Brien Murphy

Features Editor

Brien Murphy is the features editor at the Reporter-News. He joined the newspaper in March 2000 as arts and entertainment reporter, and was promoted to his present post about five years later.

His journalism career began in May 1991 in Hannibal, Mo., and he also worked in Quincy, Ill., before moving to the Lone Star State (seriously, he got here as fast as he could). An admitted smart-aleck, he won a humor writing award from the Missouri Press Association (it was an honorable mention, but his grandmother was very proud), and an in-depth reporting award from the Illinois Press Association (again, honorable mention, which is still pretty honorable).

Brien comes from an unusually large extended family. He has 21 first cousins, nearly all of whom have children of their own, making it necessary to rent a large hall to celebrate holidays. When he's not working, Brien plays his guitar -- he can play more than 1,200 rock and pop songs from the 1950s through today - and occasionally performs in public.

He remains both fascinated and disgusted by popular culture (don't get him started on "reality" TV), reasonably optimistic he'll get married someday, and thankful he looks about five years younger than he is.

Recent stories:

• One man's pick for the best of the Beatles
  October 8, 2008
• Abilene Philharmonic concert set Saturday
  October 1, 2008
• Fun festivities at the fair
  September 3, 2008
• Let's hope 'The Rocker' won't inspire bad rock music
  August 20, 2008
• Live Theater 07.24.08
  July 23, 2008
• For actors, death is often a brilliant career move
  July 17, 2008
• Oak Ridge Boys to headline Rehab dinner show
  July 9, 2008
• 2 big shows, 1 big weekend
  June 25, 2008
• Theater continuing this week
  June 18, 2008
• Readers' tributes to their dads
  June 14, 2008
• See full list of stories by Brien Murphy...