It has been a hard week for Suffolk News-Herald alumni — and for those who knew and worked with them. The loss of a former general manager and a former reporter has left two families reeling and this newspaper mourning two of its bright lights.

Susan Holley Carter, general manager and advertising director for the newspaper and its associated products from 2009 to 2012, died suddenly in Southwest Virginia on Friday at the age of 60. At the time of her death, she was the publisher of The Southwest Times, a daily newspaper in Pulaski.

Several current employees at the Suffolk News-Herald were around when Sue worked here, and she was always well loved and respected by them for her determination, for her compassion and for her spirit.

On Tuesday, Raymond H. Boone, publisher and editor of the Richmond Free Press, died at his home in Richmond. He had been fighting cancer for months, according to family members. Boone got his start writing for what were then the “Colored Pages” at the Suffolk News-Herald, way back in the 1950s.

After spending five years at the News-Herald, Boone went on to become city editor for the Boston Chronicle and later a reporter, editor and vice president of the Afro-American newspaper chain. He founded the Richmond Free Press in 1992, and that paper became a model for other African-American-centric publications around the state and nation.

Boone made advocacy journalism personal, and he made his community a better place for having done so. There is nobody left at the paper who worked with him, but some of us knew him and appreciated his occasional uplifting and encouraging calls.

Carter and Boone came to the Suffolk News-Herald during different eras and with backgrounds that could hardly have been more dissimilar. But they shared a love for journalism and a tenacity that have been the hallmarks of News-Herald staffers before and since.

We are better for our association with them.