NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Kent Flanagan, a longtime journalist and open government advocate who spent 21 years as Tennessee's bureau chief for The Associated Press, has died. He was 69.
Flanagan's wife, Janet, said he died at home Wednesday after a long illness.
Flanagan worked nearly 40 years as a journalist, starting with newspapers in Texas and Florida before joining the AP in Pennsylvania in 1979 as a newsman.
In 1983, he was named bureau chief in Tennessee in Nashville, where he oversaw news and sales until he departed in 2004.
Most recently, Flanagan served from 2012 to 2013 as executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit alliance of media, citizen and professional groups that works to educate the public about open meetings and open records laws.