MEET SONNY LONG
Award winning writer SONNY LONG
Once described as "Lewis Grizzard with a good heart," Sonny Long of Cuero, Texas has been writing since elementary school.
Born in Dothan, Alabama the son of a coach, Long spent his youth in Pelham, Ga.,
Thomasville, Ga., and his high school days in Long, a journalism graduate of Auburn University with a Master's Degree in
Communications from the University of Texas at Austin, has had a diverse career.
Stops include that stint in the Army as editor of the Fort Ord Panorama base newspaper
and in the public relations office of the Third U.S. Infantry, the Old Guard, the Presidential Honor
Guard based near Washington, D.C. While in Washington, Long covered the Old Guard's participation in
the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., as well as at numerous ceremonial functions at the
White House and Pentagon.
After the service and while at Auburn University, Long worked as a student assistant in
the Sports Information Office and as a stringer for local and state newspapers. After graduation, he
worked as a public relations assistant in the Southeastern Conference Commissioner's Office in
Birmingham. He was an assistant editor of an SEC Football Media Guide that was honored nationally by the
Sports Information Directors of America as Best in the Nation.
After completing his graduate work at the University of Texas, Long worked out of the
Dallas office as publications specialists for Host Communications based in Lexington, Ky. The publications
he was responsible for included media guides and game programs for UT, Southern Methodist
University and the Cotton Bowl. Long then served as sports editor of the
Citizens-Journal, an Atlanta, Texas bi-weekly newspaper until 1990. While there, he won an East Texas Press Association Award for
column writing.
Pine Country Media was founded in 1991 as the
Pine Country Bulletin, a free, three-time weekly community newspaper in newsletter format that received critical acclaim as a news
source in East Texas.
Expansion came in 1992 with the Pine Country
Magazine -- a keepsake four-color publication -- which was published semiannually. The Internet regional news service, eTexasNews.com, went
on-line in September of 1997.
Pine County Media was dissolved in 2005 when Long became a bureau reporter for the daily newspaper, the Victoria Advocate in Victoria, Texas.
He can be reached on the internet at ALongLook2@sbcglobal.net or www.SonnyLong.com.