CENTRE – The Cherokee County Historical Society hosted the annual Baker-Dean Cherokee County Media Awards Thursday evening at the Cherokee County Museum.
The awards are a collaborative project of the Cherokee County Historical Museum and the Preservation Society of Cherokee County. They were established in 2017 to honor long time Cherokee County media representatives Jerry Baker of WEIS radio and Terry Dean of The Cherokee County Post Herald.
This year’s recipients are WEIS radio assistant manager Shelia Richardson and former Cherokee County Herald editor Kathy Roe Buttram.
Richardson has been associated with the production of sports programming on WEIS for 34 years. She started in sales, which included sponsorships of area high school football and basketball games. Richardson then moved into a management role of traffic and billing, where she had the responsibility of making sure the sports programs were on the broadcast log at the proper times. She later accepted the position of assistant manager, aiding Baker in the station’s day-to-day operations.
Buttram, a native of Cedar Bluff, was The Herald’s editor from February 2006 until November 2008. She has an extensive newspaper background and a love of community journalism. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Jacksonville State University and her master’s in journalism from the University of Alabama.
Her newspaper credentials also include The Birmingham News, where she worked as a criminal justice reporter and weekend city editor. She then embarked on a lengthy career at the Orlando Sentinel, where she held numerous positions for more than 15 years, including assistant Insight editor of the editorial section, assistant business editor and copy desk chief.
The awards committee also recognized several local authors/artists who have written books or contributed other forms of media about local sports, athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and others who have made a name for themselves in sports.
Those local authors/artists recognized included Scott Wright for his book “Fire On The Mountain”, Tommy Moon and Randall McCord for their book “The Cotton Picking Centre Warriors”, Michael Lynn Bruce for his book “Coach” (in honor of his father, legendary Cedar Bluff football coach L.D. Bruce), David Hartline for his book on “The Real Tarzan White”, and Freddy Reynolds for his painting on “The Last Game at Estes Field.”
Other presentations the committee made included the Cherokee Star Awards. Those awards honor Cherokee County citizens for their community service and appreciation of sports. The first honorees were Jon Holder and Betty Waite Graves Zoller back in June 2019.
This year’s Cherokee Star recipients include Andre Covington, Adet Stephens, Joe Bob Ray and Jim Lewis.
One final special presentation was made by the committee Thursday evening to Buddy Knapp for being instrumental in the creation of the local media awards and his work on the Cherokee County Historical Museum’s sports wing.
