John Seigenthaler's career at the Nashville Tennessean has run the gamut from cub reporter to chairman emeritus. He is perhaps most regarded for his commitment to upholding the First Amendment. Throughout his career he has fought for the public's right to know. "There's nothing I could have done that's more satisfying personally and professionally," he has commented.

John Lawrence Seigenthaler was born in Nashville on 27 July 1927 to John and Mary Brew Seigenthaler. He attended Peabody College in Nashville and was later a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University (1958-1959). He married Dolores Watson in January 1955; they have one son,John Michael.

Seigenthaler was willing to challenge the system even at an early age. Jim Squires, of the Chicago Tribune, said that his disruptive conduct in a Nashville school was compared to the young Seigenthaler's. As Squires was being reprimanded, the disciplinarian remarked that he was "the most combative, unruly...