Heidi Hall, former Southeast Missourian managing editor, dies at 49

Heidi Nieland Hall, who served as managing editor of the Southeast Missourian from 2000 to 2003, died Wednesday from metastatic colorectal cancer, according to The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee.

A native of Sikeston, Missouri, Hall would go on to serve as an editor in Missouri, Florida and Tennessee. Most recently, she worked in communications for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, according to the Tennessean.

Hall's illness became public recently, when she announced it in a social media post.

On Sept. 18, in an opinion column, Southeast Missourian Publisher and Rust Communications Co-President Jon K. Rust wrote of Hall:

"Sometimes in life you come across a talent and personality so big, that you know you're in the company of someone special. At the Southeast Missourian, Heidi Hall was a talent for the ages. A reporter here in the 1990s, she rose to managing editor 2000 to 2003, before departing to become an editor in Florida and Nashville, then for the past five years, a public affairs officer at Vanderbilt University. For 11 years, even for a while when she was not living here, she wrote a weekly column in the Southeast Missourian that enthralled all who read it with humor, style, honesty and wisdom."

According to the Tennessean, a memorial service will be at Woodland Presbyterian Church in Nashville, with details pending.