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CHARLESTON -- Four West Virginia journalists are the 2023 nominees to the West Virginia Press Association Hall of Fame.
The nominees are:
* Mary Helen Hedges, 1921-2007, with the Roane County Reporter in Spencer.
* J. Michael 'Mike' Myer, 1951-2021, of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register in Wheeling.
* Meade Dorsey, 1921-2009, Spirit of Jefferson Advocate in Charles Town.
* Charles Yeager, 1921-2002, Nicholas Chronicle in Summersville.
Newspapers in West Virginia have voted and the two nominees with the most votes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University in Morgantown.
The two inductees will be announced on Monday.
Hedges met her husband, Foster Hedges, in Cincinnati while he was stationed there in World War II. They married in 1944 and later moved to his hometown of Spencer upon the completion of his service.
The Hedges were active in the community. She worked with handicapped and disadvantaged youth before becoming editor of the Roane County Reporter in 1977. Following her retirement in 1990, she continued as vice president of Spencer Newspapers Inc.
Myer was executive editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register for 23 years. Prior to that, he was editor of the Wheeling News-Register, a position he assumed in 1991.
At the time of his death from COVID, Myer was president of the trustees of the West Virginia Press Association Foundation, the educational non-profit supported by the state's newspaper industry.
Yeager was owner of The Nicholas Chronicle. He graduated from West Virginia University in 1943 and later entered the air corps during World War II, serving in Okinawa as a communications officer. After the war, Yeager attended law school at the University of Virginia, during which time he served as the editor in chief of the Virginia Law Review.
Dorsey owned The Spirit of Jefferson Advocate from 1978 until it was sold to Pat Dockeney in 1996. His first experience with the Spirit was in 1934 when he worked on a part-time basis in the summer, doing whatever Clay Carr, then general manager, asked him to do.
The association also announced the 2023 Veterans Class Inductees. They are: William Harper, 1808-1887, who established the Hardy and Hampshire Intelligencer; Don Marsh, 1927-1999, a writer and editor of The Charleston Gazette for 40 years; Joseph H. Mills, 1939-1990, owner, editor and publisher of the Wirt County Journal for nearly seven years; and Samuel Craig Shaw, 1874-1957, publisher of The Moundsville Daily Echo from 1917 until his death.
The Hall of Fame Celebration will be held Oct. 13-14 at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling.
"WV Press hosts this celebration every other year, but COVID forced us to cancel the event. Our board of directors wanted to re-energize the event and recognize both our past leaders and the many talented new employees joining our newspaper industry," said Betsy Miles, incoming executive director of the Press Association.
Festivities will include newspaper employee recognitions and the recipient of the Adam R. Kelly Award, the industry's highest individual honor in West Virginia.