Oct. 8--Journalism and mass communication alumni from the University of Oklahoma will be honored during a banquet tonight at Gaylord Hall.

The JayMac Alumni Association will present the Distinguished Alumni award for 2009 to retired Tulsa World food editor Suzanne Arnote Holloway, advertising executive and CEO of Bernstein-Rein Advertising Bob Bernstein and former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James R. Jones.

In addition, Newsweek White House Correspondent Holly Bailey will be honored with the 2009 Young Professional award.

Holloway is a native of Antlers and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor of arts in journalism in 1936. She was only the second woman editor of The Daily campus newspaper and began her career at The Oklahoman covering the struggles of fellow Oklahomans during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. She took 30 years off from the news field to raise her family, but returned in 1976 to be the food editor and restaurant critic at the Tulsa World where she worked for 24 years.

Bernstein left OU in spring 1960 after changing his major to journalism from radio and television in his final year. Bernstein founded his own company, Bernstein-Rein Advertising in 1964. Along with his partner, Skip Rein, he grew the agency from the ground up to include clients such as Blockbuster, Thrifty car rental, McDonald's and Wal-Mart. His agency is recognized as the inventor of the McDonald's Happy Meal.

Jones is partner of ManattJones, an international firm providing international business development, public affairs, and political and economic risk assessment services to clients in Mexico and Latin America. Jones served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1993 to 1997. He received his bachelor of arts degree in journalism from OU in 1961 and a law degree from Georgetown University in 1964.

Prior to his ambassadorship, Jones was president of Warnaco International and chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange from 1989 to 1993. Jones also served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma from 1973 to 1987. Jones was only 28 when President Lyndon Johnson selected him as appointments secretary, the position now titled Chief of Staff. He was the youngest person in history to hold this position.

Bailey is the recipient of the 2009 JayMac Young Professional Award. The award is bestowed upon alumni under the age of 40 who have made great achievements in their careers. Bailey attended OU from 1993-1996 and started her career as a staff writer at the Oklahoma Gazette and assisted CNN with their coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

During the spring semester of her junior year she interned for the Chicago Tribune through the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism and during what should have been her senior year, she took a job as an investigative reporter at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C.

Bailey moved to Newsweek in 2003 as an intern in the Washington bureau and was quickly promoted to reporter/researcher the same year. In January 2005 she was promoted to White House correspondent and traveled the country covering Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

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