By AP/St. Louis Public Radio
ST. LOUIS –
Ed Schafer, who spent 27 years covering the St. Louis region and eastern Missouri for The Associated Press, has died.
Schafer died Tuesday of a heart attack, his wife, Loretta, said. He was 71.
Schafer was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo. He joined the Navy as a teenager and served for four years in the late 1950s. After graduating from Southern Illinois University, he went to work for the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph. He later worked as a copy editor for the Wall Street Journal office in suburban St. Louis, in public relations, and for a Sporting News business publication before joining AP in 1972.
He retired from AP in 1999.
Schafer was an avid golfer who made his first hole-in-one last month.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Schafer is survived by his wife and one sister.