Biography

The Smithfield Herald was established in 1882, the same year Smithfield got its first railroad, by R. T. Booker, E. G. Smith, and John W. Lassiter. In the early 2000s, it was the oldest newspaper still operating in Johnston County.

Thomas J. Lassiter, Sr., was editor in 1896, but after his death in 1920, his widow Rena Bingham Lassiter became editor. Her son, Thomas J. Lassiter Jr., joined the paper in 1933 and was editor and publisher until 1980, when the Herald was sold to the News & Observer Publishing Co., Raleigh, NC. Wingate Lassiter continued to serve the newspaper as third-generation editor until 1994. In 1995 the Herald was purchased when McClatchy Newspapers from California purchased the News & Observer.

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