LOFTIN, T(helma) L(ois) 1922-2003

(Tee Loftin Snell)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born January 27, 1922, in Kinston, NC; died December 21, 2003, in Santa Fe, NM. Journalist, editor, and author. Loftin was a former newspaper journalist and researcher for the National Geographic Society who later founded her own publishing company and wrote history books. She earned her bachelor's in journalism in 1942, followed by two years working at radio stations in Missouri and Texas. She then moved to Washington, D.C., where she was a correspondent for the Kinston Daily Free Press until 1958. During the 1950s, Loftin was also an editorial assistant to U.S. Representative Charles R. Jonas of North Carolina, as well as serving as editor for the National Academy of Engineering. Loftin next became involved in television, contributing to the quiz show It's Academic and serving as co-creator of the children's program Claire and Coco. Leaving television in 1965, the same year she earned a master's degree from American University, Loftin took two years off before joining the National Geographic Society staff as a writer and researcher. Here she contributed chapters to a number of books published by the Society and traveled around the world to conduct research. Retiring in 1987, she continued to operate the publishing company she had founded earlier, Tee Loftin Publishers. She wrote and published two books after leaving National Geographic, Contest for a Capital: George Washington, Robert Morris, and Congress, 1783-1791, Contenders: Dramatized Events of America's Founding Years (1989), and Westward Go!: Fremont, Randy & Kit Carson Open Wide the Oregon Trail (2000). Earlier works by Loftin include editing Andy Nault's Staying Alive in Alaska's Wild: True Adventures with Bears, Wolves, Wolverines, Beavers, Seals, Dogs, Volcano, Williwaws on Kodiak Island, Contact Point, Kamishak Bay and River, Tugidak Island (1980), and writing City of Washington 1800: November 21, the First Workday of the United States Government in the New National Capital Founded by George Washington (1982). She also published The Wild Shores: America's Beginnings (1974) under her former married name, Tee Loftin Snell.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Washington Post, December 31, 2003, p. B6.