In 1935, the Cowles family of Des Moines, Iowa, purchased the "Star." The family patriarch, Gardner Cowles, Sr., had purchased "The Des Moines Register" and the "Des Moines Tribune" during the first decade of the century and managed them successfully. Gardner's son, John Cowles, Sr. (1898–1983), moved to Minneapolis to manage the "Star". Under him it had the city's highest circulation, pressuring Minneapolis's other newspapers. In 1939 the Cowles family purchased the "Minneapolis Evening Journal", merging the two newspapers into the "Star-Journal". "Tribune" publisher Fred Murphy died in 1940; the following year the Cowles family bought the "Tribune" and merged it with their company, giving it ownership of the city's major newspapers. The "Tribune" became the city's morning newspaper, the "Star-Journal" (renamed the "Star" in 1947) was the evening newspaper, and they published a joint Sunday edition. A separate evening newspaper (the "Times") was spun off, which published until 1948.