Black Newspaper Publisher John J. Oliver Sr., 86, Dies In Maryland

Jet, July 31, 2000

John J. Oliver Sr., a former president and chief operating officer of the Afro-American Newspapers, recently died after a lengthy illness at the Genesis ElderCare Nursing Home in Silver Spring, MD. He was 86.

Oliver, the son of a former slave who became a doctor, was the grandson of John H. Murphy Sr., who founded the Afro-American in 1892.

Oliver grew up in Brazil, IN, and moved to Baltimore in 1935 after he graduated from DePauw Univ. In 1940 he married Marye Thompson, a teacher, who died in 1967. His second wife, Sallye Haskins, died in 1986.

During a career at the newspaper group that spanned nearly 50 years, Oliver oversaw the mechanical and technical sides of the operation.

In the years leading to the Civil Rights Movement, the newspaper group published 13 editions a week at its peak, circulating from New Jersey to South Carolina; the Afro presses ran six days a week. Today it publishes weeklies in Baltimore and D.C.

Oliver retired as president and publisher of Afro in 1983. He spent his later years at his home in Cape May, NJ, before he moved back to Baltimore last year because of illness.

He is survived by his son, John "Jake" Oliver Jr., current publisher of Afro-American Newspapers and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association; daughter, Marilyn O. (Limie) Pickett; and grandson, John.