Former associate editor passes away

By: TONY MARKS
Editor

Steve Hallam, former associate editor of the Ville Platte Gazette, passed away on Saturday, November 11, at the age of 74.
In an April 2017 interview with the Gazette, Hallam stated a series of coincidences led him a world away from South Dakota to Ville Platte and to publish his father’s memoirs as a diplomat in the U.S. State Department.
“The main part is about his trip to Baghdad from Washington, DC,” said Hallam in the interview about his book A World Away. “Then there’s a second part. It’s about the Baghdad bazaars. And then the third part is about the Tripartite Conference in Moscow, and that’s the first time he kinda rubs elbows with the big wigs. He sees Molitov, the Russian foreign minister, and American Secretary of State Cordell Hull.”
His only regret about the book is not dedicating it to his late wife Linda Sanders Hallam, who grew up in Morrow south of Bunkie. The couple met in Jackson, Miss., while they were both reporters at a local newspaper. They then moved to Gainesville, Fla., and taught as adjunct professors at the University of Florida. Linda Hallam died while in Gainesville, and her parents told Steve they had a vacant house in Morrow. This kicked off the coincidences that led him to Ville Platte.
The obituary can be found on page 2.