a student at Louisiana Tech University. In 1968, at the age of thirty, Hilburn returned to his alma mater to chair the Journalism Department and serve as director of the college news bureau. Even while instructing budding journalists for some four decades, he continues to write a popular weekly column carried by Gannett in both the Shreveport Times and the Monroe News Star. He retired from the university position after forty-one years on September 1, 2009.[1]
In 1962, Hilburn, at twenty-four, became an editorial writer for the Shreveport Times, one of the youngest such writers in the nation. That same year, Patrick J. Buchanan, also born in 1938, began writing editorials for the former St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Buchanan was, however, still twenty-three when he assumed his position in St. Louis. Prior to his joining the Shreveport Times, the largest newspaper in north Louisiana, Hilburn was the telegraph editor of the former Monroe Morning World (since merged into the News Star) of Monroe, the seat of Ouachita Parish.
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Hilburn was born in Ruston to Wiley Hilburn, Sr. (1913–2003), who operated a dry cleaners, and the former Marie Trussell (1912–2007), an educator who was once the principal of a one-room school in her native Antioch community near Ruston. The senior Hilburn was the brother-in-law of Louisiana Lieutenant Governor C. E. "Cap" Barham, an attorney from Ruston who served during the Robert F. Kennon administration from 1952–1956, the year that Hilburn graduated from Ruston High School. The late Louisiana State Senator Charles Clem Barham of Ruston, who served twenty years from 1964–1972 and 1976–1988, was a cousin of Hilburn's.
Hilburn procured his bachelor's degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech in 1960. While he was a student, he also worked for the Ruston Daily Leader, gained practical newspaper experience, and became the editor of the Daily Leader. He thereafter received his master's degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Former Louisiana Tech President F. Jay Taylor hired Hilburn to "liberate the [college] newspaper," The Tech Talk, which had previously been a noncontroversial journal of mostly honor rolls and academic listings and failed to address student issues, such as the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the sexual revolution.[1] Hilburn named Stanley R. Tiner, now editor of the Sun Herald in Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, as the Tech Talk editor. "We started printing hard news, , , , And we wanted the editorial page to be powerful. We rebuked the notion that the voice of the paper should be trivial," Tiner told the Monroe News Star.[1]
Hilburn and Tiner then recruited Reginald Owens as the first African American columnist of The Tech Talk. In a controversial defense of the Black Panthers, Owens recalled that Hilburn "taught me how I should temper [opinions], without changing my message."[1] Hilburn named Owens the first black editor of the college newspaper. One night after naming Owens as editor, Hilburn saw a cross burning on his lawn. His first wife, Ellen, told him to call the police. He retorted, "That is the damn police."[1] Owens now holds an endowed chair in the Tech journalism department and took over as head of the department in 2009 following Hilburn's retirement.[1]
In 1983, Hilburn was cited by United Press International for the "Best Louisiana Column Award". In 1989, he received “Special Recognition” from then Governor Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III for "Twenty Years of Dedication to Louisiana Tech University". In 1993, he received the Louisiana Tech Alumni Foundation Award for Outstanding Teacher.
In 2001, Hilburn was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, a relatively rare honor for a member of the media. Through 2007, only three other journalists—the Shreveport Times political cartoonist Pap Dean, Iris Kelso of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and the late newspaper chain owner Sam Hanna -- have been chosen for the Hall of Fame. John LaPlante, Jr., of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame on February 2, 2008.
Hilburn is the author of several books, including New Seasons (published in 2004, a retrospective on fifteen years of newspaper columns), Fragments (also the title of some past columns), and Reflections of North Louisiana.
On November 19, 2007, Hilburn published a column in the Shreveport Times which purports that former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will be judged much kinder by history than the difficult circumstances which followed Hurricane Katrina. It was those difficulties that prompted Blanco not to seek a second term in the October 20 jungle primary. Hilburn attended a bipartisan reception for Blanco at a country club near his Choudrant home.
Hilburn resides in Choudrant in southeastern Lincoln Parish near Ruston with his second wife, the former Kate Sartor (born March 5, 1949). He is the father of three children by his first marriage to the former Ellen Riser (born 1940), subsequently Ellen Lacroix of Baton Rouge. Gregory Todd "Greg" Hilburn (born January 21, 1962) is the chief political writer for the Monroe News Star, where Hilburn himself worked in the early 1960s. Greg Hilburn received his degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech in 1984. The other two children are Kevin Scott Hilburn (born 1963) and Anne Marie Hilburn (born ca. 1967), both of Ruston.
Hilburn's brother, Chester William "Chet" Hilburn (born 1945), also a Louisiana Tech graduate, is a retired newspaperman, having worked at the Houston Chronicle, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, The Camden News in Camden, Arkansas, and the defunct Shreveport Journal.
In 2009, shortly before his retirement, Hilburn underwent successful heart bypass surgery.[1]