Graveside services for Cecil "Corky" Richmond Jr., 58, who combined a journalism career as a writer and editor for The Indianapolis Star and a life as a jazz musician, will be at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 1 in Greens Fork (Ind.) South Cemetery. Calling will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug 31 in Stevens Mortuary Chapel of the Flowers, Speedway, and from noon to 2 p.m. Sept 1 in Culberson Funeral Home, Hagerstown. He died Aug. 28 after a long battle with cancer.

Mr. Richmond joined The Star's drama department in 1970, and for 20 years filled various posts, including reporter and travel editor. He also covered Indianapolis nightclub activities and was assistant drama editor under longtime drama editor Corbin Patrick. When The Star and The News staffs were merged in 1995, Mr Richmond joined the features department copy desk, where he worked until he retired earlier this year. "His spirit is what impressed me the most," said Jim Lindgren, features copy desk chief. "In the six years we worked together, he fought cancer three times and had a hip replaced. Despite his illness, he always was ready with a quip or a story that left you feeling better. He was an inspiration."

When computers were introduced to the newsroom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Richmond engaged his interest in technology as an early member of the Atex Newspaper Users Group (ANUG), an industry computer organization. "In the days when filing copy from the field was a shaky business . . . Corky was a pioneer for himself and his own newspaper, as well as all of us in the industry . . . . He shared everything he learned." said Randy Jessee, director of news systems for The New York Times, who came to know Mr. Richmond through ANUG. "Filing from overseas? Corky knew the ins and outs of every telephone system I ever heard of . . .[and he] usually knew how to solve problems the rest of us had never heard of," Jessee added. "The funny thing was that Corky wasn't really a techie. He was a journalist, a user of the technology. What he liked about technology was that it made his job better, easier, and more fun."

Since Mr. Richmond's youth, music was another big part of his life. As a teen-age cornet player in Wayne County he was recognized as one of the top young musicians in the country and was chosen to perform with jazz musician Stan Kenton at Newport, R.I. A 1960 graduate of Hagerstown High School, he enrolled as a music major at the University of Wisconsin. He later transferred to Indiana University, from which he graduated in 1964. Bill Lancton, jazz guitarist with the Indianapolis band Dog Talk, said Wednesday of Mr. Richmond, "If he had so chosen, he could have been a great and well-respected musician." Mr. Richmond joined the Navy in 1965 and went to Officers Candidate School.

Indianapolis businesswoman Mary Ann Butters, who went through Hagerstown schools and IU with Mr. Richmond and was a fellow Indianapolis Star staffer and a musician, remembers his coming home on furlough "in his Navy whites and a full black beard." The beard was part of his appearance most of the rest of his life, and Navy service forever colored his speech with navigational metaphors, such as "maintaining the proper course."

A patriot, he frequently played The Star Spangled Banner on his cornet at ballgames and other events, and Taps at veterans' funerals. Now, Taps will be played for him by George Philips, with whom Mr. Richmond played in the Perfect Circle Band in Hagerstown. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or the Audubon Society.

Survivors: mother Roberta "Becky" Kitts Richardson; stepbrother David Richardson; stepsister Mary Jean Dickinson.