John Keasler
Encyclopedia
John Keasler was an American
newspaper columnist
for The Miami News
, which folded in 1988.
Keasler grew up in Plant City
, Florida
, which is 26 miles east of Tampa. He got his start in journalism with a newsletter he penned while serving in World War II. He parlayed the newsletter into a job with the Plant City Courier. From there, he moved on to the larger Tampa Tribune and then to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch before settling in for decades at The Miami News. While at the Post-Dispatch, Keasler was one of the founders in 1956 of the Catfish Club, which eventually became the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis.
During his 30-year career, Keasler covered both the Kennedy assassination and the 1969 moon landing. Keasler's 7,000 mostly humorous columns about South Florida life were a great favorite. Some of them were collected into books, although Keasler also wrote a novel. Keasler also enjoyed playing pranks on his fellow reporters, including some at the rival Miami Herald. He and cartoonist Don Wright, who won two Pulitzer Prizes while at The Miami News, in particular played tricks on one another.
When the News folded, no one was more distraught than Keasler. “I feel half numb, like I've got a head full of cold Crisco,” he said at the time. “The News was a living thing with a heart and a soul, and it's dying.”
Keasler′s satirical novel, Surrounded on Three Sides, first published in 1958, remains in print.
He died in Plant City, Fla., in 1995, at the age of 74.
A scholarship to the University of Miami for a student majoring in print journalism, the John and Marjorie Keasler Journalism Scholarship, is given in his memory.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspaper columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for The Miami News
The Miami News
The Miami News was the dominant evening newspaper in Miami, Florida for most of the 20th century, its chief concurrent competitor being the morning-edition of The Miami Herald. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called The Miami Metropolis. The Metropolis had become a daily paper...
, which folded in 1988.
Keasler grew up in Plant City
Plant City, Florida
Plant City is a city in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. The population was 34,721 at the 2010 census....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, which is 26 miles east of Tampa. He got his start in journalism with a newsletter he penned while serving in World War II. He parlayed the newsletter into a job with the Plant City Courier. From there, he moved on to the larger Tampa Tribune and then to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch before settling in for decades at The Miami News. While at the Post-Dispatch, Keasler was one of the founders in 1956 of the Catfish Club, which eventually became the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis.
During his 30-year career, Keasler covered both the Kennedy assassination and the 1969 moon landing. Keasler's 7,000 mostly humorous columns about South Florida life were a great favorite. Some of them were collected into books, although Keasler also wrote a novel. Keasler also enjoyed playing pranks on his fellow reporters, including some at the rival Miami Herald. He and cartoonist Don Wright, who won two Pulitzer Prizes while at The Miami News, in particular played tricks on one another.
When the News folded, no one was more distraught than Keasler. “I feel half numb, like I've got a head full of cold Crisco,” he said at the time. “The News was a living thing with a heart and a soul, and it's dying.”
Keasler′s satirical novel, Surrounded on Three Sides, first published in 1958, remains in print.
He died in Plant City, Fla., in 1995, at the age of 74.
A scholarship to the University of Miami for a student majoring in print journalism, the John and Marjorie Keasler Journalism Scholarship, is given in his memory.
External links
- John Keasler′s column, “Artist takes Dizzy Gillespie to the edge of the future,” The Miami News, 17 December 1985 http://www.diamondimages.com/articles/miami-news-diz_yhm.jpg
- University Press of Florida page on Surrounded on Three Sides http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=KEASLF99
- John Keasler′s obituary http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1995-09-07/news/9509060458_1_john-keasler-tampa-tribune-columnist
- Article and photographs of John Keasler pretending to be hoarding cigarettes, sugar, and other items while working for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the 21 August 1950 issue of Life magazine http://books.google.com/books?id=wUoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=john+keasler&source=bl&ots=EhqxbfXVsK&sig=g-zRRF3iW874gAk6jhdLyZs3PQM&hl=en&ei=zHm7TKPLKYeknAe5u53WDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCgQ6AEwCDhk#v=onepage&q=john%20keasler&f=false
