James F. Scotton, a longtime Wisconsin journalist and teacher, died on May 28, in Bayside. He was 91.

A native of Boston, Scotton earned a bachelor's degree in literature from Boston University and a master's degree in political science and Ph.D. in mass Communication from UW-Madison, where he was a teaching assistant. He then worked for newspapers in North Carolina and Wisconsin, including The Capital Times in Madison and The Associated Press, before becoming a college professor. He spent 37 years at Marquette University, where he was Dean, department chair and a faculty member, before retiring in 2015.

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.