Gone but not forgotten…
Cathy Milton
Broadcast news pioneer Cathy Milton, best known for her 27-year career as a reporter and host on WTAE-TV, died peacefully in her Monroeville home Dec. 30.
Milton began her broadcasting career in 1956 with WLOA, Braddock, and WEDO, McKeesport. In 1957 she joined WMCK, McKeesport as host of the “The Date with Cathy Show”. In 1967, Cathy moved to WJAS Radio where she was a general assignment reporter until her move to WTAE-TV in 1969 where, in addition to reporting major news stories, she hosted “Black Chronicle” and co-hosted “Pittsburgh Dialogue” and “AM Pittsburgh.”
Rip Nixon
Musician, basketball star, NAACP planning director and born salesman Lemuel O. “Rip” Nixon, who was a pioneering Black executive with Pittsburgh Brewing and IBM died Dec. 1 after suffering a stroke. He was 83.
After a tour with the U.S. Army, he returned to Pittsburgh and sold Iron City Beer for Pittsburgh Brewing until 1965 when he landed a job with IBM, where he assisted European marketing teams. In 1997, he joined Ralph Proctor, and then city council members Valerie McDonald and Sala Udin in formulating the plan that eventually led to building of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.
Regis Bobonis
News icon, Tuskegee Airmen champion Regis Bobonis Sr., who said he had a ‘front row seat to history” while working at the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1930s and spent the last 20 years championing the recognition of local Tuskegee Airmen, passed away Nov. 25 of natural causes.
After World War II, he become the first African American reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and later the first Black television reporter in Pittsburgh by joining WIIC (now WPXI).
He later learned, not only that five Tuskegee Airmen hailed from Sewickley, but also that eight came from within three miles, and that there were more Tuskegee Airman from Western Pennsylvania than any other state in the union.
Rev. Samson M. Cooer
Rev. Samson M. Cooper, who delivered his first sermon at age 5, passed away 80 years later on Nov. 8. Cooper, who pastored in AME Churches in the West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio Conferences of the Third Episcopal District, and retired as a presiding elder of the Pittsburgh District Annual Conference, passed away at the age of 85.
Cooper graduated from Wilberforce University, in Ohio, and received a master’s of divinity from the university’s Payne Theological Seminary. He also participated in the 1963 civil rights March on Washington and was also involved with the NAACP and the Black Political Empowerment Project.
Bob Pitts
Former Wilkinsburg mayor and long time NAACP activist Bob Pitts passed Nov. 2 in Cleveland at the age of 90.
Pitts was the Pittsburgh NAACP vice president during the Harvey Adams reign as president. He was also head of the noted Labor and Industry Committee that led the way in the battle to get Blacks involved in the cable ownership coming to Pittsburgh during the 1970s. Pitts was named one of the first New Pittsburgh Courier’s 50 Men of Excellence, Trailblazers, along with Robert R. Lavelle, and Wendell Freeland.
Milt Washington
Called a “beacon of hope,” Businessman and philanthropist Milt Washington, who parlayed a vice presidency with the Allegheny Rehabilitation Housing Company into a business empire that included ownership of that firm, a construction company, sheet metal and roofing businesses, real estate and investment capital firms, died Oct. 22, less than a month after his 81st birthday.
Though a multi-millionaire, he was remembered mostly for his charitable donations and fundraising efforts aimed at strengthening small and Black-owned businesses, and community institutions.
Bill Nunn III
Bill Nunn III, a veteran character actor whose credits ranged from the “Spider-Man” movie franchise to such Spike Lee films as “Do the Right Thing” and “He Got Game,” died at his home in Pittsburgh, Sept. 24. He was 63 and had been battling cancer.
Nunn broke through in movies in the late 1980s, first in Lee’s “School Daze,” then in the Oscar-nominated “Do the Right Thing,” as the ill-fated Radio Raheem, who dies when choked by police during a street brawl in Brooklyn.
“Radio Raheem is now resting in power,” Lee wrote on Instagram, also calling Nunn “My Dear
Morehouse brothers.
Nunn was the grandson of Bill Nunn Sr., noted Managing Editor of the Pittsburgh Courier from 1923 to 1956, and son of noted sports writer and Steelers scout Bill Nunn Jr.
Rev. Jason Barr Jr.
Reverend Jason Barr Jr., pastor emeritus of Macedonia Baptist Church, in the Hill District, died Aug. 8 in his sleep due to natural causes, according to the Macedonia Church of Pittsburgh Facebook page. Barr was 61.
Reverend Barr was elected pastor of Macedonia in April 1988, where he spent 24 years as the senior leader. He retired March 2012 due to health challenges that included a brain aneurism in 2007 and a car accident in 2010.
Kris Kelley
Pitt grad Kris Kelley radio programming veteran was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment Jan. 15. She was a program director and on-air personality who spent 15 years at Clear Channel Chicago.
Her radio career began in Pittsburgh where she worked as the midday disc jockey and music director at WAMO-FM.
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