LINKS TO BOB LOWRY'S UPI-RELATED IMAGES:
Last updated: 10/16/13
Al Benn at The Decatur Daily in the early 1970s.
Bob Lowry scanning AP copy at The Decatur Daily in the early 1970s.
The Decatur (Ala.) Daily in the early 1970s. The Daily's news staff. From left, seated, Angie Lowry (Bob Lowry's wife (retired); Libby Jarvinen (lives in Huntsville, Ala.); Ben Windham (retired editorial page editor of The Tuscaloosa News); Bill Cornwell (retired, living in Florida); Al Benn (retired columnist for Montgomery Advertiser); Winford Turner (deceased); Mike Freeman (retired, living in Arkansas); Lowry (retired, living in Auburn, Ala.); Linda Parham (retired, living in Birmingham); and Lee Sentell (Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's cabinet as director of state Department of Tourism and Development).
The Decatur (Ala.) Daily, circa 1974. Second from left, Bob Lowry; fourth woman from left, Angie Lowry; behind her is reporter Ben Windham; seated is Mike Freeman, managing editor; behind him is sports editor Billy Mitchell, who later worked for papers in Georgia; to his left is Lee Sentell; at the far right is Tommy Stevenson, retired associate editor of The Tuscaloosa News. The rest are scattered and don't remember many of their names now.
Bob Lowry, reporter for The Montgomery Advertiser, 1975-77 (working on electric typewriter).
Alabama House Chamber-circa 1976 (From left, Floyd Norris, UPI - later retired financial columnist with The New York Times; Phil Rawls, AP - later retired with AP; Clint Claybrook, Alabama Journal (now defunct); Bob Lowry, The Montgomery Advertiser (later retired, UPI); Scott Sheppard, AP (retired in Washington, D.C.); Linda Parham, The Montgomery Advertiser, later with Birmingham Post-Herald and Atlanta Constitution; The Birmingham News; now retired in Birmingham.)
Rep. Richard Shelby, D-Ala., and from left, Angie Lowry (then Alabama Capitol reporter for The Tuscaloosa News); state Sen. Ed Robertson, D-Northport, and unidentified local TV newsman. Photo is from 1980.
Alabama House Chamber-circa 1978 (From Left, Bob Lowry, UPI; Scott Shepard, AP-Montgomery; far right, Ted Bryant, then-political writer/columnist for the now-defunct Scripps-Howard Birmingham Post-Herald; he's now deceased.)
UPI Cubicle (Bob Lowry at UPI cubicle at Alabama State Capitol Pressroom in 1981.)
Sampling of Bob Lowry's press passes.
More Bob Lowry press passes.
Mara Lowry in MG Bureau (Bob Lowry's oldest daughter in the Montgomery, Ala., UPI bureau in 1978. Mara got her degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1994; was research engineer at Georgia Tech and now stay-at-home mom married to CFO of Delta Air Lines.)
Blue-Gray Game-1978 (Bob Lowry in press box, covering Blue-Gray All-Star Classic on Christmas Day, 1978; my father, who died in 2001, is seated to my right.)
Alabama Death Row-1979 (Bob Lowry, sitting in the Alabama electric chair -- called "Yellow Mama" -- at Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala.,in 1981 while waiting to interview death row inmate John Louis Evans, who would later become the first person executed by the state of Alabama after the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. I was a reporter for UPI in Montgomery at the time, but transferred to the Austin, Texas, bureau before Evans was executed on April 22, 1983. I had interviewed him several times prior to that day of this photo. The interviews always took place in a small room directly across from the electric chair, with a window where Evans could see the chair. Evans never appealed his death sentence. Mark Harris witnessed the execution for UPI. He reported that it took three separate jolts of 1,900 volts of electricity to finally kill Evans, who had been convicted in the murder-robbery of a Mobile jewelry store owner. The execution took 14 minutes, and was described as especially imprecise and brutal. Click here for Harris' first-person account of Evans' execution. Incidentally, Alabama's electric chair was called "Yellow Mama" because of its traffic-yellow coat of paint.)
John Louis Evans (Photo of Evans seated in interview room on Alabama's death row at Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala. (where I interviewed him several times). You can see the electric chair through the window, where Evans died a brutal death in 1983.)
Austin, Texas, Capitol Bureau-1982 (Bob Lowry, shortly after becoming bureau manager in August 1982.)
Austin, Texas, Capitol Bureau-1982 (Bob Lowry, shortly after becoming bureau manager in August 1982.)
Bob Lowry's daughter Mara with Lloyd Doggett when she was a page in the Texas Senate in 1983. Doggett, now a Democratic congressman representing Texas' 10th District, was a Texas state senator at the time of this photo. They are standing in front of a famous painting in the Texas Senate chamber that portrays the Battle of Alamo -- entitled -- "Dawn at the Alamo."
Austin Capitol Bureau Early 1983 (From left, photographer Bob Thomas, who was laid off after the FNN takeover in 1988; Tim Sheehy, who left for IBM shortly after the 1984 pay cuts; Bob Lowry; and Dwayne Cox, legislative relief from Dallas who later left UPI for IBM. Seated is Teresa Anderson, who left in early 1985 for the Texas Education Agency, and now owns her own PR agency in the Seattle area.)
Green Beret Doctor (Bob Lowry interviewing former Green Beret Dr. Jeffrey McDonald of "Fatal Vision" fame who was convicted of murdering his family at Fort Bragg, N.C. The interview took place at a federal prison near Austin. I got more clips from this story than any I wrote for UPI.)
Pressbox View (The view from the UPI seat in the press box at the University of Texas' Memorial Stadium at Austin.)
Little Unipresser: Bob Lowry's youngest daughter, Katie in Austin, Texas, in 1986. She later graduated from Auburn University and got master's degree from Boston University, and now works for large PR firm in Seattle.)
Capitol Briefing-Mid 1980s (Longtime Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby speaks to reporters on floor of Texas Senate; Bob Lowry is at far right.)
Lowry and Langford (Bob Lowry, bureau manager, and Mark Langford, the two-man Austin bureau in 1985 -- and for most of the 80s. Langford was laid off in September 1999 when UPI finally shuttered the Austin bureau. Lowry later did PR for Auburn University, did a brief stint with AP, covered the Alabama statehouse for The Huntsville (Ala.) Times and did PR for the state teachers union before retiring in Auburn, Ala. Langford later was press secretary for a Texas House speaker; was Texas political editor for a San Antonio newspaper and was chief of staff for a Texas state senator. He's now retired in San Antonio.)
Lowry and Langford Confer. Bob Lowry (kneeling) and staffer Mark Langford, the two-man Austin bureau, confer on the Texas Senate floor.
Bob Lowry, Austin bureau manager from 1982-91, sitting on floor of the Texas Senate in 1986. Photo snapped by a member of Texas Senate Media Services.
Air Force's most experienced F-4 Phantom jet fighter pilot, left, briefs Bob Lowry before flight from now-closed Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin in 1986.
F-4 Flight (Bob Lowry top right with ground crewman for F-4 Phantom jet at now-closed Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin in 1986; Lowry in rear seat in bottom photo. We flew down to the Mexican border and across West Texas.
Morgan Fairchild (Bob Lowry with actress Morgan Fairchild after Austin news conference in 1987 with Willie Nelson talking about their new movie "The Redheaded Stranger.")
FarmAid News Conference (Bob Lowry, far right, covering Willie Nelson and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower news conference at Texas' Memorial Stadium to announce 1986 FarmAid concert would be held at the stadium. It had to be relocated, however, due to insurance problems.)
Austin, Texas, staff in 1989, from Texas Senate press guide. This was the only time the UPI Austin bureau was fully staffed. Ironically, it came near the end since Jeri Clausing was laid off in 1990, and Bob Lowry resigned in 1991.
Texas Capitol Press Corps-1986 (UPI's Bob Lowry and Mark Langford are in the crowd somewhere, posing with the "Goddess of Liberty" that had been removed from the Capitol dome for restoration. The blonde woman on the front row in the green dress is former Austin UPI staffer Ann Arnold. She went on to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Austin bureau, but was press secretary to then-Gov. Mark White when this photo was made. Now deceased, She was later executive director of the Texas Broadcasters Association.)
Bob Lowry's wife Angie, with daughter Katie in Austin in 1985.
Bob Lowry's wife, Angie, wearing one of UPI T-shirts given to staffers who covered the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Black knit shirts with the UPI logo on the front were also available.
NCAA Tournament Pass (The last major sports event I covered -- with Mike Rabun of Dallas UPI sports -- was the March 15-17, 1990, NCAA basketball tournament in Austin.)
Bob Lowry with Alabama Gov. James E. "Little Jim" Folsom in 1992. Folsom later served as lieutenant governor.
Bob Lowry, who was a reporter for UPI in Montgomery from 1977-82 and bureau manager in Austin, Texas, from 1982-1991, was Montgomery correspondent for The Huntsville Times from 2006-2011. In this shot he interviewed an inmate at Kilby prison in 2007 for a story for The Times. The newspaper closed its state Capitol bureau in September 2011.
Former Unipresser Bob Lowry (L), then-Montgomery, Ala., correspondent for The Huntsville Times, interviews Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., at Alabama state Capitol in December 2006. The Times closed its state Capitol bureau in September 2011. (Photo by Alvin Benn)
Bob Lowry, who was a reporter for UPI in Montgomery from 1977-82 and bureau manager in Austin, Texas, from 1982-1991, then-Montgomery correspondent for The Huntsville Times, interviews Tuskegee Airman at Alabama state Capitol in 2007. At right is the late AP reporter Bob Johnson. Bust in rear is former Alabama Gov. Lurleen Wallace. The Times closed its state Capitol bureau in September 2011. (Photo by Alvin Benn)
Bob Lowry, who was a reporter for UPI in Montgomery from 1977-82 and bureau manager in Austin, Texas, from 1982-1991, then-Montgomery correspondent for The Huntsville Times, interviews Alabama Democratic Congressman Artur Davis, who was running for governor in 2010. Davis later switched to the Republican Party. The Times closed its state Capitol bureau in September 2011. (Photo by Alvin Benn)
Bob Lowry, (left) who was a reporter for UPI in Montgomery from 1977-82 and bureau manager in Austin, Texas, from 1982-1991, then-Montgomery correspondent for The Huntsville Times, on the job in front of the Alabama Capitol on Sept. 9, 2009. The Times closed its state Capitol bureau in September 2011.
Examples of Bob Lowry's work at as state capitol correspondent for The Huntsville Times: http://search.al.com/By+Bob+Lowry/
