Roy and Jeannine Eaton
Roy J. Eaton is president and publisher of the Wise County Messenger, a twice-weekly newspaper in Decatur, Texas. The newspaper, which was established in 1880, has been owned by Roy & Jeannine Eaton since 1973.
He has served his community in a number of ways and was named Decatur’s “Citizen of the Year” in 1980 for his work in developing a county-wide emergency medical service system. Response to an editorial he wrote resulted in a campus of Weatherford College for Decatur and he was instrumental in the building of a new $5 million Civic Center for Decatur. He has served as president of the Decatur Chamber of Commerce, chairman-of-the-board of the Wise Regional Health System, chief of the Decatur Volunteer Fire Department and chairman of the Decatur Airport Advisory Committee. He is a former director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments and for the past eight years has served as secretary of the Dallas/Fort Worth long-range water planning authority, appointed by the Texas Water Development Board.He was presented the 2005 “Ethics Award” by the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University. The award was presented “in recognition of a career dedicated to achieving and demanding the highest ethical standards in the profession of journalism.”
A past president of the Texas Newspaper Foundation, he was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007, as a member of its first class of honorees.
Roy and his wife Jeannine are both graduates of Texas Christian University. Jeannine is vice president and treasurer of the Wise County Messenger and served for more than 20 years as a director of the Wise Regional Health System in Decatur. She was a founding director and 10-year board member of the Decatur Main Street Committee. She is a past president of the North Fort Worth Woman’s Club. The Eaton’s have three sons and four grandchildren.