Loretta Neuharth, first wife of USA Today founder, dies at 94

Loretta Neuharth lived in many places during her lifetime but for a period Rochester was home. 

Ms. Neuharth died Sept. 30 in Fairfax, Virginia. She was 94.

In 1946, she married Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today and former Gannett Co. Inc. chairman. They were high school sweethearts. Mr. Neuharth died in April 2013 at the age of 89.

Ms. Neuharth had two children, Dan and Jan, and they lived on East Avenue in Brighton from the early 1960s to 1989. The children attended schools in the Pittsford Central School District. Dan Neuharth graduated from Pittsford Sutherland in 1971 and Jan in 1973. 

"Her favorite saying was, 'If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all,'" Dan Neuharth said of his mother. 

Ms. Neuharth was born in South Dakota and was the third of four children of Anna and Seymour Helgeland. She attended General Beadle State Teachers College and then taught in a one-room schoolhouse, according to Dan Neuharth. 

She had a variety of interests. "She loved gardening and floral designing, big band and swing music, and was a crack skeet shooter, often outshooting male competitors," Dan said. 

"I try to paint. At least I call it painting," Ms. Neuharth laughed in 1970 in a Democrat and Chronicle article. At that time Ms. Neuharth said the most interesting and important things in her life were her children and Al.

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After both kids were done with high school, Ms. Neuharth went on to get another diploma of her own.

She had taken classes at Nazareth College and Wayne State. From 1973 to 1976 she left Rochester and moved to Miami to pursue an arts education degree before she moved back to New York. In 1975 — at age 51 — she completed a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Miami. It was one of her proudest achievements.

"One of her favorite events of the year was the Lilac Festival, to which she dragged my sister and I, willing or not," said Dan Neuharth.

Ms. Neuharth also sold paintings at the Clothesline Festival. 

Ms. Neuharth filled her time in Rochester giving back. She volunteered at the Memorial Art Gallery and Genesee Hospital and worked worked later in life on special projects for Sibley’s Department store in Rochester, her son said. 

Al and Loretta divorced in 1972 after 26 years of marriage, but in that she became published too. Inside of  Al Neuharth's autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B., she penned a chapter that described how he neglected her for his career.

Due to her love for gardens and art, the family is requesting donations to the American Horticultural Society or the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, in lieu of flowers.

Besides her son, Ms. Neuharth is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Jan Neuharth and Joseph Keusch of Middleburg, Virginia; granddaughter Dani Neuharth-Keusch of Austin, Texas; grandson AJ Neuharth-Keusch of Reston, Virginia; a sister, Lois Johnson of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and 11 nieces and nephews, including Randy Johnson of Fairport. She also was a pet parent to two, her dog Seffie and cat Annabelle.

She was preceded in death by her brother and sister-in-law, Lester and Irma Helgeland, her sister Wilma Bowman and her parents.

More from the D&C archives:

• In 1969, Ms. Neuharth was described as most proficient, after a day of hunting with former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
• In 1977, helped was in charge of table decorations at the Memorial Art Gallery for an auction
• In 1979, Ms. Neuharth was the director of the 37th annual Scholastic Arts Awards Show in Sibley's Ward Gallery. 

MEFINNERTY@Gannett.com 

Includes USA Today reporting.