Jim Marion Etter grew up in the small eastern Oklahoma town of Oktaha, and began his journalistic career at the Muskogee Daily Phoenix & Times-Democrat, at first selling want ads.

He soon lived and worked in Laredo, Texas, as editor of a small weekly newspaper and later at that town’s first television station.

Many years later he retired as a staff writer for The Daily Oklahoman, where he wrote news and features by traveling throughout the state, plus occasionally other states and once in Mexico.

He covered many of his stories, about trail rides and ranch-type activities, on horseback – his reputation at The Oklahoman humorously illustrated by the paper’s renowned cartoonist, Jim Lange.

Before his newspaper retirement, he took time out to serve a tour of duty as a military journalist and translator in Latin America, including Panama and Ecuador.

In addition to his experience in his home state and Texas, he spent several months in New Mexico, where he researched and wrote about Billy the Kid and Pancho Villa.

For questions, comments or to just chew the fat, he invites anyone to give ‘im a holler.

Jim Marion Etter