Roy Appleton Jr.

1924 - 2019

Roy Appleton, Jr.

Roy Appleton, Jr, former president and general manager of the Denton Record-Chronicle and a leading community leader in Denton during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, died April 8, 2019 at a residential care home in Ponder. He was 94.

Appleton retired in 1991 as president and general manager after 44 years on the newspaper, the only full-time job he had after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II.

He was a past president of the Denton Rotary Club, the Denton Jaycees, the Greater Denton Industries, the Denton County United Way and the Denton Chamber of Commerce.

Appleton, along with Record-Chronicle executive Fred Patterson, led many civic projects, including the renovation of the Campus Theater and the Center for the Visual Arts. They led in the development of the Holiday Lighting Festival and the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, among other civic projects.

In 2014, the Center for the Visual Arts was named the Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts in their honor.

In 1971, when he won the Otis Fowler Award given by the Denton Chamber of Commerce for civic leadership, Denton businessman Tom Harpool said Appleton was a "community leader in every sense of the word."

Appleton was born Dec. 12, 1924, to Roy and Sue Appleton in Fort Worth. His father was a professional baseball player with the Fort Worth Cats and other teams in the Southeast United States. After graduating from Sunset High School in Dallas, he enrolled at the University of Texas.

After he and a friend went to see John Wayne in "Wake Island," the next day they joined the U.S. Marine Corps. As a radio operator and communication specialist, Appleton made the landings in Tarawa, Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

On Iwo Jima he worked with the Navajo Code Talkers, American Indians who used the Navajo language to baffle Japanese code breakers. He saw as much combat action as most any other Marine.

After the war, he returned to the University of Texas on the GI Bill. In 1947, he transferred to what is now the University of North Texas and in 1949 he received a bachelor of business administration degree from North Texas.

On Jan. 10, 1947, he married Margie Lee Monroe in Bastrop. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Monroe of Denton. The new married couple were visiting her parents when they heard of a part-time job at the Record-Chronicle.

Owner Riley Cross hired Appleton while he was still a student at North Texas. He sold classified ads on the street, wrote stories for the business section and the industrial page, took pictures and operated a posting machine at the paper. All for $18.50 a week.

Over the next 44 years, Appleton became the ad manager and later business manager and finally general manager. In 1986, Vivian Cross retired as publisher and Fred Patterson became publisher. Appleton became president of the company.

In 1984, he was honored by the Texas Daily Newspaper Association as the Texas Newspaper Leader of the year.

He spearheaded a $6 million improvement project at the paper, including Flexography units to the presses.

In the 1980s, it was discovered that the Federal Communications Commission had set aside Channel 2 for use by Denton as an educational channel similar to KERA in Dallas.

Appleton headed up the effort to get the channel for Denton in 1981 He was president of the Denton Channel2 Foundation. He became vice chairman of the board for North Texas Public Broadcasting Inc., owner of KERA. Channel 2 later was sold to KERA.

The Record-Chronicle became a partner in Golden Triangle Communications with Cox Cable and operated a cable news channel.

Appleton won many other honors.

He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of North Texas in 1989, he won the Jaycees Senior Citizens Award, was a Paul Harris Fellow in the Rotary Club, was named Small Business Person of the Year by the Denton Chamber of Commerce, He was chairman of the Denton Economic Development Advisory Board, a director of First State Bank and a ruling elder in St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

Margie Appleton died in 2006. He married Alice Sidor in 2008 and she died in 2012.

He was preceded in death by his brothers Bobby and Jimmy and is survived by his sisters-in-law, Marilyn Dickie of Austin, TX and Shirley Appleton of McGaheysville, Virginia along with eight nieces and four nephews.

Appleton is survived by three sons, Roy Appleton III and wife Susan of Spicewood, Texas, Keith Appleton and wife Sharon of Denton and David Appleton and wife Lori of Hunt, Texas, step-daughters Ann Baird and husband Bob of Bertram, Texas and Andrea Sidor of Dallas, Texas.He also is survived by six grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two step-great-grandchildren.

The family would like to thank the wonderful people at Willow Bend Assisted Living and Memory Care for the care they provided. Additional thanks go to Ardent Hospice, Jana Cockrell and Zelda Loyd.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to United Way of Denton County, 1314 Teasley Lane, Denton, TX 76205.

Memorial service for Mr. Appleton will be at 2:00pm, Thursday, April 18 at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 300 W. Oak St., Denton.