Louis P. Cashman Jr. was a grandson of the founder of The Vicksburg Evening Post. Affiliated with the newspaper from an early age, he first worked in advertising sales, as payroll clerk and business manager before becoming editor and publisher after the death of his father on November 5, 1961. He continued in that position until 1984.
The Vicksburg Evening Post received many awards for editorial excellence during the 23 years Louis P. Cashman Jr. was editor and publisher. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for publishing under pressure of a deadline after a tornado wrecked downtown Vicksburg, killing 39, on December 5, 1953. He also guided the newspaper’s conversion from letterpress to offset and later from manual or electric typewriter to computer-based news systems. He planned and executed the changes with such detail that the transition was flawless.
He served as president of the Mississippi Press Association, following his father and grandfather in that role, and as a director of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. He was also named Man of the Year in Vicksburg in 1970 by the Vicksburg Jaycees among many state and community honors.
Cashman served as a director on many boards, including First National Bank, Vicksburg Bridge Commission, Warren County Port Commission, Vicksburg Warren County Chamber of Commerce (president), Vicksburg YMCA’s, and the United Way. He also volunteered his time with Easter Seals, the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes and other organizations.
He was a combat veteran of World War II, serving as a first lieutenant in the Sixth Armored Division of the U.S. Army in France and Germany.
The people who knew him would say that Cashman was an absolute perfectionist and gentleman at all times, was deeply devoted to the constant betterment of his community and that he believed the highest function of a community newspaper was to accurately inform the people about their town. He did not seek controversy, but he would not avert a challenge.
In the same vein, he believed, and expressed this in his testimony when the newspaper sued the City of Vicksburg in 1982 under the Mississippi Open Meetings Act, that the credibility of its news columns is a newspaper’s stock in trade.
From his notes:
“It is our right and duty to provide factual information for our readers and other citizens. It is our duty to keep them informed. … Denial of news from any source, and particularly from public bodies, lessens our credibility in the eyes of the public. Continued denial of such news could lead to loss of subscribers and, in turn, loss of advertisers. All of this would cause irreparable harm to the citizens and to the newspaper.”
For its efforts in the case, which the newspaper eventually lost in the Mississippi Supreme Court, Mr. Cashman was presented the Margaret Dixon Award by The Associated Press.
His son, Louis Patrick Cashman III, former publisher of The Vicksburg Post, joined his father in the MPA Hall of Fame in 2011.
