Legendary journalist Joe Crankshaw dies July 5th
Stuart, Fl (treasurecoast.com) -Legendary journalist Joseph Clarence Crankshaw III, a Georgia native who arrived in Stuart in 1958, is being revered this week as a humble Korean War veteran who loved being a writer and reporter, a local historian and a fair-minded man who could tell a great story.
Crankshaw, who retired in 2014 from the Stuart News and Treasure Coast Newspapers at age 83 after 56 years in the newspaper business, died July 5 in Stuart. He was 90.
Crankshaw’s newspaper career began in 1958 when he was hired and mentored by the visionary environmentalist, Ernie Lyons, editor of the then-weekly Stuart News.
Crankshaw worked for the News for five years before moving on to The Florida Times Union in Jacksonville and The Miami Herald.
By the time he rejoined the Stuart News in 1991, he had covered every county on Florida’s east coast. He reported on Walt Disney’s news conference to announce the building of a new theme park in Orlando and the Gemini and Apollo space programs.
