Ex-Dallas editor Kenneth Johnson dead

DALLAS, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Kenneth Johnson, a former top editor at The Washington Post and Dallas Times Herald, died at the age of 74, the Post reported Wednesday.

Johnson died last Sunday in a Dallas hospital where he was suffering from complications from throat cancer as well as a heart infection.

Former Post Publisher Katherine Graham called the West Virginian native "a valued friend and colleague with whom I went through a lot."

The Post said Johnson was the newspaper's vice president of operations in 1974 when the press room crew went on strike. The paper was able to continue publishing under an emergency plan Johnson developed that put white-collar employees to work running the presses.

Johnson later moved to Dallas to take command of the Times Herald during an all-out circulation war with the Dallas Morning News.

He later made a highly profitable investment in Westward Communications, a chain of small newspapers, and retired a multimillionaire, according to the Post.