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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.<br> (Professor of journalism at Louisiana Tech University) | nationality=American | birth_date=Februa..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.<br>
(Professor of journalism at Louisiana Tech University)
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| birth_date=February 20, 1938
| birth_place=[[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], Lincoln Parish<br>[[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date=January 16, 2014 (aged 75)
| death_place=Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston
| death_cause=[[Pneumonia]]
| resting_place=Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|alma_mater=Ruston High School<br>
[[Louisiana Tech University]]<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]
| spouse = (1) Ellen Riser Hilburn (divorced), now Ellen R. LaCroix<br>
(2) Kate Sartor Hilburn (surviving widow)
| children =From first marriage:<br>
[[Greg Hilburn|Gregory Todd Hilburn]]<br>
Kevin Scott Hilburn<br>
Anne Marie Hilburn<br>
Step-daughter:<br>
Jenny O'Driscoll<br>
Five grandchildren
|relations=Charles Emmett "Cap" Barham (uncle by marriage)<br>
Charles Clem Barham (cousin)
| religion=[[Presbyterian]]
}}
'''Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.''' (February 20, 1938 – January 16, 2014), was a [[journalist]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], [[Louisiana]], whose communications career began in the middle 1950s when he was a student at Ruston High School and then [[Louisiana Tech University]]. In 1968, at the age of thirty, Hilburn returned to Louisiana Tech to chair the Journalism Department and serve as director of the college news bureau. Even while instructing budding journalists for some four decades, he continued to write a popular weekly column carried by Gannett in both ''The Shreveport Times'' and ''The Monroe Nes-Star.'' On September 1, 2009, Hilburn retired from the university position after forty-one years.<ref name=latech>Bill Campbell, "Region's dean of journalism leaves editor's mark on generations, ''The Monroe News-Star,'' August 2, 2009.</ref>
==Background==
Hilburn was born in Ruston to Wiley Hilburn, Sr. (1913–2003), the son of a cotton gin operator, Ewing Hilburn, originally from Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish. Hilburn, Sr., managed his father's three cotton gins in the Ruston region and then branched into dry cleaning. He offered the first cold storage for furs in Ruston.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogybuff.com/la/la-lincoln-obits14.htm|title=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Sr.|publisher=genealogybuff.com|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> Hilburn's mother, the former Marie Trussell (1912–2007), was an educator who was once the principal of a one-room school in her native Antioch community near Ruston. Wiley Hilburn himself attended the A. E. Phillips Laboratory School on the Louisiana Tech campus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20070212/NEWS0804/702120306/Hilburn-He-affirmed-not-spoiled|title=Hilburn: He was affirmed, but not spoiled|date=February 11, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Wiley Hilburn, Sr., was the brother-in-law of Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Charles Emmett "Cap" Barham (1904-1972), an [[attorney]] from Ruston who served during the [[Robert F. Kennon]] administration from 1952 to 1956, the year that Hilburn, Jr., graduated from Ruston High School. Barham was married to the former Carice Helen Hilburn (1907-1965), the sister of Wiley Hilburn, Sr. Hence, Hilburn, Jr., was a first cousin of the Barhams' older son, the late state Senator Charles Clem Barham (1934-2010), a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] from Ruston, who served from 1964 to 1972 and again from 1976 to 1988.
In 1960, Hilburn procured his bachelor's degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech. While he was a student, he also worked for ''The Ruston Daily Leader,''then owned by [[Clarence Faulk]], gained practical [[newspaper]] experience, and became the editor of the paper. He thereafter received his master's degree in journalism from [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]].<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
At twenty-four, Hilburn became in 1962 an editorial writer for ''The Shreveport Times,'' apparently the second youngest writer of editorials for a major newspaper in the nation. That same year, [[Patrick J. Buchanan]], also born in 1938 and eight months Hilburn's junior, began writing editorials for the since defunct ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat.'' Buchanan was still twenty-three when he assumed his position in [[St. Louis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://buchanan.org/blog/biography|title=Biography: Patrick J. Buchanan|publisher=buchanan.org|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
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, Louisiana|Monroe]].<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
==The Tech Talk==
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.<ref name=hilburndeath>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140116/NEWS01/301160027/Well-known-journalist-professor-Hilburn-dead-75?nclick_check=1|title=Well-known journalist, professor, Hilburn dead at 75|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 16, 2014}}</ref><ref name=latech/>
Hilburn named [[Stanley Tiner]], whose career ended as the editor of ''The Sun Herald'' in Gulfport and Biloxi, [[Mississippi]]. Tiner recalled in an interview with the ''The Monroe News-Star'' that as the editor of ''The Tech Talk'': "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."<ref name=latech/>
Hilburn and Tiner then recruited Reginald Owens (born 1948) 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."<ref name=latech/> 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.<ref name=hilburndeath/> His first wife, Ellen, told him to call the police. He retorted, "That is the damn police."<ref name=latech/> Owens holds an endowed chair in the Tech journalism department and took over as head of the department in 2009 following Hilburn's retirement.<ref name=latech/>
Owens called Hilburn:
<blockquote>
the [[Huckleberry Finn]] of journalism. He was such a down to earth, real person and he was always so observant about his surroundings and about how people felt. That’s one of the things that I hope I picked up from him, to find out what people are thinking and to make sure their voices are heard.<ref name=hilburndeath/></blockquote>
In addition to his duties with the news bureau, Hilburn served on the Louisiana Tech Administrative Planning Council. From his work on the Tech Athletic Council, he remained a steadfast follower of the university sports teams.<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
==Politics==
A Democrat, Hilburn was an admirer of former [[Insurance commissioner|Louisiana Insurance Commissioner]] [[James H. "Jim" Brown]], who was forced from office in 2000 after multiple indictments but conviction only on one count for lying in an informal interview to an agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Early in 2005, Hilburn reviewed Brown's book ''Justice Denied'' in which the former commissioner, who also served as a state senator and as the Louisiana Secretary of State, defends his conduct in office and denies giving false statements to the FBI. In his column Hilburn recalled the 1978 primary election for Louisiana's 5th congressional district]] seat in which the one-term Democrat incumbent, [Thomas Jerald "Jerry" Huckaby, easily defeated Brown. Hilburn surprises readers; after praising Brown's public service, he reveals that he had voted for Huckaby in the race anyway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelisburnpress.com/BookReviewTimes.html|title=Book Speaks to Travesty of Justice|date=January 10, 2005|publisher=thelisburnpress.com|accessdate=June 16, 2013}}</ref>Hilburn was originally a [[conservative]] Democrat who supported [[Richard M. Nixon]] in 1960 and [[Barry Goldwater]] in 1964, but thereafter shifted ideological lines to become decades later an active backer of [[Barack H. Obama]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20131121/OPINION02/311210043/Wiley-Hilburn-Column-JFK-Guilt-grief-another-direction|title=Wiley Hilburn Column: JFK - Guilt, grief and another direction|date=November 22, 2013|publisher=''The Monroe News Star''|accessdate=November 22, 2013}}</ref>
On November 19, 2007, Hilburn published a column in ''The Shreveport Times'' which purports that former Louisiana [[Governor]] [[Kathleen Blanco]] would be judged much kinder by history than the difficult circumstances which followed [[Hurricane Katrina]]. It was those problems that prompted Blanco , a Democrat who died in 2019, not to seek a second term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2007. Victory instead went to Blanco's 2003 opponent, Republican [[Bobby Jindal]]. Wiley Hilburn attended a bipartisan reception for Blanco at the Squire Creek Country Club near his home in Choudrant in Lincoln Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS0804/711190316/1060/NEWS01|title=Wiley Hilburn: History to be kinder to Blanco than her storm-tossed administration|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=November 19, 2007|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Six weeks earlier, Hilburn had penned a column critical of what he saw as the attitude of certainty in the personality of President [[George W. Bush]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071001/NEWS0804/710010320/1007/OPINION|title=Wiley Hilburn: In Bush's world, optimism rules|date=October 1, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Books==
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''.<ref name=hilburnhonors/><ref name=newseasons/>
''Fragments'' has been described as Hilburn's:<br>
<blockquote>
own experiences — childhood, teen-age growing pains, and encounters as a practicing journalist, with all of his foibles, embarrassments, self doubts, and fantasizing — evoke a nostalgia with which everyone who grew up in a small town can identify. ... He paints a vivid picture of the North Louisiana landscape — sunshine and rain, changing seasons, fishing holes, and woodlands — places where all have been and to which all wish to return.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/history/publications/fragments%20long%20desc.htm|title=Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr., ''Fragments''|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref></blockquote>
==Honors==
In 1983, Hilburn was cited by [[United Press International]] for the "Best Louisiana Column Award." In 1989, he received "Special Recognition" from then Governor [[Buddy Roemer]] for "Twenty Years of Dedication to Louisiana Tech University." In 1993, he received the Louisiana Tech Alumni Foundation Award for Outstanding Teacher.<ref name=hilburnhonors>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/media/wiley-hilburn.shtml|title=Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
In 2009, on his retirement from Louisiana Tech, he was named "professor-emeritus". In 2010, he was named "Distinguished Alumnus" of the Louisiana Tech College of Liberal Arts.<ref name=hilburnobit/>
In 2001, Hilburn was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.<ref name=hilburnobit/> Other journalists inducted into the Hall of Fame have included ''The Shreveport Times'' political cartoonist Pap Dean, Iris Kelso of ''The New Orleans Times-Picayune,'' the late newspaper chain owner Sam Hanna, Sr., [[Bill Lynch]], the Baton Rouge bureau chief of ''The Times-Picayune,'' and [[John LaPlante]], of ''The Baton Rouge Advocate.''
==Family life==
Hilburn resided in Choudrant with his second wife, the former Kate Sartor (born March 5, 1949), a [[photographer]]<ref name=newseasons>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/techtalk/archives/12_09_04/current/columnist.php|title=Sallie Rose Hollis, Wiley Hilburn's ''New Seasons''|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> and the daughter of a prominent Shreveport couple active in business, civic, and church affairs, Charles Lane Sartor (1921-2014)<ref name=clsartorobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=charles-sartor&pid=172580507&fhid=10218|title=Charles Sartor obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=September 26, 2014}}</ref> and Gloria Sanderson Sartor.<ref name=hilburnobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=wiley-wilson-hilburn&pid=169150070&fhid=6320|title=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Charles Lane Sartor, a graduate of Clifton Ellis Byrd High School in Shreveport and [[Washington and Lee University]] in Lexington, [[Virginia]], fought in [[World War II]] in [[China]] under [[General]] [[Claire Chennault]], was subsequently stationed in Chungking and [[Shanghai]] and became a member of the [[United States Air Force]] Reserve. Sartor was employed by Barnsdall Oil Company, Pan Am Southern Corporation, and in 1954, began a 37-year association with the Wheless Drilling Company. In this capacity he was exploration manager, a member of the board of directors, and an officer of the Tensas Delta Land Company. Finally, he opened an office as an independent geologist in association with his son-in-law, Ralph Guess Richardson. He was an officer of the C. W. Lane Company, a real estate development and management corporation founded in Shreveport by his grandfather, Charles W. Lane.<ref name=clsartorobit/>
Kate Hilburn's paternal aunt-by-marriage was the Shreveport artist Jean Oliver Sartor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=e-alton-sartor&pid=161140177#fbLoggedOut|title=E. Alton Sartor, Jr. (1917-2012)|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hilburn's first wife and the mother of his three children, is the former Ellen Riser (born April 1940), subsequently Ellen LaCroix of Ruston. She was the daughter of Gwendolyn Williamson Riser, a Louisiana Tech employee,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com/obituary/gwendolyn-williamson-riser/|title=Gwendolyn Williamson Riser|publisher=kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> and Ben Dalton Riser (1914-2003), who for more than fifty years was the business manager of the Ruston [[Coca-Cola]] Bottling Company. Their children are [[Greg Hilburn|Gregory Todd "Greg" Hilburn]] and wife, Tania. Greg Hilburn is the chief political writer for ''The Monroe News Star,'' at which Hilburn himself had worked in the early 1960s. Greg Hilburn received his degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech in 1984. His two other children, both of Ruston, are Kevin Scott Hilburn (born December 1963) and wife, Holley, and Anne Marie Hilburn (born c. 1966). He has a step-daughter, Dr. Jennifer O'Driscoll of Lawrence, [[Kansas]], and five grandchildren.<ref name=hilburnobit/><ref name=clsartorobit/>
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 Town Talk, ''The Camden ([[Arkansas]]) News,'' and the defunct ''[[Shreveport Journal]].'' In 2012, Chet Hilburn authored ''The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football''. In the foreword to the book, Chet Hilburn credits his brother for encouraging his interest in LSU football.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Mystique-Tiger-Stadium-Ascension/dp/1449752691|author=Chester William "Chet" Hilburn|title=The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football|date=2012|publisher=WestBowPress: ISBN 1449752691|accessdate=September 10, 2012}}</ref>
In 2009, shortly before his retirement as the journalism department chairman, Hilburn underwent successful [[heart]] bypass surgery.<ref name=latech/>He had also been treated in recent months for [[cancer]], which had been in remission<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140126/OPINION02/301260022/100-percent-Wiley-100-percent-time|author=Teddy Allen|title="100 percent Wiley, 100 percent of the time"|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 26, 2014}}</ref> at the time of his death from a brief illness of [[pneumonia]] in January 2014 at the age of seventy-five at North Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston. Services were held on January 19 at the First [[Presbyterian]]Church in Ruston.<ref name=funeralarrangements>{{cite web|url=http://710keel.com/funeral-arrangements-set-for-louisiana-journalist-wiley-hilburn-jr/|title=Funeral Arrangements Set for Louisiana Journalist Wiley Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=710keel.com|accessdate=January 17, 2014}}</ref>Interment followed in the family plot at Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston.<ref name=hilburnobit/>
Former Louisiana Tech President Dan Reneau described Hilburn as "top quality. I worked closely with him for many years. His greatest quality was his compassion and his ability to put it in words. This was a gift that he passed on to hundreds of his students.<ref name=funeralarrangements/>
On the day of his funeral, Hilburn's last column, another attempt to debunk the existence of black panthers in Louisiana, was carried in ''The 'Monroe News-Star.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140119/OPINION02/301190018/Wiley-Hilburn-Column-Black-panthers-Bigfoot|title=Wiley Hilburn Column: Black panthers and Bigfoot|date=January 19, 2014|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 19, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilburn, Wiley}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
| name=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.<br>
(Professor of journalism at Louisiana Tech University)
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| birth_date=February 20, 1938
| birth_place=[[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], Lincoln Parish<br>[[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date=January 16, 2014 (aged 75)
| death_place=Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston
| death_cause=[[Pneumonia]]
| resting_place=Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|alma_mater=Ruston High School<br>
[[Louisiana Tech University]]<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]
| spouse = (1) Ellen Riser Hilburn (divorced), now Ellen R. LaCroix<br>
(2) Kate Sartor Hilburn (surviving widow)
| children =From first marriage:<br>
[[Greg Hilburn|Gregory Todd Hilburn]]<br>
Kevin Scott Hilburn<br>
Anne Marie Hilburn<br>
Step-daughter:<br>
Jenny O'Driscoll<br>
Five grandchildren
|relations=Charles Emmett "Cap" Barham (uncle by marriage)<br>
Charles Clem Barham (cousin)
| religion=[[Presbyterian]]
}}
'''Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.''' (February 20, 1938 – January 16, 2014), was a [[journalist]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], [[Louisiana]], whose communications career began in the middle 1950s when he was a student at Ruston High School and then [[Louisiana Tech University]]. In 1968, at the age of thirty, Hilburn returned to Louisiana Tech to chair the Journalism Department and serve as director of the college news bureau. Even while instructing budding journalists for some four decades, he continued to write a popular weekly column carried by Gannett in both ''The Shreveport Times'' and ''The Monroe Nes-Star.'' On September 1, 2009, Hilburn retired from the university position after forty-one years.<ref name=latech>Bill Campbell, "Region's dean of journalism leaves editor's mark on generations, ''The Monroe News-Star,'' August 2, 2009.</ref>
==Background==
Hilburn was born in Ruston to Wiley Hilburn, Sr. (1913–2003), the son of a cotton gin operator, Ewing Hilburn, originally from Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish. Hilburn, Sr., managed his father's three cotton gins in the Ruston region and then branched into dry cleaning. He offered the first cold storage for furs in Ruston.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogybuff.com/la/la-lincoln-obits14.htm|title=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Sr.|publisher=genealogybuff.com|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> Hilburn's mother, the former Marie Trussell (1912–2007), was an educator who was once the principal of a one-room school in her native Antioch community near Ruston. Wiley Hilburn himself attended the A. E. Phillips Laboratory School on the Louisiana Tech campus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20070212/NEWS0804/702120306/Hilburn-He-affirmed-not-spoiled|title=Hilburn: He was affirmed, but not spoiled|date=February 11, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Wiley Hilburn, Sr., was the brother-in-law of Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Charles Emmett "Cap" Barham (1904-1972), an [[attorney]] from Ruston who served during the [[Robert F. Kennon]] administration from 1952 to 1956, the year that Hilburn, Jr., graduated from Ruston High School. Barham was married to the former Carice Helen Hilburn (1907-1965), the sister of Wiley Hilburn, Sr. Hence, Hilburn, Jr., was a first cousin of the Barhams' older son, the late state Senator Charles Clem Barham (1934-2010), a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] from Ruston, who served from 1964 to 1972 and again from 1976 to 1988.
In 1960, Hilburn procured his bachelor's degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech. While he was a student, he also worked for ''The Ruston Daily Leader,''then owned by [[Clarence Faulk]], gained practical [[newspaper]] experience, and became the editor of the paper. He thereafter received his master's degree in journalism from [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]].<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
At twenty-four, Hilburn became in 1962 an editorial writer for ''The Shreveport Times,'' apparently the second youngest writer of editorials for a major newspaper in the nation. That same year, [[Patrick J. Buchanan]], also born in 1938 and eight months Hilburn's junior, began writing editorials for the since defunct ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat.'' Buchanan was still twenty-three when he assumed his position in [[St. Louis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://buchanan.org/blog/biography|title=Biography: Patrick J. Buchanan|publisher=buchanan.org|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
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, Louisiana|Monroe]].<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
==The Tech Talk==
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.<ref name=hilburndeath>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140116/NEWS01/301160027/Well-known-journalist-professor-Hilburn-dead-75?nclick_check=1|title=Well-known journalist, professor, Hilburn dead at 75|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 16, 2014}}</ref><ref name=latech/>
Hilburn named [[Stanley Tiner]], whose career ended as the editor of ''The Sun Herald'' in Gulfport and Biloxi, [[Mississippi]]. Tiner recalled in an interview with the ''The Monroe News-Star'' that as the editor of ''The Tech Talk'': "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."<ref name=latech/>
Hilburn and Tiner then recruited Reginald Owens (born 1948) 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."<ref name=latech/> 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.<ref name=hilburndeath/> His first wife, Ellen, told him to call the police. He retorted, "That is the damn police."<ref name=latech/> Owens holds an endowed chair in the Tech journalism department and took over as head of the department in 2009 following Hilburn's retirement.<ref name=latech/>
Owens called Hilburn:
<blockquote>
the [[Huckleberry Finn]] of journalism. He was such a down to earth, real person and he was always so observant about his surroundings and about how people felt. That’s one of the things that I hope I picked up from him, to find out what people are thinking and to make sure their voices are heard.<ref name=hilburndeath/></blockquote>
In addition to his duties with the news bureau, Hilburn served on the Louisiana Tech Administrative Planning Council. From his work on the Tech Athletic Council, he remained a steadfast follower of the university sports teams.<ref name=hilburnhonors/>
==Politics==
A Democrat, Hilburn was an admirer of former [[Insurance commissioner|Louisiana Insurance Commissioner]] [[James H. "Jim" Brown]], who was forced from office in 2000 after multiple indictments but conviction only on one count for lying in an informal interview to an agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Early in 2005, Hilburn reviewed Brown's book ''Justice Denied'' in which the former commissioner, who also served as a state senator and as the Louisiana Secretary of State, defends his conduct in office and denies giving false statements to the FBI. In his column Hilburn recalled the 1978 primary election for Louisiana's 5th congressional district]] seat in which the one-term Democrat incumbent, [Thomas Jerald "Jerry" Huckaby, easily defeated Brown. Hilburn surprises readers; after praising Brown's public service, he reveals that he had voted for Huckaby in the race anyway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thelisburnpress.com/BookReviewTimes.html|title=Book Speaks to Travesty of Justice|date=January 10, 2005|publisher=thelisburnpress.com|accessdate=June 16, 2013}}</ref>Hilburn was originally a [[conservative]] Democrat who supported [[Richard M. Nixon]] in 1960 and [[Barry Goldwater]] in 1964, but thereafter shifted ideological lines to become decades later an active backer of [[Barack H. Obama]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20131121/OPINION02/311210043/Wiley-Hilburn-Column-JFK-Guilt-grief-another-direction|title=Wiley Hilburn Column: JFK - Guilt, grief and another direction|date=November 22, 2013|publisher=''The Monroe News Star''|accessdate=November 22, 2013}}</ref>
On November 19, 2007, Hilburn published a column in ''The Shreveport Times'' which purports that former Louisiana [[Governor]] [[Kathleen Blanco]] would be judged much kinder by history than the difficult circumstances which followed [[Hurricane Katrina]]. It was those problems that prompted Blanco , a Democrat who died in 2019, not to seek a second term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2007. Victory instead went to Blanco's 2003 opponent, Republican [[Bobby Jindal]]. Wiley Hilburn attended a bipartisan reception for Blanco at the Squire Creek Country Club near his home in Choudrant in Lincoln Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS0804/711190316/1060/NEWS01|title=Wiley Hilburn: History to be kinder to Blanco than her storm-tossed administration|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=November 19, 2007|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Six weeks earlier, Hilburn had penned a column critical of what he saw as the attitude of certainty in the personality of President [[George W. Bush]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071001/NEWS0804/710010320/1007/OPINION|title=Wiley Hilburn: In Bush's world, optimism rules|date=October 1, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Books==
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''.<ref name=hilburnhonors/><ref name=newseasons/>
''Fragments'' has been described as Hilburn's:<br>
<blockquote>
own experiences — childhood, teen-age growing pains, and encounters as a practicing journalist, with all of his foibles, embarrassments, self doubts, and fantasizing — evoke a nostalgia with which everyone who grew up in a small town can identify. ... He paints a vivid picture of the North Louisiana landscape — sunshine and rain, changing seasons, fishing holes, and woodlands — places where all have been and to which all wish to return.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/history/publications/fragments%20long%20desc.htm|title=Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr., ''Fragments''|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref></blockquote>
==Honors==
In 1983, Hilburn was cited by [[United Press International]] for the "Best Louisiana Column Award." In 1989, he received "Special Recognition" from then Governor [[Buddy Roemer]] for "Twenty Years of Dedication to Louisiana Tech University." In 1993, he received the Louisiana Tech Alumni Foundation Award for Outstanding Teacher.<ref name=hilburnhonors>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/media/wiley-hilburn.shtml|title=Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
In 2009, on his retirement from Louisiana Tech, he was named "professor-emeritus". In 2010, he was named "Distinguished Alumnus" of the Louisiana Tech College of Liberal Arts.<ref name=hilburnobit/>
In 2001, Hilburn was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.<ref name=hilburnobit/> Other journalists inducted into the Hall of Fame have included ''The Shreveport Times'' political cartoonist Pap Dean, Iris Kelso of ''The New Orleans Times-Picayune,'' the late newspaper chain owner Sam Hanna, Sr., [[Bill Lynch]], the Baton Rouge bureau chief of ''The Times-Picayune,'' and [[John LaPlante]], of ''The Baton Rouge Advocate.''
==Family life==
Hilburn resided in Choudrant with his second wife, the former Kate Sartor (born March 5, 1949), a [[photographer]]<ref name=newseasons>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/techtalk/archives/12_09_04/current/columnist.php|title=Sallie Rose Hollis, Wiley Hilburn's ''New Seasons''|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> and the daughter of a prominent Shreveport couple active in business, civic, and church affairs, Charles Lane Sartor (1921-2014)<ref name=clsartorobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=charles-sartor&pid=172580507&fhid=10218|title=Charles Sartor obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=September 26, 2014}}</ref> and Gloria Sanderson Sartor.<ref name=hilburnobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=wiley-wilson-hilburn&pid=169150070&fhid=6320|title=Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Charles Lane Sartor, a graduate of Clifton Ellis Byrd High School in Shreveport and [[Washington and Lee University]] in Lexington, [[Virginia]], fought in [[World War II]] in [[China]] under [[General]] [[Claire Chennault]], was subsequently stationed in Chungking and [[Shanghai]] and became a member of the [[United States Air Force]] Reserve. Sartor was employed by Barnsdall Oil Company, Pan Am Southern Corporation, and in 1954, began a 37-year association with the Wheless Drilling Company. In this capacity he was exploration manager, a member of the board of directors, and an officer of the Tensas Delta Land Company. Finally, he opened an office as an independent geologist in association with his son-in-law, Ralph Guess Richardson. He was an officer of the C. W. Lane Company, a real estate development and management corporation founded in Shreveport by his grandfather, Charles W. Lane.<ref name=clsartorobit/>
Kate Hilburn's paternal aunt-by-marriage was the Shreveport artist Jean Oliver Sartor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=e-alton-sartor&pid=161140177#fbLoggedOut|title=E. Alton Sartor, Jr. (1917-2012)|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hilburn's first wife and the mother of his three children, is the former Ellen Riser (born April 1940), subsequently Ellen LaCroix of Ruston. She was the daughter of Gwendolyn Williamson Riser, a Louisiana Tech employee,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com/obituary/gwendolyn-williamson-riser/|title=Gwendolyn Williamson Riser|publisher=kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com|accessdate=January 18, 2014}}</ref> and Ben Dalton Riser (1914-2003), who for more than fifty years was the business manager of the Ruston [[Coca-Cola]] Bottling Company. Their children are [[Greg Hilburn|Gregory Todd "Greg" Hilburn]] and wife, Tania. Greg Hilburn is the chief political writer for ''The Monroe News Star,'' at which Hilburn himself had worked in the early 1960s. Greg Hilburn received his degree in journalism from Louisiana Tech in 1984. His two other children, both of Ruston, are Kevin Scott Hilburn (born December 1963) and wife, Holley, and Anne Marie Hilburn (born c. 1966). He has a step-daughter, Dr. Jennifer O'Driscoll of Lawrence, [[Kansas]], and five grandchildren.<ref name=hilburnobit/><ref name=clsartorobit/>
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 Town Talk, ''The Camden ([[Arkansas]]) News,'' and the defunct ''[[Shreveport Journal]].'' In 2012, Chet Hilburn authored ''The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football''. In the foreword to the book, Chet Hilburn credits his brother for encouraging his interest in LSU football.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Mystique-Tiger-Stadium-Ascension/dp/1449752691|author=Chester William "Chet" Hilburn|title=The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football|date=2012|publisher=WestBowPress: ISBN 1449752691|accessdate=September 10, 2012}}</ref>
In 2009, shortly before his retirement as the journalism department chairman, Hilburn underwent successful [[heart]] bypass surgery.<ref name=latech/>He had also been treated in recent months for [[cancer]], which had been in remission<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140126/OPINION02/301260022/100-percent-Wiley-100-percent-time|author=Teddy Allen|title="100 percent Wiley, 100 percent of the time"|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 26, 2014}}</ref> at the time of his death from a brief illness of [[pneumonia]] in January 2014 at the age of seventy-five at North Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston. Services were held on January 19 at the First [[Presbyterian]]Church in Ruston.<ref name=funeralarrangements>{{cite web|url=http://710keel.com/funeral-arrangements-set-for-louisiana-journalist-wiley-hilburn-jr/|title=Funeral Arrangements Set for Louisiana Journalist Wiley Hilburn, Jr.|publisher=710keel.com|accessdate=January 17, 2014}}</ref>Interment followed in the family plot at Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston.<ref name=hilburnobit/>
Former Louisiana Tech President Dan Reneau described Hilburn as "top quality. I worked closely with him for many years. His greatest quality was his compassion and his ability to put it in words. This was a gift that he passed on to hundreds of his students.<ref name=funeralarrangements/>
On the day of his funeral, Hilburn's last column, another attempt to debunk the existence of black panthers in Louisiana, was carried in ''The 'Monroe News-Star.''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140119/OPINION02/301190018/Wiley-Hilburn-Column-Black-panthers-Bigfoot|title=Wiley Hilburn Column: Black panthers and Bigfoot|date=January 19, 2014|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 19, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]