Kenneth Owen ‘Ken’ Reid

Kenneth Owen ‘Ken’ Reid, former publisher of the Weatherford Daily News, died December 9, 2024. He was 98.
Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, in the Federated Church of Weatherford.
Reid was born August 26, 1926, in Weatherford. After graduating from high school, he joined the World War II effort where he served in Hawaii.
After returning, he earned a journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma. Reid met his future wife, Phyllis Ruth Colpitt, at OU and they were married in 1948.
His first job after graduating from OU was at the Claremore Progress. After four years in Claremore, he and his partner Ed Burchfield purchased the Pauls Valley Daily Democrat and the Reid family made their home there for the next 19 years.
Reid and Burchfield later added the Wewoka Daily Times and Frederick Daily Leader to their collection. They sold the three daily papers in 1968.
Reid purchased the Weatherford News in 1972 and converted the weekly into a semi-weekly the next month and into an off-set daily the following year.
He and Phyllis owned and operated the newspaper for 26 years, with his sons, David and Phillip, engaged in the business with him for 12 of those years.
After retiring in 1998, the Reids enjoyed spending time at their cabin in Arkansas until Phyllis passed in 2015.
Reid later married Billie Joe Johnston and they made their home in Weatherford and Oklahoma City.
Reid served as president of the Oklahoma Press Association in 1979, as president of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation in 2003, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2016.
Reid is survived by his wife, Billie Joe Reid; brother Gary Reid; daughter Terry Magill and husband Bruce, daughter Ruth Anne Colley, son David Reid and wife Myra, son Phillip Reid and wife Jeanne Ann, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.