Former Vindicator editor dies

Staff report

CANFIELD

A former Vindicator reporter and editor has died.

Catesby B. “Cates” Cannon, Jr., of Canfield, died Friday. He was 90 years old.

Cannon worked at The Vindicator for 45 years before his retirement in 1985. He served as a reporter and a city editor before becoming assistant managing editor in 1973.

“He was excellent in assigning the proper people to the proper stories,” said his former co-worker Janie Jenkins, 89, of Boardman.

“I can’t think of anyone who really disliked him. He was stern, but in a nice way,” she said.

Jenkins, who retired from The Vindicator in 1986, recalled that it was Cannon who moved her to the city news desk after she spent 20 years working for the society section.

“Apparently, he saw something in me that indicated I might do better than society. ... And he helped me so much,” she said.

Cannon also served in the U.S. Navy and was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He served from 1942 to 1958, in active duty and the reserve.

Upon Cannon’s retirement in 1985, his fellow Muskingum College alumnus, then-U.S. Senator John Glenn, wrote to The Vindicator:

“I am proud to have known Cates and followed his distinguished career during the intervening years. It has been his unusual combination of toughness and flexibility, professionalism and compassion, along with his insistence on precision of language that made him a commanding presence at The Vindicator, and it will be a hard act to follow.”

A memorial service will be Oct. 3 at Canfield Presbyterian Church, according to Lane Funeral Home Canfield Chapel, which handled arrangements.