The first black reporter at The Chattanooga Times - Clarence Franklin "Sweet Daddy" Scaife - died Friday at age 79.
He started at the newspaper in 1968, a critical time in the civil rights era, but he was never just relegated to covering the black community.
Chattanooga Times former managing editor John Popham, who hired Scaife, wrote a letter of recommendation for him that talked about his tenure at the Times.
"Clarence was the first black reporter to be hired full-time by The Chattanooga Times back in the early days of school desegregation. At that time, most Southern communities were caught in conflicts of emotion and the role of a black reporter was without precedent," the late Popham wrote. "We refused to see him as a black reporter to be assigned to reporting on the black community. Instead, we assigned him to any and all news events, including police news, where the tensions and stereotypes were at a cutting edge of violence."
Scaife's well-rounded skills won him praise in other quarters, as well. He was assigned to cover the regular meetings of the Jaycees, "a group of business-oriented young men anxious to burnish their careers in public and take up leadership roles in the future," wrote Popham. "Within one year, Clarence was the finest police reporters in the city, trusted and respected by the police, and the Jaycees asked that we keep Clarence permanently on their schedule since his news articles were so accurate and intelligently interpretative.
Clarence Scaife"It was indeed a superb performance by Clarence, perhaps as fine as any black reporter ever undertook in the nation at that time," Popham concluded.
Maria Noel, the first black female reporter at the Times, called Clarence Scaife "the voice of the community."
His publications reached through churches and businesses to inform and uplift the black community, she said.
Scaife's son, the Rev. Kenneth Scaife, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., said he wanted his father to be remembered for the many barriers he broke.
"He was the first journalist of color who wrote for The Chattanooga Times. He was the first African-American Jaycee, and he was one of the first African-Americans to host shows on WTCI," his son said.
Clarence Scaife hosted "We the People" and "A Matter of Understanding" on WTCI Channel 45, Chattanooga's Public Broadcasting System station.
He also became one of the first blacks to moderate a show on WRCB-TV Channel 3 when he hosted "Jaycee Questions," his son said.
Clarence Scaife served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1956 during the Korean War. He earned a Good Conduct Medal and received a Purple Heart, according to his biography with the newspaper.
John Edwards, publisher of the Chattanooga News Chronicle, a weekly newspaper targeting the black community, recalled Scaife as a local celebrity.
He was a top broadcaster on WNOO-AM, a popular soul radio station in the 1960s. He worked at WNOO-AM from 1958 to 1961 and from 1963 to 1968, and was known on the air as "Sweet Daddy."
"They were the local black celebrities," Edwards said. "They were the information folk. That's where we got our community news."
Clarence Scaife worked at The Chattanooga Times from 1968 to the early 1980s, when he quit and started his own newspaper, The Chattanooga North Star.
He opened his newspaper office just across the street from the Times on 10th Street, his son said.
The funeral service is set at Greater Second Baptist Church at noon Friday. Burial will be in Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.