Ex-Pahrump Valley Times owner Joe Thurlow dies
Joe Thurlow, 82, a former Nye County resident and one-time co-owner of the Pahrump Valley Times, died Friday in Pensacola, Fla.
His family said Thurlow’s death was related to complications from gall bladder surgery performed three years ago.
“The Pahrump Valley Times was his peak,” said his youngest son, Jon Thurlow, who added his father was proud to have been part of the Pahrump newspaper tradition.
Joe Thurlow was born March 5, 1928, in Enid, Okla. He was the youngest of four children. His father died after being struck by lightning when Thurlow was just 4 years old, said oldest son Rich Thurlow. “He grew up in really hard times.”
But Joe Thurlow found success through music. At various times he taught music, owned music stores in Oklahoma, and tuned and rebuilt pianos.
“I don’t think he ever picked up an instrument he couldn’t play,” Rich Thurlow said.
In 1989, Joe and Rich Thurlow purchased the Pahrump Valley Times. Rich Thurlow learned the paper was for sale when he applied for a job there.
Joe Thurlow lived in Pahrump in the 1990s and loved it. He expanded the paper by offering home delivery and constructing a new building, Rich Thurlow said.
He moved away in the late 1990s after a bizarre incident occurred while he was sitting on his backyard porch. A drunken neighbor, for unknown reasons, came into the backyard and pummeled him, sending him to the emergency room with black eyes and bruises on his head, Rich Thurlow said.
“That kind of soured him on Pahrump,” he said.
The father and son sold the paper in 2002 to Stephens Media, publisher of the Review-Journal. Sherman Frederick, president of Stephens Media and publisher of the Review-Journal, has called the paper’s former owners strong newspapermen.
“Joe and Rich Thurlow have done an excellent job with the Pahrump Valley Times. We hope to build on their legacy,” Frederick said in 2002.
Jon Thurlow remembers his dad as a man of humor who enjoyed good food.
Joe Thurlow’s wife, Jo Ann Thurlow, said he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from Enid’s now-defunct Phillips University. He taught high school music, was music director at a few churches and even sang in a barbershop quartet.
“He loved music,” she said.
Joe Thurlow is survived by his wife; a daughter, Dena Lanning of Pine Bluffs, Wyo; and three sons, Rich Thurlow of Kingman, Ariz.; Phil Thurlow of Mitchell, Neb.; and Jon Thurlow of Pensacola.
Contact reporter Antonio Planas at
aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.
