Willard (Bill) McKinnon Lewis, a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette for 33 years, died Dec. 24 from long-standing coronary disease. He was 95.

Lewis was the son of James D. and Alma Swan Murphy. His mother died of pneumonia at age 27 when he was three months old, so he grew up in the home of an aunt, Bennie Lewis, and her husband Webb, who became his de facto parents. After serving two years in the Army in Japan, he returned home to attend college and had his surname legally changed to Lewis, the name he had used all his life.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mississippi Southern College, now the University of Southern Mississippi, at Hattiesburg. While in college he worked part-time at the Hattiesburg American and after graduation worked briefly at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and then four years with United Press. He came to the Gazette in October 1956, just before the 1957 desegregation crisis began. During that period he covered the Little Rock School Board and many of the numerous rallies and meetings on both sides of the controversy.

As a general-assignment reporter, Lewis covered a great variety of events, interviewed hundreds of prominent people (among them Sir Edmund Hillary, John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gens. Jimmy Doolittle and Mark Clark, and film stars and directors in the dozens). His byline, Bill Lewis, became familiar to Gazette readers throughout the state.

He volunteered one afternoon to write a review of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra that evening, when the non-staff regular reviewer became ill. That led to some 25 years of reviews of the Symphony, concerts, plays, restaurants and books. An enthusiastic amateur in the kitchen, he wrote occasional food columns for the late Millie Woods and her successor, Harriet Aldridge.

While his title was general-assignment reporter, he wrote mostly feature stories later in his career. His travel writing took him to some 55 countries, and he frequently wrote about developments in the medical field, particularly the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, and interesting local people.

He was a charter member of the Society of Professional Journalists, also known as Sigma Delta Chi. He was the instigator of the Farkleberry Follies bi-annual musical theater comedy spoofing politicians and other newsmakers in the late 1960s.

He retired for health reasons in 1990, two years before the Gazette was sold to the Arkansas Democrat, which became the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Survivors are his wife of 68 years, Mary Sue Harris Lewis; two sons, Gregory McKinnon Lewis, M.D., of Chicago, his wife Mary Strek, M.D.; and David Harris Lewis of Little Rock; five grandchildren, Jeremy Strek Lewis of Berlin, Germany, Kelcie Lewis Stone of Arvada, Colorado, Emily Lewis Day of Fort Collins, Colorado, and Rebecca and Rachel Strek Lewis of Chicago.

There is no service planned, but memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church, where Lewis had been a member of the Bowen-Cabe Class for almost 60 years. Inurnment will be in the courtyard columbarium.