Longtime Packers writer Bud Lea dies at 92
Highly respected Milwaukee journalist started covering team as beat reporter in the Lombardi era
Jan 20, 2021 at 07:00 AM
Bud Lea and Ron Wolf
Merlyn "Bud" Lea, the beat reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel when the Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls, died Wednesday morning, Jan. 20.
Lea, 92, died of natural causes. He was sick with COVID in November, but had recovered and was residing at an assisted living facility in Mequon before being recently hospitalized.
A native of Green Bay, Lea was hired by the Sentinel in 1953 and covered his first Packers games that season. He was named the Sentinel's regular beat reporter a year later and covered the Packers in that capacity for 19 seasons. He subsequently covered them as the Sentinel's sports editor and columnist prior to his retirement in 1995. Thereafter, Lea continued to write columns about the team for Packer Plus, a weekly magazine published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.