Friday, February 03, 2023

MARLA RIDENOUR & MIZELL STEWART HAVE AN UNPLANNED REUNION IN CALIFORNIA

 


Marla Ridenour, covered the Cleveland Browns for the BJ, was vacationing in a Santa Barbara County and in a grocery line in Cambria, California, when she heard a voice behind her say:

“Marla?

“Mizell.”

Marla said:

“It was Mizell Stewart. He said he’d been there for a month and was leaving the next day. Mizell and I go back to our Dayton Daily News days, where I worked from 1981-90. Talk about a small world.”

Mizell was at Dayton before he came to the BJ as managing editor in 2006, reuniting with Marla whose career began at the BJ in 1999. Twinsburg native and Bowling Green graduate Mizell began his newspaper career at the Springfield News-Sun.

Dayton, Akron, Tallahassee Democrat, back to the BJ, Evansville Courier & Express, corporate stops at E.W. Scripps Company, Journal Media Group and Gannett/USA TODAY network.

Mizell doesn’t have a suitcase large enough for all his travel stickers to fit on them.

While Mizell changes jobs more often than he changes underwear he stays with one woman. Wife Valerie and Mizell have been married for 3 decades, give or take a few years in either direction, and live in West Chester Township, which is near Middletown and Hamilton and Cincinnati.

Marla went from the Dayton Daily News and Mizell to the Columbus Dispatch before arriving at the BJ in 1999.

She has covered the Browns, the Indians, the Reds and  the Bengals. And made Hall of Fames in Ohio AND Kentucky media.

Marla even added a 2018 Cleveland Press Club first place for an OBITUARY -- on legendary football coach Ara Parseghian who brought national titles to Notre Dame in 1966 and 1973 and is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Marla accepted a Gannett buyout last November which ended her BJ and newspaper career.


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