Steve Holsey

Steve Holsey grew up in Detroit and graduated from Southeastern High School. By 1967 he was studying at Highland Park Community College and spending some of his free time as a dancer on Swingin' Time, a local teen dance show taped at the CKLW studios across the border in Windsor, Ontario. That year he contributed to the Michigan Chronicle's Teen About Town feature, writing in the 18 November 1967 issue that rhythm and blues stations should play more non-soul records, since other stations played plenty of soul.

Entertainment editor Rita Griffin brought Holsey onto the Michigan Chronicle in 1968. He began publishing features and interviews, speaking early on with artists such as Bettye LaVette, Lonette McKee, Spencer Barefield and Carl Carlton, and in 1969 was given his first column, Steve and the Stars.

In 1970 he launched Reflections, the weekly column that remained a fixture well into the 2010s and closed with his sign-off, "Let the music play!" It covered Motown after the company moved to Los Angeles, Detroit's growing place in Black entertainment, touring stage plays and a new generation of Black filmmakers, and was syndicated through the Sengstacke newspaper chain and the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He interviewed visiting stars at the paper's Ledyard Street office and represented the Black press at press junkets nationwide.

His byline appeared in the Chronicle for about 50 years, making him the paper's longest-tenured editorial staffer and possibly the longest-running columnist at any Detroit publication.

Holsey was known as reserved and modest. He rarely sought awards or celebrity contacts, and repeatedly declined invitations to Aretha Franklin's annual holiday party. He was a devoted fan of Nancy Wilson, Billie Holiday and other jazz singers, and a lifelong friend of Esther Gordy Edwards, sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy. Colleagues said he even spent vacation days at the Chronicle office because there was nowhere he enjoyed more.

Holsey died aged 77. The Michigan Chronicle announced his death on 5 October 2026, and Deadline Detroit reported the same day that he had died the previous week. The exact date and cause of death were not given in those reports. Condolences were directed to the Chronicle in care of Dr. Patricia Holsey.

Former colleagues and artists remembered Holsey as a pioneer at a time when Black journalists were few, and as a mentor to many Chronicle staffers. Media personality Montez Miller, whom he was the first to write about, said he documented Detroit's culture, entertainers and community. Broadcaster Donnie Simpson said nothing compared with the early coverage Holsey gave him, and the Chronicle described him as the dean of documenting Detroit.