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Birth:          23 Apr 1914 Dallas, Tex.
Death:          12 Dec 2004 Florence, Lauderdale Co., Ala.

Notes
1981 book:
In 1981, Alfred and Jean lived at 740 W. Lakeside Dr., Florence, Ala. 35630.
Source: Alfred Andersson (him)
1920 1930 cannot find
ssn 412 07 3103 issued in Tenn before 1951
Obituary from web site no longer in place (from google cache)
Newsman saw it, lived it, reported it
By Aimee Edmondson
Contact
December 15, 2004

Alfred C. Andersson was a Texas-born, pavement-pounding newsman who covered 
Bonnie and Clyde in the desperado era of the 1930s. 

He'd witnessed nine electric chair executions before he was 20. 

When he moved to Memphis he wrote about the Crump political machine for the 
Memphis Press-Scimitar, the afternoon paper that closed in 1983. 

Mr. Andersson died Sunday after a long illness. He was 90. 

"Andy," who retired as assistant managing editor in 1972 after 36 years in Memphis, 
inherited his love of journalism from his dad, Alfred O. Andersson, founder of four 
newspapers now in the Scripps Howard chain. 

"He was a hard-driving newsman," said Van Pritchartt, former Press-Scimitar managing 
editor, now editor and publisher of The Collierville Herald. 

The two-way radio came into use when Mr. Andersson was a police reporter for the 
Dallas Dispatch. That helped him get to the Bonnie and Clyde story fast. 

His son, Alfred M. Andersson, said his father drove the ambulance that brought Bonnie 
and Clyde's bodies back to Dallas. 

"There was nobody to drive it, so he did," he said. 

He even helped the embalmer prepare the bullet-riddled bodies at the funeral home. 

Mr. Andersson, a former city hall reporter in Memphis, married the mayor's secretary, 
Jean Kimball, in 1936. 

During World War II, he made 20 voyages as a merchant marine officer on a tanker in 
the North Atlantic war zone. 

He had a passion for the Mississippi River, living in an apartment overlooking the 
water and keeping his oft-used yacht in the harbor. 

His encyclopedic knowledge of all things nautical kept reporters hopping. 

"If anybody was doing a story on the river, they had better sound like an expert," 
Pritchartt said. 

Mr. Andersson also loved the road. He would take his pickup truck and a manual 
typewriter and follow campaigning politicians around the state. 

He also wrote stories crusading for the use of seatbelts. 

In retirement, Mr. Andersson moved to Florence, Ala., and lived on the Tennessee 
River. 

In addition to his son, Mr. Andersson leaves, a daughter, Ruth Harper Andersson of 
Denver, Colo.; five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. 

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Florence. In 
lieu of flowers, the family requests any memorials go to the Cynthia Milk Fund, which 
Mr. Andersson helped start.


Parents
ANDERSSON Alfred Oscar (10 Dec 1874 - 11 May 1950)
HARPER Ruth Holmes ("Toppie") (13 Jul 1890 - 4 Feb 1974)

Siblings
ANDERSSON Alfred Chandler (23 Apr 1914 - 12 Dec 2004)
ANDERSSON Alice Ellen ("Polly") (25 Oct 1915 - 21 May 1998)
ANDERSSON Ruth Harper ("Bumps") (15 Mar 1919 - 1 Jun 2014)

Marriage To KIMBALL Jean McRae (23 Aug 1910 - 28 Aug 1992)
    m. 16 Apr 1937 Memphis, Tenn.

Notes


Children by KIMBALL Jean McRae 23 Aug 1910 - 28 Aug 1992
ANDERSSON Ruth Harper (24 Jul 1938 - 10 Aug 2009)
ANDERSSON Alfred McRae ("Andy") (9 Aug 1941 - 18 Aug 2015)

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