The above photo was taken in 1944 in the publisher's office
of what was then The Mobile Press Register's new building at the
northeast corner of Government and Claiborne streets. The men in the photo were
the newspaper's top management at the time. From left to right:
T. C. McLemore, mechanical superintendent. McLemore, who was
also a shareholder, was in charge of the production facilities.
William Jefferson Hearin, Jr., general manager. Hearin began
at the newspaper as an 18-year-old retail advertising solicitor and essentially
ran the newspaper as co-publisher by 1965.
Ralph Bradford Chandler, publisher. Chandler had founded
Scripps-Howard's Birmingham Post and put together the collection of
investors who in 1929 started The Mobile Press, which absorbed The
Mobile Register in 1932.
Joseph Alex McGowin, chairman of the Board of Directors.
After the death of Mobile Press founder Joseph F. McGowin, his two
sons Joe Alex and Leonard held and voted together their father’s shares in the
newspaper. The McGowin family was deeply invested in the Port City’s real
estate, financial, automobile and construction firms.
George M. Cox, executive editor. His father had worked as a
Linotype operator at the old Mobile Register and his grandfather had
been one of the owners of The Mobile Daily News in the 1890s. At age
11 in 1918, George Cox began hawking newspapers on downtown streets. In his
teens, he became a copy boy after school and worked until 10 p.m. During the
summers, he worked part-time as a reporter.After he graduated from Barton Academy
in 1924, Cox became a police reporter for the Register and News-Item and eventually
became the executive editor of the Press Register.
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