Longtime Lewiston newspaper editor dies

LEWISTON – Faunce Pendexter, an award-winning journalist who worked for the Lewiston newspapers for more than four decades, died Wednesday at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. He was 85.

Pendexter worked for both the Lewiston Evening Journal and the Lewiston Daily Sun as a reporter, editor and editorial writer.

At the end of his career, he wrote for both papers, winning back-to-back Associated Press awards for editorial writing in 1981 and 1982.

“He did a whole bunch of different things in the newsroom, and he did them all well,” said Jim Costello Sr., publisher of the Sun Journal.

Pendexter began his journalism career in Portland, writing news copy for radio station WGAN. He joined the news staff at the Journal in 1940 and stayed until he retired.

Those who worked with Pendexter recalled his commitment to the Lewiston newspapers, the community and the readers.

“He was very concerned about what was best for the Twin Cities and for Maine,” said Nancy Grape, a reporter who worked with Pendexter in the 1950s and 1970s. “The idea was to try to integrate these ideas into the lives of the people who paid for the paper each day. He cared a great deal.”