Edward J. Meeman

Edward John Meeman
Meeman circa 1950
Born	October 2, 1889 Evansville, Indiana, USA
Died	November 15, 1966 (aged 77) Memphis, Tennessee
Nationality	American
Occupation	Editor of The Knoxville News, 1921-1931 Memphis Press-Scimitar, 1931-1962
Political party	Democrat

Editor of The Knoxville News, 1921-1931

Edward John Meeman (October 2, 1889 – November 15, 1966) was a crusading journalist who edited, among other publications, the since defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar in his adopted home city of Memphis, Tennessee, a position from which he retired in 1962. He began work as a $4 a week cub reporter in his native Evansville, Indiana, but left a multi-million dollar estate to foster studies of biology, conservation, and the environment.

Meeman was born to a German Roman Catholic working-class couple in Evansville in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. His father was a cigar maker and an officer in his local union. Meeman graduated in 1907 from public high school. He served briefly in the United States Navy during World War I.

Meeman took his first newspaper job at $4 a week for The Evansville Press, an afternoon daily of which he later became the editor. The Evansville Press closed in 1998, but the Evansville Courier & Press remains the daily newspaper for Evansville. He was subsequently a reporter for the Terre Haute Times, a forerunner of the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute in western Indiana. He then joined the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate of Cleveland, Ohio, now known as United Media and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company