William Lindsay White

William Lindsay White (June 17, 1900 – July 26, 1973) was American journalist, foreign correspondent, and writer. He succeeded his father, William Allen White, as editor and publisher of the Emporia Gazette in 1944. Among White's most noteworthy books are They Were Expendable and Lost Boundaries.

William Lindsay White was the only son of William Allen and Sallie White, born in Emporia on June 17, 1900. He had a younger sister, Mary, who was killed in a horse-riding accident at the age of 16 in May 1921. White grew up in Emporia, Kansas, and worked as a teenager as a reporter for the Gazette. He attended the nearby University of Kansas, and then transferred to and graduated from Harvard College in 1924. He participated in the theatrical activities of the Hasty Pudding Club while at Harvard, co-authoring the book and lyrics of the organization's 1924 show.

The elder White groomed his only surviving child for work in journalism, hoping for his son to succeed him as editor of the Emporia Gazette. He took his 18-year-old son to France to witness the signing of the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. William Allen White eventually persuaded his son to return to Emporia. Shortly before his father's death in 1944, William Lindsay White took over the Emporia Gazette.

White attended Harvard and there picked up an English accent. Upon his return to Emporia, he wore a monocle and was one of the best-dressed men in the nation. His wife, Kathrine, born in Cawker City, Kansas, worked on the editorial staff at Time magazine before her marriage. They wed on April 29, 1931, in St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The couple maintained a residence in Emporia, they also had a brownstone in New York City in which they lived for half the year.

White died of cancer in 1973 in Newman Memorial County Hospital in Emporia. His widow and a daughter survived him. Just before his death, the Emporia city commission renamed the 1940 Civic Auditorium in his honor. After his death, a memorial fund was established in his name to plant more trees in Emporia. By the turn of the century, more than 300 trees had been planted with money from this fund. There is also a bronze bust and a sample of his writing in White Memorial Park at Sixth Avenue and Merchant Street in Emporia.

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