The newspaper business was Bo McLeod’s passion. There wasn’t a part of it that he didn’t know and love, family and friends said.
“From the physical make-up of it to searching out the stories,” said Carolyn McLeod, his wife of 62 years. “His mind was always on that next story and how he was going to fill up the paper the next week.”
Mr. McLeod, who spent the bulk of his career near his southwest Georgia home of Donalsonville, died Thursday from heart-related complications. He was 86. A funeral was held Saturday at First Presbyterian Church in Donalsonville and his body was buried at Friendship Memorial Gardens. Evans-Skipper Funeral Home, Donalsonville, was in charge.
Born Waldo L. McLeod, the Army veteran started his newspaper career after he returned home from military service in the Philippines. He worked in nearly every position at The Donalsonville News and ultimately bought the paper in 1969 from then-Sen. Julian Webb. He sold the paper in 2010, but his heart stayed with the news, his wife said.
Billy Fleming, publisher of The Early County News, remembers Mr. McLeod as a mentor and one of his father’s best friends.
“He’s been one of my go-to people for the past 40-something years,” he said. “He wasn’t just a friend of the family, he was a friend of all newspapers across the state.”
Mr. McLeod is widely remembered for his quick wit. His witticisms earned him a spot on the front page of The Atlanta Journal as one of the writers behind the personality Piney Woods Pete. He offered up his quips to the Journal for 20 years, his family said. The column was a perfect fit for Mr. McLeod’s style of humor, Mr. Fleming said.
“It was a sometimes satirical piece that took pretty good jabs at politicians across the state,” he said. “What made it so unique was nobody knew who was saying it, because it was written anonymously. Often times what he was saying was obvious, but it was just something you think nobody would say.”
Mr. McLeod’s commitment to the news of his community was unmatched, friends and family said.
“He only took one one-week vacation over all of those years,” Mrs. McLeod said. “He was such a hard worker and he just didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
She said long weekends at Georgia Press Association conferences were their vacations, except for the one time they took a week-long trip with friends to Europe.
“He would have come home in the middle of it if he could have caught a ride, I do believe,” Mrs. McLeod said with a light laugh.
In addition to his wife, Mr. McLeod is survived by three daughters, Janet Hill of Donalsonville, Sandy Johnson of Alpharetta, and Carol Ann Stovall of Savannah; a sister, Agnes Kingry of Macon; and seven grandchildren.
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