Frank W . Mayborn Frank Willis Mayborn ( December 7 , 1903 - May 16 , 1987 ) was a 20th - century Texas newspaper publisher and philanthropist who played a crucial role in the development of Temple and Bell County , located north of the state capital of Austin . Early years and education . Mayborn was born in Akron , Ohio to Ward Carlton Mayborn and the former Nellie Childs Welton . Ward Mayborn , who was an executive of the E . W . Scripps newspaper chain , moved the family in 1910 to the Westminster , a Denver suburb that is now the seventh largest city in Colorado . In 1919 , the Mayborns relocated to Dallas , where young Frank graduated in 1922 from W . H . Adamson High School , then Oak Cliff High School in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas . He received a bachelor of arts degree in 1926 from the University of Colorado at Boulder . Mayborn worked as a correspondent for several publications while in high school ( " Dallas Dispatch " ) and in college ( " Denver Post " and United Press International ) . Thereafter , he was an advertising salesman for the " Dallas News " ( since " Dallas Morning News " ) and then served in management positions for the Northern Texas Traction Company in Fort Worth . Texas media mogul . Mayborn published the " Temple Daily Telegram " , the " Killeen Daily Herald " , the " Sherman Democrat " , and the " Taylor Press " in Temple , Killeen , Sherman , and Taylor , respectively . He established KCEN - TV , the National Broadcasting Company outlet for both Temple and nearby Waco , the seat of McLennan County . Along with his father and brothers , Mayborn purchased the Telegram Publishing Company in Temple just days after the advent of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . Ward Mayborn at first urged Frank to sell the " Telegram " for whatever he could command , considering the gloomy economic picture by 1930 . Mayborn , however , was determined to make a success in Temple and continued as the business manager of the newspaper , a position that he held until 1945 , when he was elevated to editor and publisher . That same year , Mayborn purchased the " Sherman Democrat " in Grayson County in north Texas . In 1952 , he became , first , part - owner and , then , sole owner - operator of the " Killeen Herald " ( subsequently the " Killeen Daily Herald " ) . In 1959 , he obtained the " Taylor Press " in Williamson County east of Austin . He sold the " Taylor Press " ( later " Taylor Daily Press " ) in 1974 and the " Sherman Democrat " in 1977 but continued as editor and publisher of the Temple and Killeen newspapers until his death . Mayborn was also a radio and television pioneer . In 1936 , he started radio station KTEM in Temple . In 1945 , he founded WMAK radio ( now WNQM , a Christian station ) in Nashville , Tennessee . In 1953 , he founded KCEN - TV , named " CEN " for " Central Texas " . Military service . An active civic booster , Mayborn worked tirelessly to promote Bell County . In 1939 - 1940 , he chaired the military affairs committee of the Temple Chamber of Commerce . First Camp Hood , then Fort Hood , the largest United States Army base in the United States , was established in Killeen and nearby Coryell County . Mayborn and the committee obtained the Olin E . Teague ( named for a member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas ) Veterans Center in Temple and several other military installations and defense plants in the area . In 1942 , at age 36 , Mayborn enlisted in the Army as a public relations officer . In 1944 , he joined the staff of General Dwight D . Eisenhower as assistant chief of the U . S . public relations office . He received a Bronze Star and left military service as a major in 1945 . He remained active in military matters , having served on the civilian advisory board for most of the commanders at Fort Hood . In 1968 , he accompanied an old acquaintance , General Bruce Clarke , to South Vietnam on a fact - finding tour . On his return , he reported to President Johnson on the reliability of the controversial M16 rifle . In 1979 , Mayborn was awarded the Creighton W . Abrams Medal , named for the second U . S . commander in the Vietnam War , for his contributions to the Army . Political contributions . Mayborn was also a political confidant of Texas Democrats , U . S . President Lyndon B . Johnson , Governor John B . Connally , and U . S . Representatives W . R . Poage and Speaker Sam Rayburn , Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby of the former United States Department of Health , Education and Welfare , and U . S . Secretary of Commerce Jesse H . Jones . By the 1970s , with the defection of Connally to the Republican Party ( GOP ) , Mayborn began to support some GOP candidates . Role in disputed Senate runoff primary . In 1946 , Mayborn was elected to the Texas Democratic State Central Committee . While on the committee , he played a crucial role in the disputed senatorial primary runoff of 1948 for the seat vacated by the retiring W . Lee O ' Daniel . The state committee was asked to declare the winner of the primary after supporters of former Governor Coke R . Stevenson , a conservative Democrat , accused Johnson ' s campaign of fraudulent voting practices , particularly in Jim Wells County , one of the south Texas " machine " counties controlled by the Duval County political patron , George Parr . Eighty - seven primary votes were in dispute . John Connally , then Johnson ' s campaign manager , summoned Mayborn from a business trip in Nashville , where Mayborn owned a radio station , to cast the deciding vote in what was to be the committee ' s 29 - 28 decision to declare Johnson the winner . U . S . Supreme Court Justice Hugo L . Black , a former U . S . senator from Alabama , declared that the Democratic committee would have the sole power to select the nominee , a crushing blow to the Stevenson campaign . Stevenson , thereafter , embittered at the outcome of the senatorial nomination , headed the " Democrats for Nixon " Committee in Texas in 1960 , when Johnson was the Democratic vice - presidential nominee on the ticket headed by then Senator John F . Kennedy of Massachusetts . Contributions . Odie B . Faulk and Laura E . Faulk titled their Mayborn biography " Frank Mayborn : A Man Who Made a Difference . " Mayborn was involved in the development of many Bell County institutions . He served on the advisory board of the acclaimed Scott & White Memorial Hospital and played an important role in the location of Texas A & M University Medical Center in Temple . A longtime advocate of a convention center for Temple , Mayborn donated over of land for the Frank W . Mayborn Convention Center , which was completed in 1982 . The facility includes the Mayborn Museum Complex . As an advocate for education , Mayborn was active in the founding of the two - year Central Texas College near Killeen , which services many military personnel from Fort Hood . He also started the annual Bell County spelling bee . He endowed a chair at Texas Tech University in Lubbock . Mayborn served on journalism advisory boards at both the University of Texas and Texas A & M . Mayborn established a journalism chair at Baptist - affiliated Baylor University of Waco . He was a trustee and a donor to George Peabody College in Nashville . The large Frank and Sue Mayborn Campus Center was endowed after his death at the University of Mary Hardin - Baylor in Belton , Texas . Mayborn worked with Congressman Poage to obtain two Central Texas reservoirs , Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Lake . He worked to obtain the designation of the Killeen - Temple - Belton - Fort Hood area as an standard metropolitan statistical area though the four units are not directly contiguous . He was president of the Texas Publishers Association in 1941 and of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961 . Awards . Over the years , Mayborn received numerous awards , including an honorary doctorate from the University of Mary Hardin - Baylor in Belton and the Distinguished Citizen Award of the Boy Scouts of America , an organization that he tirelessly supported over the years . He was inducted into the Communications Hall of Fame at Texas Tech . He also supported numerous charitable projects through the Frank W . Mayborn Foundation . Family life . Mayborn was married to ( 1 ) the former Ruth Whitesides ( 1906 – 1977 ) from 1929 – 1946 and ( 2 ) the former Wythel Killen ( 1912 – 2001 ) from 1947 - 1972 . Both marriages ended in divorce . In 1981 , Mayborn married the former Anyse Sue White ( born ca . 1936 ) , who , thirty - three years his junior , succeeded him as editor and publisher of the Temple and Killeen papers . Mayborn was a Mason and a Presbyterian . Death and legacy . He died of heart attack in Temple on May 16 , 1987 , at the age of 83 . The Texas Daily Newspaper Association offers the annual Frank Mayborn Award for Community Leadership to recognize a publisher or other newspaper executive who contributed during the past year to the improvement of society . Posthumously , the journalism graduate program at the University of North Texas was named the Frank W . Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism in 1999 . With assistance from his business partner , Frank M . Burke Jr , the journalism department at the University of North Texas became the Frank W . and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism on September 1 , 2009 .