Pulitzer Prize Winner

Checotah’s library is named in honor of the Pulitzer Prize winner, Jim Griffing Lucas.

* A third generation Checotahan born June 22, 1914,

*A 1931 graduate of Checotah High School and a champion debator, attended the University of Missouri;

*a Marine Corps volunteer who won a battlefield commission with a Bronze Star during the Southwest pacific Battle of Tarawa, 1943; and also fought at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima; given the “National Headliners Award” for best reporting, 1943; and later, the VFW Omar Bradley Award and the American Legion Fourth Estate Award;

*a member of Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s 1947 Expedition to the South Pole;

*a 25-year reporter for Scripps-Howard as a Washington and foreign correspondent;

*chosen as the Pulitzer Prize winner for journalism, 1954, and selected for two Ernie Pyle awards; 1953, Korean War; and 1964, Vietnam Conflict;

*the only journalist ever called to give a briefing at the White House before the President and 100 Congressional leaders;

*author of three books;

*buried with full military ceremony in Checotah in his family’s plot, July 21, 1970;

*was honored by his hometown with the naming of Jim Lucas Memorial Library, May 2, 1971.