Bill Text: VA HR4 | 2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Celebrating the life of James Douglas Coleburn.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-01-15 - Bill text as passed House (HR4ER) [HR4 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HR4-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, the country editor has for centuries been a distinctive personage in the annals of the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, it falls to the country editor to master the particularities and idiosyncrasies, the liabilities and also the possibilities of his (or her) community, including a broad and deep and necessarily sympathetic understanding of the heights and depths, the virtues and the vagaries, of human nature; and
WHEREAS, the country editor believes profoundly in the capacity of words to inform the reading public of the truth of things and to form disparate individuals into a harmoniously whole community; and
WHEREAS, when the country editor achieves either of these objectives, the experience is one of exaltation; and
WHEREAS, when the country editor finds that the written word may inform but not form the reading citizenry, the experience is one of misery; and
WHEREAS, controversy is to the country editor an inescapable factor of the calling, though the perils are somewhat less than they were in the days of dueling; and
WHEREAS, James Douglas Coleburn of Blackstone and Nottoway County, a "prolific, persuasive writer, a free-thinking and, at times, fire-breathing conservative," in the words of his son and successor, was—for nearly eight decades—such a country editor; and
WHEREAS, the varied and invariably outstanding achievements of Douglas "Doug" Coleburn as editor and publisher of The Courier-Record of Blackstone were acknowledged in 2020 by his induction into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn was born in Onancock in Accomack County, and came to Blackstone in 1930, at the age of two, with his parents, Curt and Virginia Coleburn, when his father was employed "to get the Blackstone Courier print shop back in order"; and
WHEREAS, Curt Coleburn stayed in Blackstone, having acquired the newspaper, and Doug Coleburn began writing "The Southside VA Sportsman's Corner" column for The Courier-Record in 1948 under the pen name of "C.D. James"— "for fear that his thoughts and observations on hunting and fishing might not be well received," his son remembers; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn would write "The Sportsman's Corner" in The Courier-Record for over 60 years; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn became news editor of The Courier-Record in March 1952, and, as he later wrote in a eulogy published after his death, he "wrote all of the news, plus all editorials and three columns each week…[and] took and developed all of the photos," describing himself as "overworked and often miserable during the workday"; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn became a renowned columnist, not only for "The Sportsman's Corner," but for "Around the Town!" (later abbreviated to "Around Town"), "Growing Up in Blackstone," "On the Front Porch," and, for many years in retirement, "Just Hanging On"; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn authored, too, the book The Japanese Attacked and Then Came Pickett, and he was influential in placement of an historical marker commemorating the three hundred families forced from their ancestral homes in 1942, during the Second World War, for the creation of Fort Pickett—recently renamed Fort Barfoot; and
WHEREAS, when at 95 years of age he passed away into the next life on September 25, 2023, Doug Coleburn had either edited or written for The Courier-Record for 75 years; he had guided the newspaper to win numerous awards from The Virginia Press Association and to achieve one of the largest circulations of any rural newspaper in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn complemented his community journalism with community service, having served on Blackstone Town Council from 1953 to 1983, followed by election to three consecutive terms on the Nottoway County Board of Supervisors; and
WHEREAS, after he thought he had concluded his service in elected office, Doug Coleburn was appointed to Blackstone Town Council in 1996 and again elected in both 1998 and 2002, so that when he finally did retire in 2006, he had served for 51 years in local elected office; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn also served 10 years as chair of the Blackstone Planning Commission, led The Schwartz Tavern Authority for 20 years, was a life member of the Blackstone Volunteer Fire Department, which he actively served from 1961 to 1981, and was a founder and first secretary of the Southside Wildlife Association; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn, through his tenacious research and reporting in The Courier-Record, helped authorities to solve, in 2000, a double-murder committed in Blackstone in 1953; and
WHEREAS, again through The Courier-Record, Doug Coleburn donated to Blackstone a memorial, located in Seay Park, listing the names of the 44 soldiers of Nottoway County killed in battle in one of the four wars in which United States troops fought during the 20th Century; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn served eight years in Company F of the Virginia National Guard and the old Virginia Protective Force; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn was preceded in death by his devoted wife of 69 years, Katherine Harris Coleburn; his parents, Curt and Virginia Coleburn; and two brothers, Billy and Custis Coleburn; and
WHEREAS, Doug Coleburn is survived by his daughter, Virginia Rieger (Larry) of Richmond; his son and successor, Billy "Mr. Blackstone" and wife, Joyce, of Blackstone; four grandchildren, Susan McKenney (Cameron) of Richmond, Caroline Coleburn Noblin (Shawn) of Chesterfield, Mary Katherine Spencer (Ben) of Blackstone, and Robert Motley of Blackstone; and one great-granddaughter, Katherine Anne McKenney, of Richmond; and
WHEREAS, in his final contribution to The Courier-Record, published posthumously, Doug Coleburn wrote that he "loved the Lord, his country, his family, his fellowman, and his community"; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates, hereby note with great sadness the loss of James Douglas Coleburn, who devoted nearly eight decades of exceptional service as a newspaper publisher, editor, and elected official, to the people of Blackstone and Nottoway County; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House prepare copies of this resolution for presentation to the family of Doug Coleburn, as an expression of the House of Delegates' sympathy with their bereavement and admiration for the life and labors of a good and great newspaperman, husband, father, and civic servant.
