Craig Durrett

Craig Walton Durrett (January 13, 1955 – May 11, 2015) was a journalist whose longest tenure was with The Shreveport Times in his adopted city of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Biography

A native of El Dorado in Union County in southern Arkansas, Durrett was the only child of George Walton Durrett (1926-1977), originally from Panola County, Mississippi, and the former Henrietta Burge (born c. 1929). His parents married in Union County in 1950. His father, who died at the age of fifty, is interred at Arlington Memorial Park in El Dorado.

After he retired from The Times in 2012, Durrett worked three years as assistant news director for KTBS-TV, the ABC outlet in Shreveport, which was established the year that Durrett was born.

Durrett died from complications of disseminated zoster virus. A memorial service was held on May 16, 2015, at the First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport.He is survived by his wife, the former Miriam Kaye Lokey (born August 1955), of Shreveport; daughter Elizabeth Durrett Rose and husband, John Rose, of Dallas, Texas; son Philip and wife, Marie, also of Dallas; and his mother, Henrietta Durrett of El Dorado.

Former Shreveport Times editor Judy Pace Christie (born December 1956), who operates a consulting service, offered this analysis of Durrett: "He cared about the news, but he cared about people more. He approached each story and column with a sense of fairness and a kind heart, committed to helping our community be well-informed. He blessed countless people in his professional and personal life."