{"id":730,"date":"2006-02-27T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-27T14:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=730"},"modified":"2006-02-27T08:54:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-27T14:54:00","slug":"daily-light%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98gentle-giant%e2%80%99-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/daily-light%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98gentle-giant%e2%80%99-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Light\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGentle Giant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Hicks: July 10, 1967-Feb. 24, 2006<\/b>
\nFrom Sunday’s WDL<\/A><\/p>\n

Neal White
\nEditor\/Publisher<\/p>\n

Words cannot begin to describe the loss we all are feeling at the passing of Daily Light Sports Editor John Hicks.
\nJohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sudden death on Friday at the age of 38 has left us all in a state of shock and overwhelming sadness. He leaves behind a family including two young children, Connor, 10, and Shelby, 7, scores of co-workers who loved him as a brother and thousands of fans in the Ellis County community.
\nHe was loved and respected by everyone he met.
\nFor both his physical stature and gentle, giving nature, John was a giant among men.
\nHe was devoted to his children, dedicated to his work and genuinely cared about everyone he wrote about. From the smallest rec league players to the high school and college athletes, in his eyes and in his heart, all the kids he covered were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153his kids\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and he took great pride in reporting their accomplishments.
\nFor the past several weeks, John often talked about the Lady Indians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 current playoff run and his desire to cover the team in the state championship game. He longed to see the team hold up the state trophy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d he even had headlines written and ideas on how we could design the front page.
\nJohn so loved the students he wrote about in the Daily Light and talked about on the radio as a guest commentator with Ken Roberts at KBEC.
\nHis dedication to his craft and passion for those he covered was evident in his work. An award-winning journalist, John has received numerous awards for his work, including the Texas \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sports Writer of the Year\u00e2\u20ac\u009d honors from his peers in the newspaper industry. Throughout his tenure at the Daily Light, John consistently ranked among the top three sports writers in the state for newspapers in our division, having earned more than a dozen awards for excellence in journalism.
\nStanding six-feet, eight-inches tall, John cast a commanding presence, yet because of his humble, compassionate nature, he had a way of making every-one feel at ease. He was indeed a gentle giant. Through both his words and deeds, John left everyone with the impression his towering figure was always striving to reach up to Heaven and touch the hand of God.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everybody loved John,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ken Roberts, KBEC vice president as we spoke to him following Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lady Indians playoff game. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was the nicest, most gentle man you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever want to meet.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153After all these years of covering games together, John would still come up to me the press box and ask if it was OK if he sat beside us. Even though we always saved him a seat, he never took anything for granted,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Roberts said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you how hard it was to call (Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) game with that empty seat beside me.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153John was one heck of a sports writer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Roberts added \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We loved having him on the show. He knew the stats and he always looked for the positives, always finding something good to say about the players and the coaches. Everyone at KBEC extends our heartfelt condolences to his family and everyone at the Daily Light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nSeveral WHS coaches have called to share similar comments, extending their condolences and praising John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work over the years.
\nIt needs to be said that John was more than a co-worker \u00e2\u20ac\u201d he was like a brother to us all. As difficult as this is for our Daily Light family, our hearts and prayers go out to his immediate family as we share in their grief over John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unexpected passing. May we all find comfort in knowing that John died peacefully in his slumber as God reached down to take his hand and bring him home to the Kingdom of Heaven.
\nWe spoke to John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents in Shreveport, La., who are in the process of handling the arrangements. As details of the service arrangements become available, we will share that information with the community.
\nWithout question, John touched so many lives in such a short time.
\nHe made a difference in every aspect of his life.
\nGodspeed, Big John.
\nYou will be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Hicks: July 10, 1967-Feb. 24, 2006 From Sunday’s WDL Neal White Editor\/Publisher Words cannot begin to describe the loss we all are feeling at the passing of Daily Light Sports Editor John Hicks. John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sudden death on Friday at the age of 38 has left us all in a state of shock and overwhelming … Continue reading Daily Light\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGentle Giant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 remembered<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-bM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}