Emily Cooper

Journalist and Author
Columbia, SC

Former President of SCPA Women’s Division reflects on a long career at S.C. weekly and daily newspapers. 

Video Interview

This video has been edited for length. If you’d like to listen to the full raw audio from our interview with Emily Cooper, contact SCPA.

Biography

Born: October 24, 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia

Newspaper History:

  • Women’s editor, Aiken Standard
  • News editor, Aiken Standard, 1974-1975
  • Editor, Hilton Head Island Packet, 1975-1976
  • Founder, Publisher, Edgefield County Press, 1976-1981
  • General Manager and Executive Editor, The (Lexington) Dispatch-News, 1999-2001
  • Editor, S.C. United Methodist Advocate, 2007-2010 

Honors and Awards:

  • South Carolina Press Association News Reporting
  • President of the South Carolina Press Association’s Women’s Division, 1979-1980
  • Annie King Newspaper Woman of the Year
  • S.C. Agricultural Council, outstanding S.C. news writer, 1979, 1980
  • Pickens-Salley Southern Woman of Distinction award at USC Aiken

Education:

  • University of Tennessee
  • University of South Carolina-Aiken
  • University of South Carolina

SCPA's oral history project is dedicated to preserving the heritage of our state's journalists and newspapers.

This program is funded by the South Carolina Humanities Council, whose mission is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. This program is co-sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.