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Mary Beth Murphy, a longtime Milwaukee journalist, died May 26 of metastatic breast cancer at her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was 78.

Murphy joined the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1969. She first covered women’s issues, then the Milwaukee County Juvenile Court System and finally religion — a beat that she would transform during her tenure. She interviewed popes, archbishops, priests, parishioners, and victims of sexual assaults by priests and other clerics. In 2003, she was inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame.

Elizabeth R. "Betty" Schilling, of Chilton, died on May 24,at Ascension Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh. She was 82.
Born Feb. 12, 1941, to Elmer and Adeline Sohrweide, Schilling was a reporter almost all of her adult life. Working for Wisconsin newspapers for more than 50 years, her byline appeared in publications including The (Fond du Lac) Reporter, The Sheboygan Press, The (Appleton) Post-Crescent, Manitowoc Herald-Times, Green Bay Press-Gazette and Chilton Journal.

Donald G. “Fuzzy” Foster, 84, of Marshfield, died on Saturday, May 13, at his home.

Born on May 18, 1938, in Phillips to David G. and Anna Foster, he graduated from Phillips High School in 1956. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After his honorable discharge, Fuzzy worked at the Phillips Bee newspaper where his father was the editor and owner.

Former Wisconsin journalist Linda Christopherson, of Beloit, died unexpectedly on Monday, March 13, at Beloit Memorial Hospital. She was 73.

During her career, Linda worked in the communications department at Beloit College, served as an educator for the Beloit school district and Blackhawk Technical College, and wrote for The (Beloit) Chronicle and The Onion. She also was a member of the MENSA Society. 

Joe Fazendin, who owned the Stanley Republican for more than three decades, died on Thursday, March 16, at his home in Stanley. He was 83.

Before moving to Wisconsin, the Minnesota native worked for the St. Charles (Minn.) Press, as well as IBM in Rochester, Minn. He owned the Fulda (Minn.) Free Press for three years before he and his wife purchased the Stanley Republican. He served as publisher of the newspaper for more than 35 years before selling it in 2004.

Arlys Jean Hawkes, a Menomonie native who previously owned two Jefferson County newspapers with her husband, Dennis L. Hawkes, died on March 9. She was 89.

In 1965, the couple purchased the Lake Mills Leader and Leader Printing Company, and in 1979, they purchased the Cambridge News. She worked full-time and remained active in the business until the newspapers were sold in 1999.

Zane C. Zander, age 88, of Brillion, passed away on Thursday afternoon, March 9, 2023, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Longtime national political reporter Ted Knap died on Feb. 26. He was 102. During his career, he covered five presidents in Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Knap graduated from Marquette University in 1940 with a degree in journalism. Following graduation he worked for the Waukesha Daily Freeman as a reporter and city editor for six years. In 1950, he joined the Indianapolis Times as a city desk reporter, later becoming assistant editor and, eventually, city editor of the newspaper. He became the Washington correspondent for the Times, as well as the Evansville (Ind.) Press, around 1963.

Theresa "Terry" Marie Coady, who established Walterry Insurance Brokers with her husband, Walter, in 1968, died on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in Fort Washington, Maryland, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's. She was 87.

In 1976, the company began writing insurance policies for news organizations and, eventually, became one of largest insurers of media outlets in the country.

David Wagner, who helped lead the 1977 newspaper strike in Madison, died on Tuesday, Feb. 21, in Tempe, Arizona. He was 78.

Wagner graduated from high school in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from UW-Madison. He became poetry editor of the underground newspaper Connections, and a short-time editor of the alternative weekly, Madison Kaleidoscope. He worked at The Capital Times from 1966 to 1972, as a protege of former editor Elliott Maraniss. Following the newspaper's strike, Wagner went on to work as editorial page editor of the The Waukesha Freeman and as an editor at The Arizona Republic until his early retirement for health reasons.