Services for Don Bandy

Calling hours for Beacon Journal newsroom retiree Don Bandy, 76, will be 11 a.m. Saturday, March 26, till the services at 1 p.m. Both will be in the Kirkpatrick Funeral Home, 554 Washington Avenue, in Don's native Washington Courthouse, Ohio.

Burial will follow in White Oak Grove Cemetery, Buena Vista, Fayette County. There will be a reception after the burial, at the Washington Country Club, 703 State Route 41, Washington Courthouse, Ohio.

Don died Sunday in Bradenton, Florida, where he moved in 2006 from his Aqueduct Avenue home in Akron. He was the No. 1 rewrite man at the BJ, where he was a reporter from May 19, 1969 till June 11, 1997.

Click on the headline for the BJ's story on Don's passing. Scroll down this blog to read the many tributes to Don by his former co-workers.


The announcement from Kirkpatrick Funeral Home:

Donald Lee Bandy, 76, of Bradenton, Florida died Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 5:45 p.m. at the Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, FL where he had been a patient since Wednesday.

Don was born December 21, 1934 in Fayette County, Ohio to Edgar E. and Lena I. Clements Bandy. He was a 1952 graduate of Washington High School; served with the United States Army during the Korean Conflict and received a bachelor's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University in 1961. While at Ohio State he was editor of the Ohio State Lantern and it was voted the Best College Newspaper in Ohio during his tenure as editor. He moved to Florida in 2006.

He was a retired newspaperman. He began his career at his hometown newspaper, The Record-Herald, in Washington Court House. He worked five years for the Associated Press. During his time with the AP in Columbus, Don was the reporter Gov. James A. Rhodes always requested to accompany him on public appearances and newsworthy situations. While with the Cincinnati bureau, he interviewed the Beatles on their first U.S. tour. He also worked three years at the Indianapolis Star, during which time he interviewed President John F. Kennedy. He joined the Akron Beacon Journal on May 19, 1959 and initially worked on the copy desk. He also was a reporter at the Beacon Journal and a rewrite editor. Don covered a variety of stories for the Beacon Journal including the aftermath of the fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, KY that left 165 people dead and the student loan crisis when the Computer Training Institute went defunct, both stories which earned him honors from the Associated Press.

Don was preceded in death by his wife, the former Judith Reagan in 2001; his parents; four brothers, Harry, Edgar, Kenneth and Victor Bandy and three sisters, Eva Palmer, Nellie Burton and Alice Sheley.

He is survived by a brother, Calvin C. Bandy and his wife, Mary, of Athens, GA; two sisters, Virginia Gibeaut of Worthington, OH and Ruth Jobe of Dayton, OH; a brother-in-law, Norman Reagan of Indian Rocks Beach, FL; sisters-in-law, Jane Reagan of Lafayette, IN, Ann Bandy of Fort Myers, FL and Lois Bandy of New Holland, OH and many nieces and nephews whom loved him dearly. The funeral will be Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1 p.m. at the Kirkpatrick Funeral Home in Washington Court House with the Rev. Ronald R. Dodds, pastor at the Grace United Methodist Church, officiating. Burial will follow in the White Oak Grove Cemetery.

Friends may call at the funeral home Saturday from 11 a.m. until the time of the service.