Sad news: Ernie Dumas tells us that Roy Reed had an aneurism yesterday and is in a coma at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. It sounds like the prognosis is dire.
Reed, author of a renowned biography of Gov. Orval Faubus, was a highly regarded reporter for the Arkansas Gazette and the New York Times, as well as a long-time journalism professor at the University of Arkansas. He has also been a periodic contributor to the Arkansas Times, including an excellent cover story just last month on Bert Cartwright, the Little Rock pastor and civil rights hero. For more of Reed’s work for the Arkansas Times, see here.
“Orval Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal,” published in 1997, was named a New York Times Notable Book. Reed also published the essay collection “Looking for Hogeye” in 1986, “Looking Back at the Arkansas Gazette: An Oral History” in 2009, and “Beware of Limbo Dancers: A Correspondant’s Adventures with the New York Times” in 2012.