Dorothy Jurney images

Dorothy Jurney reference

I just discovered a story in the Michigan City News-Dispatch from Nov. 22 which features legendary women's page editor Dorothy Jurney. The article, written by Laurie Wink, includes the following:

"Jurney was the daughter of Mary and Herbert Misener. Her mother was active in women's causes and her father was then-publisher of the Michigan City News, a forerunner of The News-Dispatch. In her letter, Jurney said her mother had arranged for Amelia Earhart to speak (on an unspecified date) to Michigan City's Women's Study Club. Jurney clearly remembered Earhart being on the stage, "standing tall and straight in front of the big curtain."

"She looked fragile for all of her drive," Jurney wrote in a letter. "She visited the Michigan City airport with my mother as escort. I believe it was after the program."

My article about Dorothy will appear in 2010.

Beach conservation and women's pages

We spent Thanksgiving at the beach. (Curtis's first trip to the ocean!)

Women's page journalists were often advocates for beach conservation before it was popular. This was especially true if local women's clubs took up the cause.

Below is some video of Miami Herald editorial page writer Juanita Greene speaking about her conservation efforts. (She worked with women's page editor Maria Anderson in the 1960s.)

Jim Bellows letters to Helen Muir

I came across these letters from Jim Bellows to Helen Muir in Helen Muir’s papers at the University of Miami. Helen wrote for the women’s page of the Miami News when Jim was an editor at the newspaper. (Helen would go on to be a book editor at the Miami Herald. Jim became a legendary newspaper editor.) The two stayed in touch over the years. Here is a link to a letter than Helen wrote to Jim following the death of his second wife, Maggie Savoy.

I am working on collecting information about both Helen and Jim. They were both great journalists and advocates for women in the field.

Bravo & the Four Fs

I spent the afternoon catching up on Bravo shows on TiVo: Top Chef and Project Runway. (I am pretending that Project Runway is not on Lifetime.) It’s one of the best parts of maternity leave – spending the afternoon with Curtis on the sofa.

Much of Bravo’s programming revolves around the four Fs of the women’s pages: family, fashion, food and furnishings.

If the women I study were around today, Eleni Epstein would be a great Project Runway judge. (That’s her in the photo above.) She was the longtime fashion editor at the Washington Star and a real personality – usually just going by “eleni.” Jeanne Voltz, food editor at the Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times and then Woman’s Day, would have been a great judge on Top Chef. She was well known (a friend of James Beard) and quite the food expert.

I am finishing up articles on both women.

Dorothy Jurney edits

Today I am working on final edits on my article about legendary women's page editor Dorothy Jurney. It is scheduled to run in a national journal next Spring.

Dorothy was likely the best known women's page editor in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. Her newspaper career began during the Great Depression and ended in the 1980s which made telling her story a daunting task. Much of the material for the article came from Dorothy's papers at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri - my favorite archive.

Reporting From Washington

I just started reading the book, Reporting From Washington. Sadly, there is no reference to Vera Glaser who was a longtime Washington reporter. (Much of her work ran in the women's pages in the 1950s and 1960s.) She was also a columnist - writing the Offbeat Washington column. She was a great reporter - earning several scoops over the years.

I went through Vera's papers at the University of Wyoming. I presented a paper about her last Spring and am drafting an article about Vera for a future publication.

Carol Sutton revisions

I just finished my final revisions on my article about Carol Sutton for a national journal. Carol was an amazing women's page editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal. She went on to become the first female managing editor at a daily metropolitan newspaper.

I am so happy that Carol's story will be told. It was wonderful to speak with her husband and her daughters.

New book about women's pages

I just got a new book review assignment from H-Net: The Woman's Page. I am looking forward to reading about the role of women's pages in Canada.

Drue Lytle information

I have been interested in learning more about Drue Lytle who was a Penney-Missouri Award-winning women’s page editor at the Honolulu Advertiser in the 1960s. I recently hired a wonderful researcher who has tracked down a few of Drue’s columns and articles, including the above example.

I am hoping to collect more information about Drue over the next few months. Much of her career is a mystery at this point.

Bobbi McCallum image

I was so happy to get an email from one of Bobbi McCallum's friends. It included the about image of Bobbi which I love. She looks so young and happy.

Bobbi was an award-winning women's page journalist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the last 1960s before her death at age 25. I have an article about her coming out next year.

Helen Gurley Brown book review

My review of a biography of Helen Gurley Brown, Bad Girls Go Everywhere, was published on H-Net today. It is available here.

At one point, Helen wrote a column that ran in the women's section. The column was based on her book, Sex and the Single Girl.

Ruthe Deskin images

I am collecting images to be used with my article about Las Vegas journalist Ruthe Deskin. The article should run sometime in the next few months.

This ad can be found in Ruthe's papers at the UNLV. We went through the papers a few years ago.



I am still looking for details about this image of Ruthe with Ann Landers.

Anne Rowe presentation

I received word last week that my article about St. Petersburg Times women's page editor. Rowe won several Penney-Missouri Awards in the 1960s and was one of the few women to become part of management.

We collected information about Rowe from the Penney-Missouri Award papers at the University of Missouri and from the Nelson Poynter papers at the University of South Florida.

Betty Preston article

Just received some positive feedback on my article about Glendale (California) women's page editor Betty Preston Oiler. It took several years to piece together Betty's story. (I am appreciative of the help her step-daughter Pam provided over the past year.)

Betty was a women's page editor beginning in the World War II years through the elimination of the section in the early 1970s. (She won several Penney-Missouri Awards.) She went on to be an executive editor at the newspaper in later years.

New Gail Collins Book

I am reading the new Gail Collins' book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present.

So far, she has two references to women's pages. In the first, she references women's pages as a limitation for women journalists in the 1960s. This I would basically agree with - although some women's page journalists saw great advantages in writing for these sections.

In the second reference (pg 351), she credits Betty Friedan and the women's liberation movement for eliminating the women's pages. I would counter that it was much more complicated than that - something my research is revealing.

ERA journal article

I am going over page proofs of my article about the Florida media's coverage of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s. This was a time when many newspapers were eliminating their women's pages. The coverage did little to explain the issues.

Part of my thesis involves Sen. Lori Wilson - the only woman in the above photo.

Baby Curtis James arrives

Curtis James Wilmot Speere has arrived. He is one hour old in this photo.

He is named for Curtis Castleberry – the wonderfully supportive husband of Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry and father of five daughters.

His middle name is for newspaper editor legend Jim Bellows. He was supportive of women journalists before it was in fashion – and continued after it was in vogue. Jim was married to another great women’s page editor, Maggie Savoy.

Baby Curtis has already been to several archives and will be learning a lot about women's page editors.