Donald “Wayne” Trotter, an award-winning journalist and former owner and publisher of the Countywide & Sun in Tecumseh, died September 18, 2025. He was 86. Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, September 25, at the Broadway United Methodist Church at 302 S Broadway St. in Tecumseh, under the direction of Cooper Funeral Home. See full obituary at cooperfuneral.com/obituary/Wayne-Trotter Wayne and his wife, Gloria, became owners and co-publishers of the Tecumseh Countywide in 1983. In 1990, they started a second publication, The Shawnee Sun. The two weekly publications were combined into the Countywide & Sun in 2008. Prior to moving to Oklahoma, Wayne worked at the Herald Courier in Bristol, Tennessee; The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, and the Courier Tribune in Asheboro, North Carolina. He also taught at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, and worked in Washington, D.C. as an administrative assistant to Rep. William C. Wampler. The Trotters sold the Countywide & Sun in 2017 to Suzie Campbell, a longtime staff member at the newspaper, but they continued working there until August 2021. During Wayne’s 38 years at the Countywide, he won a record 11 annual OPA-ONG Editorial Sweepstakes Awards and more than 100 monthly OPA awards for editorials or columns. He also won best editorial in the National Newspaper Association contest twice. He served as president of the Oklahoma Press Association in 1999, and president of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation in 2005. In April 2009, Wayne was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation’s Beachy Musselman Award in 2000, and the Oklahoma Press Association’s Milt Phillips Award in 2007. Wayne is survived by his wife, Gloria, of the home, and son Greg of Tecumseh.
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Donald “Wayne” Trotter, an award-winning journalist and former owner and publisher of the Countywide & Sun in Tecumseh, died September 18, 2025. He was 86.