Thomas, executive biz editor in Knoxville, dies at 81

Lois Regan Thomas

Lois Reagan Thomas

Lois Evelyn Reagan Thomas, retired executive business editor of The Knoxville News-Sentinel, died Thursday at the age of 81.

An obituary states, “She came to work at the News-Sentinel in 1962 when she was a student at the University of Tennessee. She wrote the School Talk column and was a staff writer for what was then the Women’s News Department. She became a general assignment reporter for the city staff in 1964.

“She covered almost every beat at the News-Sentinel, including education, urban affairs, federal and state courts and city government. She also served as a copy editor and was the first woman city editor.

“She was named business editor in 1989 and became executive business editor in 1996. When she retired, she received numerous letters from people she had written about who praised her fairness and unbiased reporting.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.