Paul Roy

Paul Roy (1948-2015) was a lifelong journalist and a newspaper publisher who founded the Independent Herald in 1976. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War. He was also an historian who authored an exhaustive book on Scott County’s involvement in the Civil War and contributed for years to the Scott County Historical Society.

Biography

Born Cecil Paul Roy on Sept. 13, 1948 in Somerset, Ky., Roy was the son of Herschel Paul Roy (1915-1980) and Anna Jean Chamberlain (1920-1992). He was one of five children. His sisters were Patricia Ann Roy Corpier and Nancy Woods, and his brothers were Kendrick Roy and Philip Roy. 

The Roy family moved to Oneida when Paul was four. He got his start in the newspaper business at the age of nine, selling Grit newspapers door-to-door. He later walked a daily delivery route for several years. As a student at Oneida High School, he started a school newspaper — but it lasted only one issue before the administration shut it down as an unauthorized activity.

U.S. Military

Roy joined the U.S. Navy after high school, and served as an air traffic controller aboard the U.S.S. Bennington during the Vietnam War. 

It was during his time in the Navy that Roy determined to start his own newspaper. His shipmates would poke fun at the hometown paper that Roy received in the mail, and he vowed to start a paper of his own that would make the community proud.

Education & Early Career

Roy studied journalism at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn. after leaving the U.S. Navy. He worked as sports editor of the student newspaper, and also worked at the Cookeville Herald Citizen newspaper. 

After graduating college in 1974, Roy worked at the Cleveland Daily Banner and The Morning Sun. It was during his time at the Morning Sun, a start-up, that Roy later said he learned how not to run a newspaper.

Independent Herald

In 1976, Roy returned to his hometown of Oneida and began soliciting investors to start a newspaper. Joining his venture was Big John’s Foodette owner John Litton, Lay’s Oneida Furniture Co. manager Jack M. Lay, and Duncan & Sons Insurance owner Bill Duncan. 

The investors founded Liberty Press Inc., and the first edition of the Independent Herald was published on June 17, 1976. 

“Our cause will not be to crusade, but to act as a means of furthering the people’s right to know,” Roy wrote in the first edition. As an explanation of the newspaper’s name, Roy said: “It is our desire to stand alone in an attempt to be as objective in our reporting as possible.”

For more than 39 years until his health forced him to take a step back, Roy never missed an issue of the newspaper. He worked on more than 2,000 consecutive issues of the newspaper, writing news and feature stories, photographing events within the community, and compiling advertising. He often worked 24 hours and even 36 hours straight to meet the newspaper’s weekly press deadlines.

The Independent Herald quickly became recognized as an award-winning newspaper. Through the years, the newspaper was a frequent winner in the annual Tennessee newspaper awards contest co-sponsored by the Tennessee Press Association and the University of Tennessee. The awards culminated with the newspaper winning the prestigious “General Excellence” award as the state’s best newspaper in its circulation class in 2015.

Roy’s determined and fearless approach to journalism sometimes made him a target in the community. An early series on illegal cockfighting in Scott County resulted in a gunshot being fired through the front window of the newspaper office. 

Roy was a newspaper publisher through a tidal wave of changes within the industry. When he began publishing the Independent Herald in 1976, newspapers were composed using typewriters, wax machines and paste-up boards. By the time he oversaw his final issue of the newspaper, the production process had transformed to digital pagination, eliminating the need to drive an hour or more through the pre-dawn darkness to deliver the paper to the printing press.

Through the years, Roy remained true to the guiding principles that led to the establishment of the newspaper. He developed a reputation of unwavering impartiality: stubborn, but fair.

Late in life, Roy recalled the conversations aboard the U.S.S. Bennington that inspired him to start the Independent Herald.

“My shipmates were laughing at my newspaper from home because the lead story was about a second traffic light being installed in Oneida,” he said. “All these years later, and sometimes the biggest news in Oneida is still a new traffic light.”

Love of History

Roy became one of Scott County’s leading historians through the years. He developed a keen love of history and spent years documenting Scott County’s families and historical events. He was instrumental in the reactivation of the Scott County Historical Society in the early 1980s, and was a member of the organization for more than 30 years. During that time, he devoted thousands of hours to work on projects, including typesetting books and compiling a quarterly newspaper. Later, he served on the board of directors of the Museum of Scott County.

Roy had a special interest in Scott County’s military veterans. He collected photos and wrote hundreds of articles about military veterans, maintaining a database of the thousands of Scott Countians who served in the armed forces through the years. 

Roy spent several years researching Scott County’s Civil War veterans, and wrote an exhaustive book entitled “Scott County in the Civil War,” which he donated to the Historical Society to be published in 2001. The book remains the foremost source of information about Scott County’s involvement in the Civil War.

Family and Friends

Paul and his wife, Deborah, had three children: Elizabeth, Lauren Joy and Robert Paul. At the time of his death, he had six grandchildren: Ethan, Elana and Emily Sampsel, Andrew and Thomas Stone, and William Paul Roy.

Debbie Roy worked side-by-side with her husband throughout his time at the Independent Herald.

Roy’s brother-in-law, Don Woods, was a championship-winning coach both at Morristown West High School in Tennessee and in Alabama. He later served on the staff of his brother, Sparky Woods, at the collegiate level. 

One of Roy’s closest friends for many years was Knoxville attorney Bruce Butler, who was also a native of Scott County. He also developed a close friendship with Oneida resident Freeman Walker, who he would take to run errands and shop for groceries. He was close to Irene Sobodoski Baker, who served as the Scott County Historical Society president through the years, and her husband, James Toomey Baker.

Roy also earned the respect and admiration of U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr., who was a native of Huntsville. Baker invited Roy to the White House during his tenure as President Ronald Reagan’s Chief of Staff in the early 1980s, and many years later encouraged Roy to take over the lead role at the Historical Society following the death of his cousin-in-law, Irene Baker. Roy declined, choosing instead to continue his life’s work at the Independent Herald.

Roy eventually moved from Oneida to Huntsville, renovating the house where James Toomey and Irene Baker had lived. 

Death

Roy was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. He died at his Huntsville home on Oct. 6, 2015, at the age of 67. He was interred at Mossop Cemetery in Huntsville — the same cemetery where Howard H. Baker Jr., who he greatly admired, is buried.

Awards

Roy was inducted into the Scott County Hall of Fame in September 2015, just one week before his death. Months later, he was recognized for his life’s work and accomplishments by the Tennessee General Assembly. A resolution honoring him was authored by State Sen. Ken Yager and signed by Gov. Bill Haslam.

Throughout the years, Roy shied away from praise and recognition. He often said, “I’m just a paper boy.”