Lawrence A. “Lad” Waring built a wide-ranging career in journalism, advertising and public relations, but his most significant contributions came as a Mississippi newspaper editor who used the power of the press to promote economic development and social progress.
Born in Tylertown in 1920, Waring developed an early interest in journalism while working on his high school newspaper and later on the Purple and White, the student newspaper at Millsaps College.
Waring became editor of the Tylertown Times in 1946. His editorials and a speech to the local Rotary Club helped build support for a bond issue that brought a Haspel Industries plant to Tylertown. He also promoted the county’s dairy industry, contributing to efforts that persuaded Borden to locate a processing plant in the community.
Working with legendary Mississippi editor O.C. McDavid, Waring helped launch the Sunday Mirror in 1946 and became its editor the following year. In 1947, he also became editor of the Columbian-Progress in Columbia. Working with the Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association and Lester Williams, Waring helped establish Rural Life, a publication serving the electric cooperative’s 14-county territory that later became a statewide cooperative publication.
Under Waring’s leadership, the Columbian-Progress distinguished itself for both journalistic excellence and social progress. In the early 1950s, it became Mississippi’s first white-owned newspaper to identify married Black couples using courtesy titles rather than the demeaning convention then commonly used by white newspapers. Waring also worked with Judge Sebe Dale in efforts that resulted in a Black citizen serving on a Mississippi jury for the first time since Reconstruction.
Waring received a National Press Photographers Association award for best feature photograph in Region Seven in 1951. During his seven years as editor, the Columbian-Progress also won General Excellence honors as an outstanding large-circulation weekly newspaper.
After leaving newspaper work, Waring held prominent positions in advertising, marketing and public relations in Mississippi, New York, Louisiana and Arkansas. His career included work with Godwin Advertising Agency, Edison Electric Institute, Ebasco Services and Larry Painter and Associates. As a senior vice president with the latter firm, he supervised major accounts and political campaigns, including those of William Winter, Charlie Sullivan and Charles Deaton.
Waring returned to Mississippi in 1977 and later worked as a freelance editor and advertising and marketing consultant. His projects promoted Mississippi economic development, tourism, forestry products, ports and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
In his later years, Waring returned to his hometown of Tylertown, where he wrote a series of features for the Tylertown Times titled “The Way It Usta’ Was” and worked on his memoirs.
Waring died in 1999, leaving a legacy as a journalist whose work strengthened Mississippi communities, advanced the newspaper profession and, during a pivotal period in the state’s history, challenged some of the racial conventions of his time.
