'Incredibly gifted' Piatt dies at age 88

Jun. 28—G. Sam Piatt's "Outdoor Adventure" column in the May 5, 1974 edition of the Ashland Daily Independent carried an editor's note calling it "the initial in a series."

The series lasted 48 years. Its final piece was published in the weekend edition of The Daily Independent on Saturday.

Piatt died that night at 88 of cancer that had only been diagnosed about two weeks earlier, according to longtime neighbor Dee Dee Scythes.

Piatt joined the Portsmouth Daily Times as a reporter in 1972, beginning a Tri-State journalism career spanning five decades. Though likely best known for his outdoors column, Piatt also worked as the sports editor in Portsmouth and rose to the position of senior news writer in Ashland.

He retired after about 20 to 25 years in The Daily Independent newsroom, estimated co-worker Mark Maynard. But Maynard, then The Daily Independent's managing editor, had no intention of letting Piatt's pen and pad rust.

"He was so popular, when he retired, I was like, 'You have to keep writing,'" said Maynard, who now edits Kentucky Today after 42 years working for The Daily Independent. "And I think he did it for like $25 a column or something. That was an invaluable piece in our sports section for decades, and it's something people looked forward to. And you didn't have to be an outdoor person to really enjoy it.

"I would get lost in his stuff sometimes, like, 'Oh my gosh, this is so funny, so good.' He'll be remembered for being a storyteller."

Roger Alford joined The Daily Independent as "a cub reporter" in 1987, he said, when Piatt was the senior news writer.

"I've worked at all levels of journalism," said Alford, who went on to write for The Associated Press. "I've worked alongside Pulitzer Prize winners, I worked for the world's largest newsgathering operation for the largest chunk of my career, and Sam Piatt has been head and shoulders above anybody who I've worked with as far as his ability to tell a story. Just a very talented, incredibly gifted journalist."

Former co-workers also remembered Piatt for the joie de vivre he brought to his job and enjoyment of the outdoors.

While working for The Daily Independent, Piatt freelanced for another newspaper under the pen name "Tom Sycamore," Maynard said.

"He was at a meeting, and they were railing about this Tom Sycamore in the meeting, and Sam was there," Maynard said.

Piatt couldn't resist getting in on the joke: "He just got in on the conversation with them about what a rascal Tom Sycamore was," Maynard said, laughing.

Piatt later repurposed the name Tom Sycamore as the protagonist of "That Summer of '45," a partially autobiographical novel he released in 2014.

Piatt was a graduate of South Portsmouth High School and Marshall University. In between, Piatt forewent a traditional educational path to enter the work force in construction and marry his wife, Bonnie, first.

By the time Piatt received his credentials in Huntington in 1992, he'd long since established himself in the journalism field. So much so — when informed of Piatt's death on Monday and his age at the time, Eddie Blakeley, his former boss as the publisher in Portsmouth and Ashland, cracked, "Hell, I thought he was 88 20 years ago," laughing.

"I learned so much from him," Alford said. "Having the opportunity to be within earshot and hear him interact with his sources was like a journalism degree in itself."

Concurred Blakeley: "I think he was an excellent community outdoors writer, and he wrote in a folksy way. Very well-read. I got positive comments when I was in Portsmouth and positive comments when I was in Ashland."

Piatt outlived his wife of 67 years, Bonnie, who died March 20 at 85, as well as two sons who died in the span of less than a year.

Kendall passed away at 57 on Dec. 29, 2014, as the result of an automobile accident, and Kelly died at 59 on Dec. 21, 2015.

He is survived by daughter Cindy, eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

Piatt's second column for the Ashland Daily Independent, published May 12, 1974, detailed the first frog hunt on which he took then-teenaged Kendall and Kelly. G. Sam recounted having to cajole a reluctant Kelly to impale a frog in order to yield the fried frog legs they were after.

Family was a frequent theme in Piatt's columns. He occasionally also wrote about the afterlife for which he believed he and his family were destined, which he touched on again in his weekly column on April 15, mere weeks after Bonnie passed.

"I've already had a prayer answered: I have gotten to see the tulips in the front yard bloom again," Piatt wrote. "And one day next week I hope to accomplish my first fishing trip of the spring.

"We all want to stay here as many days or years that we can.

"But, because of loved ones who have gone on, we yearn to check that place out, too."

(606) 326-2658 — zklemme@dailyindependent.com