Prentis Rogers, 50, editor and sports columnist
By KAY POWELL
Prentis Rogers, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor and sports columnist, died Tuesday following surgery Monday at South Fulton Medical Center.
Mr. Rogers, 50, of East Point was the Journal-Constitution's assistant sports editor for baseball, NBA, NHL and boxing coverage. For 14 years, he had been radio and TV sports columnist for the paper, which he joined in 1979. He had appeared on PBS to talk about television sports coverage.
Mr. Rogers, said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports, was a "remarkably thorough, fair and nice man in a business not necessarily known for those three qualities."
An Atlanta native, Mr. Rogers graduated from Michigan State University with a journalism degree in 1975. He was working at the Atlanta Daily World when the Journal-Counstitution hired him.
In his media column, "he humanized the people he wrote about, athletes and broadcasters," said AJC assistant sports editor David Davidson.
Readers liked that his opinions were fair, said his wife, Yvonne Manning Rogers. "He liked having the facts. That gave him the freedom to put his personal touch on situations," she said.
Away from his sports beat, Mr. Rogers could be found in a movie theater enjoying everything from "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Matrix," said his wife. He played piano in his youth and had worked as a disc jockey and could be pressed into service as a DJ at their church, she said.
Funeral plans will be announced by Murray Bros. Cascade Chapel.
Survivors include a son, Devere Rogers, and his mother, Mattie Elaine Rogers, both of East Point.