Douglas F. Attaway


Douglas Fisher Attaway, Jr., known as Doug Attaway, was the president and publisher from 1957 to 1976 of the since defunct Shreveport Journal, a daily newspaper in northwest Louisiana. He was chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the Shreveport CBS affiliate from 1966 until the channel was sold in 1979 to Viacom. He was a former chairman of the board of Newspaper Production Company and the Attaway Newspaper Group, Inc.

Journalism career

Born in Shreveport to The Journal publisher Douglas Attaway, Sr., and the former Bessie Fisher, Attaway graduated from C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and held degrees in journalism and business from the University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri. In 1934, he joined the staff of The Journal as an advertising proof runner. He became an ad salesman, assistant bookkeeper, reporter, and then managing editor in December 1941, a position which he held until his father's death in 1957. Attaway succeeded his father as the president and publisher of The Journal and remained at the helm until the paper was sold in 1976.
In 1976, Attaway sold The Journal to the industrialist and philanthropist Charles T. Beaird.

Death and legacy

Attaway died at his home in Fairfield, Shreveport. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Marion Sailor, a son and two daughters.
The Attaways are remembered through the Douglas and Marion Attaway Professorships in Civic Culture at Centenary College, where he was a trustee. There is also the Douglas F. and Marion S. Attaway Charitable Income Trust Fund and Doug Attaway Boulevard near Louisiana Highway 1 in Shreveport.
The Attaways are interred in Section V, Block 162, at the large Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.