Journalist Nancy Hicks Maynard dead at 61

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Nancy Hicks Maynard, the first African-American newswoman hired by The New York Times, has died in Los Angeles at age 61, her family said.

Hicks Maynard died Sunday from multiple organ failure, her daughter, Dori J. Maynard, told the Times in a story published Tuesday.

Hicks Maynard began working for the Times in 1968 and in 1975 married Robert C. Maynard, a former reporter and columnist for The Washington Post. In 1977, they founded the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, an institute that has trained hundreds of minority journalists, the Times said.

In 1983, the Maynards bought the Oakland Tribune from the Gannett Company and the paper remains the only major metropolitan daily to have been owned by African-Americans. Hicks-Maynard sold the paper to the Alameda Newspaper Group in 1993 when her husband died.

Hicks Maynard was born in Harlem to Alfred Hall, a jazz bassist, and the former Eve Keller, a nurse. Her first husband, Daniel Hicks, died in the early 1970s.

Hicks Maynard, who received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Long Island University, is survived by her daughter, her mother, her partner, Jay T. Harris; two sons, David and Alex Maynard; a sister, Barbara Guest; and a brother, Al Hall.