Hobbs newspaper editor Todd Bailey dies at 49

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Todd Bailey, editor of the Hobbs (New Mexico) News-Sun, died Sunday of cancer. He was 49.

Bailey, who grew up in Hobbs, began his newspaper career there and returned to the News-Sun in 2012 after stints with the Santa Fe New Mexican and other newspapers.

Bailey was diagnosed with cancer in his left leg in 2020, leading to an amputation that fall. Just recently, he learned cancer had spread to his lungs.

News-Sun Publisher David Russell wrote in a front-page column that Bailey was surrounded by family when he died in the community that he loved and that loved him.

“If kindness and generosity and love from a community could heal, Todd would have been a healed man,” Russell wrote. “Never was there a day that someone didn’t reach out to him to offer encouragement or help. Never. Over the course of a year and a half. Never.”

Russell highlighted the qualities that made Bailey a perfect fit for leading the News-Sun.

“He knew the issues. He knew the history,” he wrote. “We could always bounce ideas off him. He wanted what was best for this area, the people, its institutions.”

Bailey wrote Saturday on Facebook that he looked forward to the imminent arrival of his mother and other family members. “Unfortunately, I think God may be calling me home tonight.”

Danielle Bailey McCrary wrote Sunday on her brother’s Facebook page that their mother arrived in time to speak with Bailey before he died.

Plans for services are pending, McCrary wrote on Facebook.