Al Smith is the former owner, publisher and editor of the News-Democrat and the creator of The Logan Leader . He headed the widespread media company Al Smith Communications from his Russellville office, served as federal co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission in Washington, moderated Comment on Kentucky on KET for decades, chaired the Kentucky Arts Commission and the Kentucky Oral History Commission, and conducted a statewide radio call-in program. He currently lives in both Lexington and Sarasota, Fla. and still is involved in a number of activities, including being an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky.

Jack Lyne received Kentucky’s highest honor for journalism last week at a University of Kentucky media luncheon at which he thanked the memory of hometown folks who he said had nudged him forward when he was “a quirky kid from little Russellville, Ky.”

“I’d like to thank the whole damn town,” he said. “When I grew up there, it seemed like everybody kept nudging stubborn kids like me toward things like hard work, self-discipline and education.”

Now in his 60’s, Lyne has for many years held major editorial positions at the Atlanta-based international business magazine “Site Selection.” Before that, he was in broadcast journalism and public information for the Louisville schools system. He holds two degrees from UK, but the teachers whose inspiration he cited were his Russellville basketball coach, Jim Young, and his English teacher, the late Ruth Carpenter.

Describing himself as not very talented or coordinated, Lyne said, “Coach thought he could make me a decent player, and he did.” Tearing up in his words about “Miss Ruth,” he said she deeply loved her students but she was “very demanding. She kept handing me back my essays and softly telling me ‘this is the best paper in the class, but I am only giving you a B+ because I know you can do better.’” That beloved teacher, he said, “has never really left me-in my head, in my heart, and in my work.”