Mary DeHart, a longtime community booster and trailblazing former publisher of The Star News, has died at age 91.
Mary purchased The Hollywood Star in 1995 and shepherded the newspaper through three decades of change and evolution while keeping the focus on “people from the community, writing about the community.” After a heroic effort to keep the paper afloat through health challenges and the COVID pandemic, she sold the paper in 2025 to current owners Todd Milbourn and Lisa Heyamoto.
Mary was born in Southeast Portland in 1935. Her parents immigrated from Sicily and Mary grew up speaking Italian at home.
She graduated from Cleveland High School and decided to begin a career in sales. She worked for pharmaceutical companies, owned a series of VHS stores and became active in the Hollywood Boosters. She developed a knack for remembering names and faces along with a tough-as-nails approach to business — skills that eventually translated well to newspaper publishing.
Mary arrived at the Star in 1992 as an advertising manager working for then-owners Tom and Marcia Pry. The Prys sold the publication in 1995 but the new owner, Michael Roeper of MR Communications, quickly found himself in financial trouble. That gave Mary an opportunity to make a bid for the paper and take over as publisher.
She laid out her vision in a January 1995 publisher’s note.
“I stress this is your neighborhood newspaper. If there are stories you would like to see covered, or suggestions you would like to make for the newspaper, please feel free to give us a call or drop a line,” she wrote. “It is important that the newspaper not only represent the community, but it also must be visible and approachable.”
Mary’s public-service spirit carried into her work with the Hollywood Boosters, where she was a longtime member.
Paul Clark, a Booster who worked with Mary for decades, said “newspapers give an identity and heartbeat to a community” and Mary “kept that heartbeat going for decades.”
“She had a commitment to the community, the business community and its residents. We’re very fortunate to have had her as a part of our family,” Clark said.
Former Star News reporter Kathy Eaton described Mary as “a force in the Hollywood community” who “will be missed by so many neighbors.”
To commemorate Mary’s community service, the Boosters awarded her with the Sam Chapman Memorial Award in 1997.
Even though Mary held a public position, she tended to shy away from the spotlight, preferring instead to lift up the stories of neighbors doing their part to help the community. Her spirit, tenacity and generosity are legacies that continue to live on in the pages of The Star News.
As Mary once put it: “It’s not about me. It’s about everybody.”
