Richard Sloan March 25, 1951 ~ Dec. 8, 2014
Tue, 2014-12-16 05:00
News Staff
Richard Garner Sloan, 63, founder, first owner and publisher of the Evening Star newspaper in Harker Heights, passed away Dec. 8 with his family at his side. Memorial services will take place at a later time. Sloan started the Evening Star in February of 1998, a dream that he and his wife, Kathy, turned into reality in a small, cheerful building with a little porch on their property in Harker Heights. It was his wish to provide the community with a “good news” newspaper full of local color, stories about people in the community and familiar locales in the area with little- known but interesting histories; in short, a newspaper that people would look forward to seeing the next issue in the newsstands every few weeks. He was born on March 25, 1951, in Fort Worth. He graduated from Amon Carter-Riverside High School with the Class of 1969 and went on to attend Baylor University in Waco on a football scholarship. He played football for the Baylor Bears during his time there and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business. Sloan worked at various newspapers in his early career in journalism such as the Atlanta Times in Atlanta; the Steel Country Bee in Daingerfield; the Corsicana Daily Sun in Corsicana and the Killeen Daily Herald in Killeen. After his tenure with the Evening Star, he moved on to work at the Castle Rock News-Press and the Classified Cowgirls in Castle Rock, Colo. and the Livingston Enterprise in Livingston, Mont. after which he started another newspaper of his own, Our Town. Over the last few years he and Kathy moved back to Texas where he worked at the Marlin Democrat. Most recently he did some consulting work back at the Evening Star. He is survived by his wife, Kathy Sloan of Marlin; three sons, Sean and his wife, Chrissie, Samantha and her husband, Brandon, Danny and Joe and his wife, Lacynda; mother, Martha Sloan of Fort Worth; two sisters; two brothers; and numerous grandchildren; nieces; nephews; scores of friends; and his “fourlegs,” Jack, Bernie, Cody and P.J.