NEWS RELEASE
DO NOT RELEASE UNTIL
10:00 P.M. FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014
Contact:
Oklahoma Press Association
(405) 499-0028
Jennifer Gilliland, Creative Services Director
jgilliland@okpress.com
Press Association presents awards
during annual convention
Eleven newspapers receive top honors in annual contest.
The Oklahoma Press Association presented its Better Newspaper Contest Awards
during the OPA Annual Convention, June 12-14, 2014, at the Reed Center in Midwest
City.
Also announced during the awards banquet were the recipients of the OPA
H. Milt Phillips Award and the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation’s Beachy Musselman
Award.
Ray Lokey, publisher of the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, received the Milt
Phillips Award. Lokey is a third-generation newspaper publisher, following in the
footsteps of his grandfather, E.R. Lokey, and his father, John Lokey. He began his
newspaper career peddling his father’s paper, the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, in
Tishomingo. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of
Oklahoma in 1977, Lokey declined his father’s offer to purchase the paper. However, in
1990 Lokey purchased John D. and Gracie Montgomery’s interest in the Johnston County
Capital-Democrat and became publisher and managing editor. He later purchased the
remaining interest and was joined by his wife, Jenny Lokey, as co-publisher in 2006.
Lokey served as president of the OPA in 2003. He has also served as past
president of many civic organizations in Tishomingo.
Receiving the ONF Beachy Musselman Award was Gloria Trotter, co-publisher
of The Countywide and Sun. Trotter and her husband, Wayne, purchased the Tecumseh
Countywide News in 1983. Along the way, they purchased and sold the McLoud News
twice and started the weekly Shawnee Sun, which later merged with the Countywide
News. Gloria Trotter was president of the Oklahoma Press Association in 2009, and was
inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2009. She is very active within
the Tecumseh community, serving on almost every board.
The winners of this year’s Sequoyah Award also were announced at the OPA
Convention. In the daily divisions, winners were Enid News & Eagle, Claremore Daily
Progress and The Journal Record. Sequoyah winners in the weekly divisions were
The Purcell Register, The Bigheart Times in Barnsdall, Cherokee Messenger &
Republican, Collinsville News, Waurika News-Democrat and El Reno Tribune. The
Broken Arrow Ledger was named the Sequoyah winner in the sustaining member
division, and the Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University was the Sequoyah
winner in the college division.
The Sequoyah Award, which is the highest honor in the OPA Better Newspaper
Contest, is determined by the amount of points accumulated in the contest’s 12 events:
News Content, Layout & Design, Advertising, Sales Promotion, In-Depth Enterprise,
Editorial Comment, Personal Columns, News Writing, Feature Writing, Sports Coverage,
Photography and Community Leadership.
Members of the North Dakota Newspaper Association and South Carolina Press
Association judged the 878 entries from 93 Oklahoma newspapers.
In addition to the 11 Sequoyah Award winners, which included a tie in one of the
10 divisions, 120 first place plaques were presented during the awards banquet.
Newspapers receiving second, third or fourth place in the contest received certificates.
A complete list of winners in the 2013 OPA Better Newspaper Contest is
available on the OPA website at okpress.com/2013-better-newspaper-contest-results.
Two professionals who have dedicated 50 or more years to the newspaper
industry were inducted into the OPA Half Century Club during the banquet. HalfCentury inductees were Larry Levy and Lillie Stafford. In addition, seven members of
the newspaper industry were inducted into the Quarter Century Club. Inductees were
Brenda (Pettigrew Haney) Adams, Terri Bohanan, Alice Duree, Jerry Fink, Jeanne
Grimes, Jill Hunt and Herman Thompson.
Several additional awards were presented during the June 12-14 OPA Convention
including:
 Editorial Sweepstakes Winner, sponsored by ONG, presented to
Kim Poindexter, Tahlequah Daily Press.
 Column Sweepstakes Winner, sponsored by ONG, presented to
Faith Wylie, Oologah Lake Leader.
 Daily Photo of the Year, sponsored by OGE Energy Corp., presented to
Jay Chilton, The Norman Transcript.
 Weekly Photo of the Year, sponsored by OGE Energy Corp., presented to
Travis Akehurst, The Delaware County Journal.
 ONF Joseph H. Edwards Outdoor Writer of the Year presented to
Ed Godfrey, The Oklahoman.
 Print Quality Contest awards presented to The Journal Record (daily
division) and Suburban Graphics (weekly division).
 Website Contest awards presented to Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
(daily division) and The Grove Sun and Delaware County Journal (weekly
division).
###