Mindy Fetterman

Mindy Fetterman, editor, writer, mentor, and full-volume life force of every newsroom she walked into, died Thursday, Feb. 8, of pneumonia, in Washington, D.C. She was 68 years old.

Talented, creative, joyful, strong, and above all fun, Mindy was the idea-generator, motivator, and occasional butt-kicker in all her professional settings. She loved news, a frosty cold lager, and smart story pitches. "I'd read that!" meant you'd come up with a good one.



Over the course of a classic journalism career, Mindy moved from the Moline Daily Dispatch to the Chicago Tribune to the Rochester Times Union to the masthead of USA TODAY, where she was the managing editor for content strategy, and a deputy managing editor in news and business. During the height of USA TODAY's influence, she led coverage of the 9/11 attacks, aviation safety, "road warrior" business travel, and personal finance. Post-journalism, she was an executive vice president at Burson Cohn & Wolfe and a senior director at Palisades Media Group.



At every step, Mindy made close friends and kept them, from her freshman dorm-mates at the University of Kentucky to a stint as business editor of The Dallas Morning News to fellow dog owners in Old Town Alexandria, Va., where she lived for more than 25 years. If you knew Mindy, you eventually knew all her friends, or at least some good stories about them.

She was enthusiastic, upbeat, and interested in almost everything, except hiking and taking public transit. She was tech-savvy but sent handwritten thank-you notes. She loved Kentucky horse racing, cherrywood antiques, Mount Vernon, and dogs.

One of Mindy's many talents was her ability to shake off setbacks. She'd raise her voice a couple of octaves and say, "Well, f**k it!" and leave it behind - unless she could get a good joke out of it. She did not do regrets, except maybe about the time when she had the opportunity to yell "Stop the presses!" at the Rochester Times Union on the morning of the Challenger disaster, but blanked and yelled "Stop what you're doing!" instead.



Born in Louisville, Ky., Mindy graduated from Ballard High School, where she was deemed the "funniest" female in her senior class, and the University of Kentucky, where she rose to features editor of the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper and collected a string of friends she remained connected to for more than 50 years.

Mindy was a second-generation journalist: Her father, John Fetterman, won two Pulitzer Prizes for the Louisville Courier Journal. When her dad traveled with the circus for a National Geographic feature, 13-year-old Mindy put on a spangled costume and became the "Ta-da!" girl in the circus ring. She repaid his teaching by successfully nominating him in 2023 for the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. From her mother, Evelyn "Shorty" Fetterman, Mindy inherited a commitment to ironed sheets and the Irish goodbye.



Mindy's sister, Phyllis Lee Terry, died in 2013. She is survived by the joy of her life, her beloved redheaded daughter, Maggie Cameron, and her adored son-in-law, BJ Kerwin of Rockville, Md.; a niece, Lee Terry, and her wife, Dawn White of Springfield, Ky.; a great-nephew, Jackson Clayton of Nashville, Tenn.; a very good ex-husband, John Cameron of Louisville, Ky.; and her Boykin spaniel, Cooper, who, in a decisive act as her health was failing, Mindy gave to his trainer. She was always moving forward.

A Gathering and Celebration of Life is planned from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, at Demaine Funeral Home, 520 S. Washington St. in Alexandria, Va. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Chef Jose Andres' acclaimed food-relief charity, World Central Kitchen.