Retired Los Angeles AP Editor Sue Manning Dies At 71

GLENDALE, CA – Retired longtime Los Angeles Associated Press supervising editor Sue Manning has died, her family said Monday. She was 71.

Police officers summoned by family members who couldn't reach her found Manning dead on Sunday at her home in Glendale, her brother Daniel Manning told The Associated Press. She appeared to have died in her sleep. The cause of death was not immediately known, and an autopsy was planned.

Manning coordinated coverage of such stories as the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the death of Michael Jackson and the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

"In a profession where everybody blows up and screams at someone sooner or later, she never did," AP pop culture writer John Rogers wrote on Facebook. "But she was so much more than just a brilliant editor. She was the bureau's historian, its archivist, its party planner and field trip organizer.

"No birthday or anniversary was overlooked, even after she retired."

Manning received The Associated Press' highest internal honor, the Oliver S. Gramling award, in 2001, noting her grace under pressure.

Manning moved to the AP's Los Angeles bureau in 1984. She was the AP's pets columnist for the last seven years of her career. She retired in 2016.

Manning graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and began her professional career at the Ontario Daily Report, now the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. She joined the AP in the 1970s, working in its Spokane, Washington bureau. She also briefly worked at its Seattle bureau.

Manning is survived by her brother Daniel and sister Connie.

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