News Publishing Co. Chairman Burgett Mooney Jr. dies

ROME - Burgett Mooney Jr., chairman of the News Publishing Co. and retired publisher of the Rome News-Tribune, died Monday after a short illness. He was 81. <br> <br> Mooney was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1920 and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1942. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater of World War II. <br> <br> After the war, he joined his family&#39;s newspaper, the Rome News-Tribune, as vice president. In 1959, he became publisher, a position he held for more than 26 years. <br> <br> He retired from full-time management in 1986, but continued to visit the office regularly to talk with employees and discuss the news. <br> <br> ``The newspaper was his family, and he was like a father to me,&#39;&#39; said Don Biggers, who worked for News Publishing for 38 years and retired in 1997 as vice president of news. ``I have so much respect for him.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The Mooney family has been connected to the Rome newspaper since 1928 when B.H. Mooney Sr., T.B. Godwin and W.S. Mudd purchased it. <br> <br> Mooney Sr. also was publisher of the Gadsden (Ala.) Times, but after Mudd&#39;s death in 1942, he sold his interest in the Times and assumed full ownership of the Rome News-Tribune. <br> <br> Mooney Jr. started the expansion of News Publishing, purchasing the Rockmart Journal and later the Cedartown Standard. <br> <br> Today, the company also owns the Calhoun Times, the Catoosa County News, the Cherokee County (Ala.) Herald, the Walker County Messenger, the Fort Oglethorpe Press, the Bartow Press and the Chattooga Press. <br> <br> Mooney was adamant that the Rome News-Tribune remain locally owned. <br> <br> ``He was offered the opportunity to sell the newspaper several times, and whenever the subject came up, he would tell me &#39;I will never do it,&#39;&#39;&#39; said William M. ``Billy&#39;&#39; Huffman, a friend for more than 50 years. <br> <br> Mooney also was known as one of the finest amateur golfers in northwest Georgia in the 1950s and 60s. A former collegiate golfer in Alabama, he won the Coosa Country Club Invitational four straight years and made it to the finals of the Southern Amateur Championship when it was held in Rome. <br> <br> Survivors include his wife of 56 years, the former Sibley Greer; a son, Burgett H. Mooney III, president of News Publishing and publisher of the Rome News-Tribune; and three daughters, Mary Sibley Banks, vice president of News Publishing, Jane M. Morgan and Elizabeth M. Mozley. <br> <br> Funeral arrangements were not immediately available Monday. <br> <br>

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