Longtime Roanoke Tribune publisher Claudia Whitworth died last week. She was 98.
Whitworth had a clear vision for The Roanoke Tribune.
“Always the positive, I say, no negative," she said in 2020. "Like a letter from home.”
And the Tribune has followed that, filling its pages with positive news about the Black community in Roanoke and beyond. The weekly newspaper has about 4,500 readers – not just in Roanoke but across the U.S.
Her father, Rev. F.E. Alexander, launched the paper as part of a chain of publications, in Roanoke, Martinsville, Charlottesville, and Bluefield, West Virginia. Whitworth joined him in the work in 1945, before leaving Roanoke to gain experience at papers in New York, Ohio and elsewhere in Virginia.
“My intention was always to come back and take care of my own paper," she said. "I just needed more experience.”
Whitworth returned and purchased the Roanoke Tribune from her father in 1971.
It’s been published weekly since then – even through urban renewal, when the paper’s Gainsboro office was bulldozed. Whitworth had an electronic typesetter at home, though, and never missed an issue.
Whitworth’s children, Stan Hale and Eva Shaw, are continuing that legacy.
“My mother, she was a dynamic individual that forged a path for our family to follow, and we are pursuing in that effort," Hale said on Wednesday morning.
Hale couldn’t talk long. Wednesday is publication day at the Roanoke Tribune, and they had an issue to get out.
Whitworth’s funeral is Friday at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Roanoke.
