Happy Anniversary

Lance and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary in Cocoa yesterday. The Florida Historical Society is in Cocoa - right in the middle of the restaurants and shops of the Village.

The FHS recently published my article about how Florida newspapers - in the women's pages and news sections - covered the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. I should get a copy of the journal soon.

Christmas & the Penney-Missouri Awards

Throughout 1960s, the winners of the Penney-Missouri Awards (the top recognition for the women’s pages) received a telegram on Christmas morning. For those multiple winners, it was like a child waking up on Dec. 25th waiting for a knock on the door. Many of the women wrote letters about how exciting it was to learn they had won on Christmas.



Merry Christmas from Curtis!

Harry Reid & Ruthe Deskin

Today, health care reform passed due to the work of Nevada Harry Reid. Here is an article about his strategy.

Harry was connected to one of the woman I study - Las Vegas journalist Ruthe Deskin.

Through the Las Vegas Sun, oversaw a high school leadership program and recruited Harry when he was a student. Years later, he said he felt accountable to Ruthe when she criticized him in her newspaper column.

I have been exchanging messages today with Las Vegas historian Mike Green about how proud Ruthe would have been of Sen. Reid.

My article about Ruthe comes out this Spring.

Beverley Morales

Here is a great bio on Beverley Morales in her post-women's page years. After many years as a Penney-Missouri Award winner in Florida and Ohio in the 1960s. (She was also a journalist in Iowa, Mexico City and North Dakota in the 1950s.)

After the end of the sections, she went back west and devoted the rest of her life to Native American causes. In this bio, she briefly ran a cafe.

One of my 2010 goals is to finish collecting information on her long career and get a draft of an article written. I have been lucky enough to track down her three sisters who have each been very helpful.

Jeanne Bellamy

I am doing some early searching on Jeanne Bellamy. She was the first woman on the editorial board at the Miami Herald. That is a photo of her above at an editorial meeting.

She started at the Miami Tribune in the 1930s and joined the Herald after the Knight brothers bought the Tribune. In addition to her journalism, she was also later a civic and business leader.

She appeared to have avoided the women's pages but she was a friend of Dorothy Jurney and Helen Muir who did work for the Miami Herald women's section.

Women journalists who came second

Last night we watched Diane Sawyer's debut as anchor of the ABC Evening News. She is the second woman to be a solo anchor of the national evening news.

There has not been too much publicity (especially compared to when Katie was the first) although she is getting good reviews in the media sections.

Of the few women's page editors who went on to management, it was typically the ones who came second, third or fourth who had success. For example, Gloria Biggs was the first female publisher in the Gannett chain after being the women's page editor in St. Pete. She was not adequately trained and only served a short term. The chain management made sure to properly train its fourth female publisher Marj Paxson. (She was a women's page editor at many newspapers in Texas and Florida.) She served many years as publisher before retiring. Here is my earlier article about Marj.

Albert Applegate

I just completed our Christmas cards including one for Albert Applegate. Albert is the brother of the late Roberta Applegate, women’s page journalist in the 1950s and 1960s in Michigan and then Miami. (She was also a wire reporter during WWII and a journalistic/PR first in several areas.)

One of my favorite moments was presenting her Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame Award to him at Michigan State a few years ago. Below is video of me giving the award to Albert and then his acceptance.

Voltz & Beard

I came across this article that Jeanne Voltz (food editor of the L.A. Times women's section in the 1960s) wrote about food great James Beard. Jeanne and James went on to become good friends, especially after Jeanne left the Times to become an editor at a women's magazine and moved to New York.

I just completed my book chapter on Beard and am getting ready to send out an article about Voltz. Not much has been written about food journalism in newspapers.

We are going to use some of their recipes as we begin holiday cooking today!

L.A. Times documentary

Yesterday we watched the documentary Inventing L.A. about the Los Angeles Times and the Chandler family. They had a strong women's page in the late 1960s under editor Maggie Savoy.

Above is video of an interview with Otis Chandler, the last of the Chandlers to edit the newspaper.

New Beverley Morales information

I am continuing my work on Florida women's page editor Beverley Morales. She had a long, varied career which has taken time to document.

Yesterday I heard from her sisters who recommend that I look for the newspaper that Beverley started in Lame Deer, A'tone.

I just found this reference to the newspaper in the Library of Congress. I am requesting more information today.

UPDATE: I heard back from Berkeley and have ordered copies of the newspaper.

Catherine East oral history & Anderson reference

I am going over more of the Catherine East oral history that I found a few months ago. (Catherine was an influential, behind-the-scenes feminist leader who worked with the media.) This is the reference I referred to earlier about women's page editor Marie Anderson.

Pg 199: In response to a question about the Task Force on Women and the delay by the White House publishing it until April 1970 although it had been completed for months.

Catherine: East “It was actually published by the Miami Herald before that. The White House held up our report. Libby Koontz finally persuaded the White House to release it in time for her Women’s Bureau’s 50th anniversary conference. And it had a big impact there. Every workshop discussed it and everybody had a copy. … The report had had been published by the Miami Herald earlier. They were selling it was 25 cents a copy, their reprint of it. I think that was the final straw that led to Marie Anderson losing her position as director of the women’s page on the Miami Herald. And I don’t know yet how she got it. Vera Glaser swears she didn’t give it to her."

Writing while on Anna Maria Beach

Yesterday, Lance and Curtis and I spent the day at the beach on Anna Maria Island - on the Sun Coast. I am working on an early draft of an article about the impact of women's page editors in the 1950s. So far I am just focusing on South Florida as a case study in response to a CFP for a journal special issue.

These women page editors negotiated a complex relationship between tradition and progress - both at their newspapers and in their communities. I am interested in how they worked on this negotiation and how this relates to the social changes of the 1960s.

It's always easier to write while at the beach.

Bobbi McCallum images

Bobbi McCallum update

I just got an email update that my article about Seattle P-I women's page journalist Bobbi McCallum is scheduled to run in the Spring 2010 issue of a Washington history magazine.

Bobbi was a Penney-Missouri Award winner in the 1960s. Sadly she died at age 25 and her story was largely lost until now.

I am now collecting images for the article. The photo above is from the Penney-Missouri Awards papers at the University of Missouri.

Drue Lytle obituary

I just came across the obituary for Honolulu Advertiser women's page editor Drue Lytle. She was a Penney-Missouri Award winner in the 1960s. I am currently collecting information about Drue.

Baby Boom Book

I just finished the final revisions and paperwork for my chapter on women for the book, Baby Boom. In the chapter, I detailed the work of Fort Lauderdale women's page editor Edee Greene.

The book will come out in early 2010.

Pearl Harbor

Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

Hugh Lytle was the journalist whose teletype message provided Associated Press and the world with the first account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

He was married to award-winning Hawaii women's page editor Drue Lytle.

Here is Hugh's obituary. Drue is mentioned in it.

Roberta Applegate reference

I found a new reference to women's page journalist Roberta Applegate. She had a letter to the editor published in this 1957 issue of Life magazine. Here is a link to the letter.

James Beard edits

I am rereading the James Beard memoir Delights and Prejudices as I complete the final edits on my chapter about Beard. The chapter is for a book about Cooking Icons.

In another book about Beard, the author mentions Beard's books being reviewed in the women's section of the New York Times. Food journalism was usually found in the women's section of newspapers.

I also found the following video about Beard:

Possible UCF internal grant

I just got good news - my internal UCF grant application made it through the first round. If approved, I will go through the papers of Kay Clarenbach at the University of Wisconsin. Kay was an influential feminist leader and one of the original organizer of NOW.

She worked with many women's page editors in the 1960s. She was also a good friend of Catherine East.

Helen Muir information

I just heard back from PBS and someone was able to track down a copy of the American Experience program, Mr. Miami. The program includes an interview with Helen Muir – a Miami News and Miami Herald women’s page journalist I am studying. Here is a link to the transcript of the program.

Below is a new image related to Helen that I just found. She was a big advocate for libraries. I am continuing to collect information about Helen.

Catherine East oral history

I recently found an oral history conducted with Catherine East. Catherine was an influential behind-the-scenes government employee who helped improve the media’s coverage of women’s issues. I have gone through her papers at the Schlesinger Library in Boston twice but did not know about the oral history which I just received through ILL.

Today I am skimming through the 300+ history looking for media references.

On page 199, Catherine mentioned Vera Glaser and Marie Anderson. (Vera was a Washington wire service reporter whose stories ran in the women’s pages. Marie was the women’s page editor at the Miami Herald.) The three worked together on women’s issues – especially publicizing the work on the White House Task Force on Women. Marie ran leaked portions of the report in the Herald.