Manuel Reyes, publisher of Kansas City bilingual newspaper Dos Mundos, dies at 79
Manuel Reyes, publisher of Kansas City's bilingual Spanish-English newspaper Dos Mundos, died Sunday evening. He was 79.
Reyes, whose wife, Clara Reyes, is editor of Dos Mundos, would have turned 80 on May 4.
Ed Reyes, son of Manuel Reyes, told The Star that his father learned in January that he had pancreatic cancer.
"He decided not to take on chemotherapy because there was little benefit from it," Ed Reyes said. "He stayed home and tried to make the most of the few weeks he had left."
Reyes was born in Kansas City, Kan. He graduated from Westport High School in 1957.
He met Clara Reyes through a mutual acquaintance and the couple married.
Reyes, a trained welder, worked in the 1960s and 1970s as a welder for several companies, including TWA and Payne Manufacturing.
Clara Reyes started Dos Mundos in 1981 with $3,000 from savings and $2,000 borrowed from relatives, according to a 2001 profile of the couple as they entered their 20th year of publishing the newspaper. The couple saw a need for a newspaper that served Kansas City's Hispanic population.
Reyes joined the newspaper staff as an advertising salesman in 1983. His duties eventually grew to laying out the newspaper, marketing and distribution.
Reyes was also active in the community, including along Southwest Boulevard and in Kansas City's Westside neighborhood, both near Dos Mundos' offices. He was president and founder of the Southwest Boulevard Merchants Association and served on the board for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, among other organizations.
Reyes and his wife also founded Reyes Media Group, which operates radio stations, including 1340 KDTD-AM and 1250 KYYS-AM .
"I think that he touched many lives in the community," Ed Reyes said. "He had a positive impact on so many different organizations, both private and public that it would be hard to count them all.
Ed Reyes said his mother and sister, Diana Reyes-Raymer, would continue on with Dos Mundos and the Reyes Media Group.
This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 9:16 AM with the headline "Manuel Reyes, publisher of Kansas City bilingual newspaper Dos Mundos, dies at 79."