Ted Turner, who built a Georgia billboard company into a cable television empire and later became one of the largest private landowners in the United States, died May 6, 2026, at age 87. His family said he died peacefully, surrounded by relatives. Montana Free Press reported that he died in Lamont, Florida. For Montanans, the news landed close to home: Turner spent decades on ranches in the state, and the biggest of them, the Flying D south of Bozeman, became the center of his bison work.
From billboards to a 24-hour news channel
Robert Edward Turner III was born in Cincinnati on Nov. 19, 1938, and moved with his family to Savannah, Georgia, at age 9. He attended Brown University but was expelled before graduating; the school gave him an honorary degree in 1989. In March 1963, after his father’s suicide, Turner took over the family business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, at 24.
He bought radio stations and then, in 1970, a struggling Atlanta television station, Channel 17. In December 1976 he began sending its signal by satellite to cable systems around the country, creating what was called a superstation. To feed it programming, he bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and the Atlanta Hawks in 1977. The Braves won the World Series in 1995 under his ownership.
On June 1, 1980, Turner launched CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. Its live coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1990 became a turning point for the network. Time magazine named him its Man of the Year in 1991. Other channels followed, including TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. He also started the Goodwill Games in 1986, an athletic competition meant to ease Cold War tensions.
In 1996, he sold his networks to Time Warner for nearly $7.5 billion, according to reports carried by KSL. The 2001 merger of Time Warner with AOL cut deeply into his fortune. He was married to actress Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001.
Giving and conservation
In 1997, Turner pledged $1 billion to the United Nations, a commitment that led to the United Nations Foundation. He made the final payment in 2015. He also co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with former Sen. Sam Nunn in 2001 and campaigned for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. His Turner Foundation, created in 1990, funded environmental and population work. In 2018, a little over a month before his 80th birthday, he disclosed that he had Lewy body dementia.
By the time of his death he held roughly 2 million acres across about two dozen properties, according to those reports, including ranches in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Argentina. He was for years the largest private landowner in the country until John Malone passed him in 2011.
The Montana ranches
Turner bought the Flying D in 1989. Montana Free Press describes it as 113,600 acres south of Bozeman. He kept a large bison herd there, and in July 2017 he hosted an event at the ranch for the International Bison Conference. Across his holdings he built the largest privately owned bison herd in the world, about 51,000 head by the KSL account.
The animals had a commercial purpose as well as an ecological one. Turner opened the first Ted’s Montana Grill in 2002 to serve bison meat; the chain has since grown to more than 40 restaurants in 16 states.
Montana Free Press called him an early and enthusiastic champion of conservation easements, which restrict development on private land. Scott Bosse of American Rivers told the outlet that Turner’s foundation supported work to protect Montana’s rivers for many years. Access was a sore point for some. The same report noted that Turner posted No Trespassing signs on about 130,000 acres across several Montana ranches, citing a 2016 piece by Tom Elpel, and that some Montanans lamented the limited public access to those lands.
Turner also made a home life in the state. Holly Pippel, who moved to Gallatin County from Georgia in 1995 to become his equine manager, is among those the outlet cited. The report said he regularly hosted musicians, movie stars and politicians in Montana. Environmental writer Todd Wilkinson co-wrote Turner’s 2013 book Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet.
Survivors
Turner is survived by five children, Rhett, Laura Turner Seydel, Jennie Turner Garlington, Teddy and Beau Turner, along with 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Turner Enterprises said a private family service would be held, with a public memorial to follow at a later date.
Sources: Associated Press (via KSL), Montana Free Press, Wikipedia.