Alumna Gives Voice to Fallen Soldier's Story

By: Lindsay Wheatley

University of Kentucky alumna Dana Canedy is a New York Times senior editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose book "A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor" sparked an outpouring of love and sympathy from her readers and from the UK community.

What began as a two-hundred-page-journal written by her fiancé, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King while serving in Iraq before his death on Oct. 14, 2006, "A Journal for Jordan" would become a personal story, easily identifiable to those with loved ones serving in the armed forces abroad. Within its pages is a story of pride and a crippling fear as Dana watched her fiancé leave for war while she carried their only child. Knowing her fiancé's chances of being killed, Dana gave him a journal, so that if he did not return, his wisdom and his voice could return to her and their newborn son within his written words.

"I wanted to put a face and name and story to at least one American soldier who has died for our country in Iraq. Unfortunately, he was my soldier," Dana said. "I want Jordan to grow up with the journal and for it to be the guide for his life that his father intended it to be. There are life lessons in the journal that will help him with life's challenges when he is a boy, and other parts that will help him when he is a man."

Dana visited UK on March 31, and gave her presentation "I Alone Can't Teach Him to be a Man," and followed it with a book signing. A graduate of UK's School of Journalism and Telecommunications in 1988, she also spoke to two journalism classes during her visit to her alma mater, sharing her own wisdom collected through her years at the New York Times, where she has been for the past 12 years.

"I once sat in the same seats as these students," said Dana during her visit, "and I know ten years from now these students will be just as far, if not farther, in their careers than I am now. With the technology and information we have today, they will undoubtedly excel farther than I was ever capable of doing."

For more information on Dana Canedy and "A Journal for Jordan," visit her Web site at ajournalforjordan.com