Rebecca Lynn Ferrar

Rebecca Ferrar, a retired journalist who covered politics and government for more than 30 years, died Sunday in Knoxville after a heart attack. She was 72. She began her journalism career as a student at the University of Tennessee as a reporter for the UT Daily Beacon. In 1979, as an intern for the Birmingham Post Herald in Birmingham, Alabama, she covered the Ku Klux Klan candidate in a 12-person mayor’s race. She served as an intern in the public information office at Tennessee Valley Authority and then became a reporter for the Mountain Press in Sevierville in 1981, when she graduated from UT. In 1984, she went to work as a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel and worked there until her retirement in 2011. During that period, she spent 11 years covering the Tennessee Capitol Hill. She covered the 1988 Democratic National Convention, Al Gore’s election as vice president and the Knox County Commission controversy in 2007 that became known as Black Wednesday. Her professional awards include the National Headliner Award; Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for First Amendment reporting; Joseph L. Brechner Award for Freedom of Information reporting; Associated Press Managing Editors Award for First Amendment reporting; and Golden Press Card award from Sigma Delta Chi, East Tennessee chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She was born in Knoxville on Aug. 30, 1946. She grew up in North Knoxville. After her mother married an Air Force officer, the family lived in several places around the United States and Germany. She was preceded in death by her mother, Priscilla Anderson; stepfather, Thales Anderson; and brother, Ronnie Anderson. She is survived by her son, Ashley Christopher Ferrar, and daughter-in-law, Sonya Ferrar of Denver, Colorado; former husband, Richard Ferrar of Warwick, New York; brother, Richard Stephen Lynch, and sister-in-law Teresa Lynch of Knoxville; brother Gerald Anderson of Knoxville; and several nieces and nephew. Her family wishes to express their gratitude to the staff at Park Place of Fountain City, who provided extra care, and to the staff at Oakwood Senior Living. In lieu of flowers please donate to The Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ); The Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE); or The Cat Shoppe in Nashville, TN. Family will receive friends from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2018 at Mynatt Funeral Home Fountain City Chapel. A celebration of life will follow. Please leave online condolences at www.mynattfh.com