Tannehill in MS Press Hall of Fame

Jack Rhea Tannehill, who got his start in journalism in high school at The Neshoba Democrat and worked fearlessly in the newspaper industry for nearly 45 years, was inducted into the Mississippi Press Association Hall of Fame during the organization’s 155th annual meeting this past weekend on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“He delivered papers, took photographs, wrote stories, and became an expert in running web offset printing presses,” said Sid Salter, Chief Communications Officer at Mississippi State University, in a letter nominating Tannehill.

Tannehill’s now-late father, Jack L. Tannehill, moved his family to Philadelphia when he purchased an interest in Democrat in 1954 when Jack Rhea was 8-years old, said Salter, a Philadelphia native who himself worked on the Democrat eventually becoming associate editor and publisher for a stint in the 1980s. 

Jack Rhea got involved in the newspaper business early on and later while attending the University of Mississippi worked at The Oxford Eagle where he was welcomed “with open arms because of his knowledge on how to run the printing press,” Salter said.

Jack Rhea’s father purchased The Union Appeal in 1967 but died in 1968 at the age of 55.

“Jack Rhea, and his [now-late] mother, Courtney Tannehill, quickly took command of The Union Appeal in 1968, and Jack Rhea owned and published that newspaper until 2012,” Salter said. The Union Appeal became the Newton County Appeal in 2009 after The Newton Record closed.

Salter quotes Jack Rhea’s son, Rhea, an attorney in Oxford, saying his father never bowed to political pressure or fear of being shunned by others for writing an unpopular story during his career.

“He always believed that his job was to make sure that his community knew the whole story,” Rhea said. “He endured death threats over the years for reporting things people did not like to hear, and he was even arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The Union School Board attempted to go into executive session to discuss something that did not fall under the executive session privilege, and Jack Rhea refused to leave, which led to his arrest. In typical Jack Rhea fashion, he took his case to trial on his own and was found not guilty.

Jack Rhea served as MPA president in 1981 during a period of rapid growth for the association.

“Jack Rhea is eminently qualified and most deserving of this very high honor,” Salter said. “As a second-generation newspaper publisher, he grew up in the newspaper publishing business. But beyond that, Jack Rhea was an innovator in terms of newspaper design and production, photography, ad sales and design, pre-print insert design, sales and publishing, and exhibited courage in the way he covered controversial news and made timely editorial commentaries.”

His father was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.