SPRINGDALE — Longtime northwest Arkansas newspaper editor James Morriss II has died at age 80.
Sisco Funeral Chapel says Morriss died Wednesday at a hospice in Springdale. A cause of death was not immediately released.
Morriss spent 53 years in the newspaper business until his retirement in 2003.
He began in 1950 at The Springdale News by sweeping the press room and later worked as a reporter and photographer for the newspaper until being named city editor in 1960 and editor in 1963. He was named editor of The Morning News, which was created when The Springdale News merged with the Northwest Arkansas Morning News of Rogers.
The publication is now the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Funeral services are planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Cross Church in Springdale.