Veteran Southern Nevada newspaperman Vanett dies

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001 | 8:49 a.m.

Roy Vanett was the real-life version of the tough-as-nails newspaperman portrayed in old movies, complete with a lit cigarette hanging from the corner of his lip and his shirt sleeves rolled up as he banged out stories on a manual typewriter.

But Vanett, a reporter and editor for 42 years, moved willingly into a more modern era, colleagues say. Following heart bypass surgery in 1978, he quit chain-smoking and he eagerly adapted to the technology of modern computers.

Roy Lawrence Vanett, a former Review-Journal city editor, assistant news editor and copy editor who on Aug. 25 was inducted into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, died Monday at University Medical Center of pneumonia. He was 73.

A memorial service for Vanett will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at Bunker Mortuary Chapel. Burial will be in the family plot in South Bend, Ind.

"Roy's passion for the news is what made him such a good newspaperman," said Review-Journal Managing Editor Charles Zobell, who was hired as a reporter by Vanett in 1975. "He worked hard at staying on top of the news."

Vanett, a 1957 graduate of Indiana University's journalism program, was hired by the Review-Journal on Oct. 26, 1965, as a police reporter. Vanett also covered labor, state government and politics.

Mary Hausch, a former Review-Journal managing editor who now is a professor of journalism at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said part of Vanett's endearing charm was the sarcastic way he got his point across to reporters.

"He would be reading the Sun and would say things to us like, 'Well, here's an interesting story. Why do you suppose it is not in our paper, Mary?' " said Hausch, who was hired by Vanett as a reporter in the early 1970s. "Roy was highly principled and he really pushed his reporters to be competitive."

Vanett lived a simple life, Hausch said, residing in the same apartment for more than 20 years, driving old vehicles -- one a Cadillac he bought with winnings from keno, his favorite pastime -- and spending holidays with co-workers he considered his extended family.

Born Sept. 13, 1928, in Orangeville, Mich., Vanett was the second of six children of painter and paperhanger Lawrence Vanett and the former Marie Hickey. The family moved to South Bend, Ind., when Roy was young.

Vanett served in the Army from 1945 to 1952 and worked seven years at the Danville (Ill.) Commercial-News as a reporter and photographer. In the early 1960s he worked at the San Jose Mercury News and Riverside Press-Enterprise before going to the Review-Journal.

Vanett was promoted to city editor in July 1968 and became night news editor in March 1976. He was assistant news editor from 1981 to 1992 and worked as a copy editor from 1992 until his retirement on Oct. 29, 1999.

In his nomination to the Nevada State Press Association's Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, Vanett was called "an unsung hero of Nevada journalism."

Two weeks after his induction during the press association's annual meeting in Carson City, Vanett underwent heart bypass surgery and was hospitalized until his death.

Vanett, who never married, is survived by two brothers, Don Vanett and Ray Vanett, both of South Bend, and two sisters, Eloise Kaminski of South Bend and Margie Simcox of Milford, Ind. He was preceded in death by a brother, Dee Vanett.