Troutt Brothers Memorial Scholarship

First awarded in 1996, the scholarship you are receiving was endowed by Troutt Brothers, Inc., parent company of the Jonesboro Sun from 1901 until 2000.
W.O. Troutt moved to Jonesboro and brought the weekly Craighead County Sun in 1901. When expanded to daily publication two years later, he changed the name to Jonesboro Evening Sun, which it remained until a Sunday morning edition began in 1968 and “Evening” was dropped. The newspaper switched totally to morning publication in 1982.
W.O.’s sons, Fred and John Sr., were born in the Indian Territory that later became Oklahoma. Educated at Jonesboro High School, both were involved in the newspaper even as children. Fred began working full-time in 1913 and John in 1918. Beginning in the 1920s the paper was published under the name W.O. Troutt and Sons. After W.O. died in 1948, the company became Troutt Brothers.
John Troutt Jr. started his newspaper career as a delivery boy at the age of 10, and worked at the paper until he went to finish his college work at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. (He started his college career at A-State; at that time there was not a journalism program.) After finishing college and serving in the Korean War, John Jr. returned to Jonesboro and to the Sun in late fall of 1953. His father died in 1966 and his uncle Fred died in 1980. He then became the editor and publisher of the newspaper. His sons, Bob and Ed, both Arkansas State University journalism graduates, joined the newspaper during the 1980s.
Troutt Brothers Inc. sold the newspaper to Paxton Media Group of Paducah, KY, in 2000.