ST. LOUIS (AP) – Veteran journalist Ellen Soeteber, the former editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has died after a brief illness.

The Kassly Mortuary in Fairview Heights, Illinois, confirms that Soeteber died on Tuesday. She was 66.

Soeteber spent 20 years at the Chicago Tribune before becoming managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1994. She took over as editor of the Post-Dispatch in January 2001, and stepped down from the post in November 2005.
Soeteber grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, and graduated from Northwestern University in 1972.

Her husband, Richard Martins, told the Post-Dispatch that Soeteber was hospitalized two weeks ago near her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for an infection that proved to be untreatable.

Funeral arrangements are pending.