Richard Tucker, author, former reporter

Richard K. Tucker, an author and former Baltimore Sun reporter, died March 5 in his sleep at his home in Mansfield. He was 89.

Mr. Tucker was born and raised in Fort Madison, Iowa. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1936. During his senior year, he was managing editor of the college newspaper.

After graduation, Mr. Tucker worked for the Indianapolis News as a reporter until 1942. He joined the Army and was selected in 1943 as one of the first front-line army reporters for the World War II Pacific theater under the staff of General Douglas MacArthur. He was aboard the USS Missouri when Japan surrendered, according to his family.

In 1946, Mr. Tucker joined the Baltimore Evening Sun as a reporter and was sent to Korea as a war correspondent in 1950.

After leaving the paper in 1957, he became managing editor of Read and Current Events magazines in Middletown, Conn.; he retired in 1976.

While working there, he lived in East Hampton, Conn., and spent time at his summer home on Block Island, R.I., where he loved to garden.

During retirement, Mr. Tucker moved back to his hometown of Fort Madison with his wife, Jeanne (Crowley). While there he worked as an independent editor on several books, including ''The Triple Nickels" and ''Gavin," both written by Bradley Biggs. In 1991, his own book, ''The Dragon and the Cross: The Rise and Fall of the Ku Klux Klan in Middle America," was published.

Mr. Tucker loved to travel with his wife and went to Europe several times. In 1979, they went on a world tour and stopped in the Philippines to visit their daughter, Katherine Tucker of Sharon, who was a Peace Corps volunteer at the time.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Tucker leaves two sons, Robert N. of Tempe, Ariz., and Michael of Tai Chung, Taiwan; three grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.

Funeral services and burial were held last week in Iowa.