Veteran N.C. motor sports writer Martin dead at 55
Posted: Monday January 04, 1999 09:36 AM
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Gerald Martin, a sports writer for The News & Observer whose storytelling style brought readers the fortunes and foibles of stock car racing for three decades, has died. He was 55.
Martin, who fell ill at home on Christmas Eve, died Sunday at Rex Hospital of complications brought on by pancreatitis.
"He was one of the better writers that the Winston Cup has ever had," racing star Richard Petty said. ".... He was one of the few writers that I could confide in."
While at The N&O, Martin won dozens of reporting and writing awards from state and national press organizations and served as president of the National Motorsports Press Association.
"Gerald was the best writer I've ever seen in speaking in the vernacular of his region in a folksy yet sophisticated way," said Ed Hinton, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated who traveled the NASCAR circuit with Martin for about 25 years. "I always felt that in Gerald, North Carolina had something that the entire nation, and really the entire English-speaking world, would have appreciated."
Melanie Sill, managing editor of The N&O, said his personal warmth showed in his stories.
"He was a beautiful writer but also had a real affection for people, and an understanding and empathy that came through in everything he wrote," Sill said.
"He also had a love for the language and a precision with words that we don't see enough in newspaper writing."
Martin's love of racing began during his boyhood in the hills of Virginia, where bootleggers once sped their goods to buyers along winding mountain roads
Martin was born in Bassett, Va., and attended Bluefield College in West Virginia. He worked at newspapers in Martinsville and Roanoke, Va., before joining The N&O in November 1969.
A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Collins Funeral Home in Bassett.
Survivors include his wife, Dana, and his three sons, Gerald Ford Martin II, Brian Alexander Martin and Peter Austin Martin.
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