Lee R. "Roy" Hardee, Jr. Papers
1867-2007, undated
Manuscript Collection #1161- Creator(s)
- Hardee, Roy
- Physical description
- 18 Cubic Feet
- Preferred Citation
- Roy Hardee Papers (#1161), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
- Repository
- ECU Manuscript Collection
- Access
- This collection is open for research. Original audiovisual media and digital files are unavailable for use. Please contact Special Collections for access copies.
Papers of Roy Hardee (approximately 1930–2010), an award-winning eastern North Carolina journalist, news photographer, and television news director. The collection, dated 1867–2007, consists primarily of photographic prints, negatives, slides, motion picture films, and audiovisual recordings documenting news events, people, communities, industries, agriculture, natural disasters, public safety activities, and daily life in eastern North Carolina during the second half of the twentieth century. Also included are correspondence, writings, clippings, scrapbooks, periodicals, family materials, and records relating to Hardee's work with the Greenville Daily Reflector, the News and Observer, WNCT-TV, and WITN-TV.
Biographical/historical information
Lee R. "Roy" Hardee Jr. was an eastern North Carolina journalist, photographer, and television news director whose career spanned more than five decades. Born around 1930, Hardee began his journalism career in the early 1950s, working as a reporter and photographer for the Greenville Daily Reflector. He joined WNCT-TV in Greenville in 1958, initially working as a photographer before becoming news director. During the early years of local television journalism, Hardee often operated as a one-person news crew, photographing stories on black-and-white film, processing and editing the footage, and presenting it during broadcasts.
After leaving WNCT-TV in 1965, Hardee returned to newspaper journalism and served as the eastern North Carolina bureau chief for the Raleigh News and Observer. He joined WITN-TV in 1972 and returned to WNCT-TV approximately ten years later. He served as WNCT's news director until 1997 and concluded his career as WITN's Greenville bureau chief, retiring in 1999.
Hardee's reporting and photography documented political events, natural disasters, crimes, accidents, agriculture, industry, and community life throughout eastern North Carolina. He became especially recognized for his coverage of hurricanes and coastal storm damage. The North Carolina Associated Press established the Roy Hardee Award for outstanding individual achievement in broadcast journalism in 1982; Hardee received the award in 1985 and again in 1995. In 1996, the Radio and Television News Directors Association of the Carolinas named him News Director of the Year.
Hardee married Margaret Windham, with whom he had a son, Lee Hardee. He died on April 1, 2010, at the age of seventy-nine, following complications from Parkinson's disease. His work constitutes an extensive visual and journalistic record of eastern North Carolina during the second half of the twentieth century.
Scope and arrangement
The Lee R. "Roy" Hardee, Jr. Papers document Hardee's career as a newspaper and television journalist in eastern North Carolina and contain materials dated 1867–2007, with the bulk dating from the 1950s through the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of black-and-white photographic prints and negatives, color slides, motion picture films, and video recordings created or collected during Hardee's work in print and broadcast journalism.
Photographic materials document Greenville, Pitt County, and communities throughout eastern North Carolina, including Ayden, Farmville, New Bern, Washington, Elizabeth City, Edenton, Morehead City, and locations along the Outer Banks. Subjects include agriculture and tobacco production, manufacturing and construction, coastal communities, commercial fishing, fires, automobile and aviation accidents, emergency medical services, law enforcement, rescue squads, military activities, political events, civil rights demonstrations, East Carolina University, and local businesses and institutions. Particularly notable are images of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters; coastal and maritime activities; visits by state and national political figures; and the work of firefighters, police officers, rescue personnel, and members of the United States Coast Guard.
The collection also contains photographs obtained from government agencies and other photographers, historic photographs and reproductions that predate Hardee's career, and images relating to the United States space program. Researchers should therefore note that not every photograph in the collection was taken by Roy Hardee.
Manuscript materials include correspondence, press releases, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, professional awards and association materials, writings by Hardee, and documents concerning his family. Personal and family materials include photographs, property and military records, correspondence, and materials relating to William W. Speight. Periodicals and oversized newspapers include issues associated with World War II, national news events, and Hardee's professional interests.
The collection is arranged into seven series: Itemized Materials; Format-Sorted Photographic Materials; Manuscript Materials; Photographs and Negatives; Periodicals; Audiovisual Materials; and Oversized Printed Materials. Subseries further organize the materials by format or subject. The Itemized Materials series includes individually described photographic prints, negatives, slides, clippings, press releases, scrapbooks, and personal materials. The Format-Sorted Photographic Materials series chiefly contains negatives and slides grouped by subject. Audiovisual materials include videocassettes and 16 mm motion picture films, some of which are maintained in separate or specialized storage.
Administrative information
Custodial History
Source of acquisition
Gift of Mr. Lee Hardee
Processing information
Encoded by Jonathan Dembo, April 01, 2010
Processed by Katelynn Hudson, April 2026
Processed by Jennifer Larson, July 2026
Copyright notice
This material is made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to taking precautions against infringement of copyright and respecting the publication rights of reproduced materials. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards. Any materials used should be fully credited with their source according to the example given in the Preferred Citation note. Requests for assistance with citations and images of publication quality should be directed to specialcollections@ecu.libanswers.com. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state law. The user assumes full responsibility for using such information and is advised that the disclosure of such information about identifiable living individuals without their consent may have legal ramifications.
Metadata Rights Declaration
This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.
Key terms
Personal Names
Hardee, RoyHardee, Roy--Family
Topical
Journalists--North Carolina--GreenvillePlaces
Greenville (N.C.)--PhotographsContainer list
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- John F. Kennedy visiting East Carolina College
- President John F. Kennedy at University Day