Jerry Wise, longtime publisher, editor and co-owner of the Cameron Parish Pilot and DeQuincy News, died Monday. He was 87.
DeQuincy Mayor Lawrence Henagan called Wise an “icon who will be truly missed.”
“He was a classy guy who I had a lot of respect for,” said Henagan. “He loved DeQuincy and the people in it.”
Henagan said there were times Wise would refuse to print a letter to the editor knowing it would “start some turmoil” in the small town.
“I respected him for that because sometimes people will print something that will stir things up and sell some papers,” he said. “But Jerry knew DeQuincy was a small town and he had DeQuincy at heart.”
The mayor also said that Wise was someone he would occasionally call on to get his thoughts on an issue. “He was a person who would give you an honest opinion about what he thought was best for the town,” he said.
Wise began his career in journalism after graduating from Northwestern State University in 1949 when he worked three months at the Daily Iberian. He followed that with consecutive one-year stints at the Southwest Citizen and Shreveport Journal. In 1951, his brother, Erbon Wise, bought the Southwest Builder, and he edited that paper for five years.
In late 1956, Jerry and his wife, Joy Nell Butler Wise, saw an opportunity for a newspaper in Cameron Parish and established the Cameron Parish Pilot. The first edition was published Friday, Oct. 5, 1956. They also established the weekly Westlaker in Westlake but sold it nine months later.
In 1965, the Wises bought the DeQuincy News from Francis and Vera Massingill — publishers from 1925 to 1965. The newspaper, established in 1923, is one of the oldest businesses in DeQuincy.
Aside from the work he did with his own newspapers, Wise was active within the industry and the DeQuincy community. He was a member of the Louisiana Press Association for more than 50 years and served as its president for the 1976-77 term.
Wise was a member of the DeQuincy Rotary Club, the DeQuincy Chamber of Commerce, the Supper Club and DeQuincy Masonic Lodge 279. He served on the Calcasieu Parish Library Board and the Erbon & Marie Wise Trust Foundation, which provided journalism scholarships.
Jerry and Joy Wise served as grand marshals for the 1990 Louisiana Railroad Days Festival parade in DeQuincy and were honored as Distinguished Persons of the Year by the DeQuincy Chamber of Commerce in 2005.
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