Syndicated columnist and Mississippi State University Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter has been diagnosed with lymphoma and will take an indefinite leave from his column work while he gets treatment.
Sid’s wife Leilani Salter said he started chemotherapy treatments over the weekend at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo.
“Those of you who know my husband know he is a fighter,” she said. “He is in good spirits and joking with the medical staff. Our friends and family are embracing us. We ask your prayers as we begin this journey.”
Salter is instrumental in the university’s day-to-day communications operations and has served in a number of prestigious positions during his time at MSU.
A member of the Mississippi Press Association’s Hall of Fame, Salter was MSU’s Alumnus Of The Year in 2004 and was previously named by the Washington Post as “one of the nation’s best state political reporters.”
Salter also penned the biography of MSU broadcaster Jack Cristil in 2011, which funded MSU's Jacob S. "Jack" Cristil Endowed Scholarship.
Salter’s syndicated political columns have been in publication since 1983 and appear regularly in the Starkville Daily News.
Salter and his wife are members of Starkville’s First United Methodist Church, are the parents of four grown children and have five grandchildren.