Brenda Blagg, a longtime political correspondent, a staunch advocate for the Freedom of Information Act and author of "Political Magic: The Travels, Trials and Triumphs of the Clintons' Arkansas Travelers," died Wednesday.
Her syndicated column, "Between the Lines," ran in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and newspapers statewide from 1979 until October of this year, making it one of the longest running weekly columns in the state's history.
Blagg was 75.
Her sister Janie described young Brenda as a bit of a tomboy who spent a lot of time next to their father learning practical skills for fixing and building things around the house.
The hobby for tinkering followed her throughout her life.
"She would rather do it herself than hire someone," Janie Blagg said.
Brenda's first experience in journalism was with Newport High School's newspaper, of which she became editor.
"It was exciting for her and all of us because she was so good at it," Janie Blagg said. "She loved to write and knew how to ask questions and ... she liked to tell a good story."
She was editor of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's Arkansas Traveler when its home on campus, Hill Hall, caught fire in November 1969. Under her leadership, the student publication was still able to get the newspaper out the following day.
"She stayed up all night helping write and [calling] the Springdale News to make sure it got printed, then she brought it back to campus and distributed it," said Skip Rutherford, who was also on the Traveler staff at the time.
Blagg went to work at the Springdale News in 1971, covering schools, courts, cops and county government. She also took photos.
Her most significant stories involved a local sheriff who was removed from office for using public money to pay his personal utility bills and coverage that thwarted a company's plan to build a landfill.
Blagg and Katherine Shurlds became close friends as they started to work on the Northwest Arkansas Gridiron Show, which Blagg helped found in the early 1970s.
Blagg's legacy is "all the students she mentored and all the young women who looked up to her," Shurlds said. "She was so generous with her professionalism, with her love of journalism and with the fact that you have to know what you're doing to be a journalist, to know the FOI law, so you don't get shut out."
"She knew the inner workings of Arkansas government and was an FOI expert," said Rutherford, retired dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.
"That combination made her highly effective and a positive role model for many," he said.
Dave Edmark met Blagg when he joined the Springdale News in 1974. She was already "the go-to political reporter for just about everything around here," he said. Her extensive coverage of a scandal in Washington County government that year contributed to a grand jury being called to set local practices straight.
In 1991, Blagg traveled to New Hampshire to cover the early stages of then-Gov. Bill Clinton's campaign for president. Her experiences following the group of Arkansans who traveled north to support Clinton -- dubbed the "Arkansas Travelers" -- led to her book on the campaign.
Charlie Alison got to know Blagg through Gridiron too, but also through working on a voluminous electoral guide that she produced for The Springdale News each election cycle.
"Even as nice as she normally is, she was fierce when public officials wouldn't provide information," Alison said. "She was good at making public officials do the right thing."
Blagg did that by giving Freedom of Information Act workshops for all journalists, regardless of whether they worked for the same organization. She was known to team up with other media if there was difficulty obtaining necessary information.
She was a ringleader for the Freedom of Information Arkansas Project in 1999, which sent reporters and other volunteers to each of the state's 75 counties to make an FOI request in each area possible.
Many honors were bestowed upon Blagg throughout her career. She was a sweepstakes winner of the National Federation of Press Women in the 1980s and was state president of Arkansas Press Women.
Blagg also received two recognitions from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, including the Ernie Deane Award in 2011, and was inducted into the Lemke Journalism Alumni Society Hall of Honor in 2009.
The Arkansas Press Association presented her with the FOIA Award in 1995 and again in 2005, the Distinguished Service Award in 2017 and the Golden 50 Service Award in 2018. In 2021, she was inducted in the inaugural class of the Great Plains Journalism Awards Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Tulsa Press Club and covering eight Midwest States.