Denise Dunn Watkins Turner was born on August 2, 1947 in Cairo, Illinois, the daughter of Robert James Watkins and Helen Grace Dunn. Her great-great-grandfather was Edwin C. Thomas, who was a native of Trigg County, Kentucky.
Denise was the third generation of family to have lived in Cairo. She was reared and attended schools in Cairo and graduated as valedictorian of her class at Cairo High School in 1965. Denise was a lifelong St. Louis Cardinal Baseball fan. During high school, she was the president of the Julian Javier Fan Club and, because of this, she met the renowned Javier and other 1963 Cardinals, including Stan Musial and Bill White.
She went on to attend Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in fashion merchandising.
On December 22, 1967, Denise married Revis Eugene Turner, a native of Illinois. They became the parents of two children, Rebecca Jill Turner, born in 1977 and Stephen Robert Turner, born in 1985. The family settled in Twin Lakes, Idaho where Denise was employed as a writer with the Twin Lakes Times-News newspaper. Prior to moving to Idaho, Denise had worked at varied positions such as a traveling lecturer, toy and book department manager and community college writing teacher.
It was when her husband accepted a position with a Twin Falls church, that Denise started her association with The Times-News as a freelance writer, covering local news. After several months, she was hired in 1989 to create "Chat," a weekly insert of feature content. She became assistant features editor in early 1993.
She went on to write a weekly columns on life and family which enlivened the newspaper's pages for more than a decade. Her most remembered article was about when she dropped a hymnbook from the Methodist church balcony during a Sunday morning service which earned her the nickname “Hymnabomber” and ribbing from people all over town. This incident and other jokes at her expense all showed up in her columns.
Turner edited the newspaper's Religion and Food & Home sections and its TV Weekly tab. She trained freelance writers, led the newspaper to national first-place honors for small newspapers' religion sections in 2001, and won industry awards for her own feature and column writing. The Times-News honored Turner as Employee of the Year in 1998. She received The Harold Schachern Award for Best Religion Pages 2001 from the Religion Newswriters Association; and was recipient of several journalism awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists and the Idaho Press Club.
Denise was an accomplished author of two books, "Home Sweet Fishbowl" and "Scuff Marks on the Ceiling". She was a contributing author to numerous books, including "Chicken Soup for the Baseball Fan's Soul". In addition to her newspaper work she authored several freelance magazine articles.
Denise died at the age of 57, on Wednesday, January, 26, 2005, at her home following a two-year battle with cancer. She was buried in the Sunset Memorial Park Cemetery in Twin Falls.
Denise Turner Tombstone
LINEAGE: (Denise Watkins Turner is the daughter of Robert James and Helen Grace Dunn Watkins, granddaughter of John Edward and Grace Jane Roberts Dunn and great-granddaughter of George Washington and Margaret Alice Thomas Dunn. Margaret is the daughter of Edwin C. and Amanda C. Brandon Thomas. Edwin is the first child of James, Jr. and Margaret Ethridge Thomas. James, Jr. is the sixth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)
No comments:
Post a Comment