Carmage Walls

Walls was born October 28, 1908, in Crisp County, Georgia, moving to Orlando, Florida, while still young where he attended high school.{{cite news |title=Carmage Walls |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/113422715/carmage-walls/ |access-date=21 November 2022 |work=The Montgomery Advertiser |date=11 October 1964 |pages=5}}{{Open access}}

He got started with the newspaper business when a stranger approached him as child and asked if he wanted a job "stuffing newspapers".

He took the job and worked up from being a "stuffer" inserting sentimental sections in the main newspaper until he was a "right-hand man" of the head man Charles E. Marsh.

From this start he went on to purchase and invest in newspaper businesses over large parts of the U.S. from Texas up to Ohio.

Walls was known nationally for his newspaper operations from around the 1930s.

During his 60 some odd years in the newspaper business he owned various papers. He opposed George C. Wallace's segregationist policies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-11-24-1998328078-story.html|title=B. Carmage Walls, 90, who owned or...|website=Baltimore Sun}}

The Southern Newspaper Publishers Association presented a Carmage Walls Commentary Prize.{{Cite web|url=https://newspapers.org/stories/carmage-walls-commentary-prize,4160120|title=Entries for the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize will continue to be accepted through the Memorial Day weekend: First-place carries a cash prize of $2,000; second-place winners will receive $1,000 (in each of two circulation brackets)|website=America's Newspapers}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.snpa.org/stories/carmage-walls,4157713|title=Carmage Walls Commentary Prize honors courageous editorial writing|website=Southern Newspaper Publishers Association}} As of 2022 Southern Newspapers underwrites the prize. Southern Newspapers' CEO is his daughter Lissa Walls Cribb{{Cite web|url=https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/southern-newspapers-to-underwrite-carmage-walls-commentary-prize-beginning-again-in-2022,205654|title=Southern Newspapers to underwrite Carmage Walls Commentary Prize, beginning again in 2022: First-place carries a cash prize of $2,000; second-place winners will receive $1,000 (in each of two circulation brackets)|website=Editor and Publisher}}

In June 1953 he wrote a letter laying out some of his newspaper business philosophies starting by stating "wealth cannot be made by doing nothing" and declaring that newspapers are a "semi-public utility".{{Cite web|url=https://www.galvnews.com/news/specialreports/free/article_c892b9b0-f6cb-5fa3-bd65-86cafcd94bbc.html|title=The Corporate Philosophy of Carmage Walls|website=The Daily News}}

Walls died aged 90 at his Houston home on November 22, 1998, and was survived by his wife, Martha Anna Walls, four children, a sister and a brother.{{cite news |title=Obituary for Benjamin Carmage Walls |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/113422359/obituary-for-benjamin-carmage-walls/ |access-date=21 November 2022 |work=The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise |date=24 November 1998 |pages=2}}{{open access}}

After his death his widow and daughter carried forward his work in 2012 they owned and managed 15 newspaper operations, mostly in Texas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tnf.net/carmage-walls|title=Carmage Walls | Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame}}

In 2008 he was inducted into the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor,{{cite web | url=http://webhome.auburn.edu/~willik5/hallofhonor2010.html | title=2010 Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor }} then in 2012 he was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame.

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Category:1908 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:American newspaper founders

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