Ken Lockerby, retired Daily News reporter, columnist, and copy editor, has died at 83
He left reporting to work in the office because he got tired of chasing the news around town. “Ken may have seemed like a grump to some, but he was a softie at heart,” a longtime colleague said.
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Ken Lockerby, 83, of Haddonfield, retired reporter, columnist, and copy editor at the Daily News, Wilmington News Journal, and West Chester Daily Local, and veteran, died Sunday, Oct. 29, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Complete Care at Kresson View nursing facility in Voorhees.
Known for his sharp wit, work ethic, and curmudgeonly exterior that masked what one former colleague called a “soft center,” Mr. Lockerby covered events, wrote columns, and worked on the nightside copy desk at the Daily News from 1979 until his retirement in 2012.
He wrote all sorts of stories as a reporter in the early 1980s, from killer pet dogs to organ donations to rainy weather, and opened a 1981 article about the transit workers union with: “As president of the 4,900-member union in this city, you’re a mover and shaker. Your workers move about 400,000 people a day, and the threat of a transit strike shakes up anyone who has good sense.”
His writing was often humorous and acerbic, and the Daily News published many of his quips in a quick-hits column called “Hip Shots.” Former Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky also included Mr. Lockerby’s wise-guy observations in some of his columns in the 1990s under the subhead “The last word.”
His Daily News headlines were often as memorable, and he won a 1983 award from the Philadelphia Press Association for “Baby may be Fruit of the Loom” about, according to the Daily News, “a couple who finally conceived a child after five years of trying when the husband took a columnist’s advice to switch to boxer shorts.”
In 2005, in one his “Tattle” gossip columns for the Daily News, he wrote about Phil Bronstein, former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and his marriage to actress Sharon Stone and later “cozy” friendship with supermodel Jerry Hall. He ended the column by saying: “The toughest thing about this job is ducking the supermodels and copyediting groupies hanging outside 15th and Callowhill at 1:30 a.m. when all you want is to get home for a warm glass of milk and a good book.”
Mr. Lockerby also worked as a copy editor and assistant metro editor at the Wilmington News Journal from 1971 to 1979, and reporter, editor, and columnist at the West Chester Daily Local from 1967 to 1971.
Pat McLoone, a former managing editor at the Daily News and Inquirer, called Mr. Lockerby a “very nice man and a terrific copy editor. Had a way of pointing out things you did wrong without making you feel like a dope. A great trait.”
Other former colleagues said on Facebook that Mr. Lockerby was “smart, quiet, cool,” a “standup guy,” and a “delightful fellow.” His wife, Cheryl, said: “He loved vocabulary words. He was very smart, very quiet. But still waters run deep.”
Kenneth Hughes Lockerby was born April 22, 1940, in Cincinnati. His mother died when he was 7, and his father enrolled him at Howe Military Academy in Indiana.
He spent much of his youth traveling around Indiana, Maryland, and Pennsylvania while his father worked jobs as an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He graduated from Towson High School in Maryland in 1957, enlisted in the Army, and served as a specialist and photographer in Korea and France from 1959 to 1962.
He attended the University of Maryland briefly after his discharge and graduated from West Chester State College, now West Chester University, in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in English education.
He married Rebecca Scott, and they had son K.C., and he adopted her son William. After a divorce, he married Cheryl Copeland in 1981. They adopted their daughter Jenny and lived in Philadelphia, Merion, Pitman, and Haddonfield. His former wife and son William died earlier.
Mr. Lockerby played tennis and found bargains in local thrift stores. He liked to help his daughter with school essays, and his wife could tell when he did because they read like newspaper articles.
He preferred one-on-one encounters over large meetings, and, 46 years sober, was an active sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous. “He really worked to be a better person,” his wife said. “He was sweet, kind, and very supportive. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”
In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Lockerby is survived by three granddaughters and other relatives.
Visitation with the family is to be from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at Foster-Warne Funeral Home, 820 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, N.J. 08108. A service is to follow.
Donations in his name may be made to Caron Treatment Centers, 243 N. Galen Hall Rd., Wernersville, Pa. 19565.