Vivian Castleberry and Louise Raggio

Today I am writing about the relationship between Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry and groundbreaking Dallas attorney Louise Raggio.

Vivian is included in the above video, as are several articles that Vivian ran about Louise over the years.

The two women co-authored the book, Texas Tornado: The Autobiography of a Crusader for Women's Rights and Family Justice. They were powerful advocates for women in Dallas.

Vivian Castleberry and her staff

Today I am working on women's page editor Vivian Castleberry's years at the Dallas Times Herald. I am writing about the different women who worked for Vivian - including those in the photo above: Mary Ann Lane, Dorothy Fagg, Graydon Heartsill and Maggie Kennedy. The picture is from Vivian's book, Daughters of Dallas.



The above is an image of Dorothy Taylor Fagg when she was in college. She initially became a school teacher before coming to the Times Herald. She worked at the Dallas newspaper for 21 years - much of that time she was the furnishings editor.

Fort Lauderdale

The New York Times just ran a great story about visiting Fort Lauderdale. We recently made plans to visit the Florida city this spring for a history conference.



One of my favorite women's page editors, Edee Greene, was at the Fort Lauderdale News. Unlike many of the forgotten women I study, Edee was recognized and celebrated for her impact in her community. This is from her obituary:

Mrs. Greene is credited with founding Women in Distress, a social service agency that has helped 246,000 homeless and abused women and children since 1974.

"She'll be remembered as someone who uplifted the women of this county," said Gretchen Thompson, a longtime friend and co-worker of Mrs. Greene. "She worked one-on-one with scores of women to tell them they could have a better life."

News and Feminism: A Historic Dialog

I just finished reading the Journalism & Communication Monograph, News and Feminism: A Historic Dialog by Bernadette Barker-Plummer. It is a broad analysis of an important topic. On pages 155-157, she addresses women's pages and feminism and mentions my 2004 dissertation. I am glad to see the mentions of women's pages editors Vivian Castleberry, Dorothy Jurney and Marjorie Paxson who were all outspoken feminists. I would also add Marie Anderson and Maggie Savoy to the list.

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent Thanksgiving morning at Cocoa Beach - ot the beautiful beach of Senator Lori Wilson Park. (My article about Lori and the media's coverage of her sponsored-E.R.A. legislation came out last year.) Curtis loved the water and playing in the sand.

Now we are working on dinner. I am making a pomegranate glaze to go on the turkey that Lance is cooking - it's a variation of the recipe in this month's Whole Living magazine.

My favorite women's page-related Thanksgiving story is about food editor Jeanne Voltz while she worked at the Miami Herald in the 1950s. Jeanne's daughter told me that their house phone would ring all day on Thanksgiving as readers would call in with turkey-cooking questions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Desegregation in Dallas

The store in this building became a fixture in downtown Dallas for several decades, and its lunch counter was the city's first to be integrated during the 1960s. Dallas Times Herald women's page editor Vivian Castleberry covered the event and then went on to cover the desegregation of Dallas neighborhoods. Many women's pages covered the everyday events in the lives of African American women, such as club women and wedding announcements.

Anniversary of the JFK Assassination

President Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas. Times Herald women's page editor Vivian Castleberry was waiting to meet the president and first lady at the Trade Mart that day. She is in the crowded room in the above video.



Vivian was briefly noted in the above book - although she has a unique perspective on that day and the impact on her city. The book I am writing will include her story.

Joan Younger Dickinson revise-and-resubmit

I just got my reviews back on my manuscript about UPI women's page reporter and Ladies Home Journal writer Joan Younger Dickson. I will get started on the revision for the national history journal over the break.

The above photo is of Joan with the Duchess of Windsor. Joan covered the royal couple when they lived in the Bahamas. The New York Times ran this article yesterday about the Duchess's jewels.

History of women in Dallas

I am reading a fascinating book about the history of women in Dallas as part of my research on Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry. Women and the Creation of Urban Life, by Elizabeth York Enstam examines Dallas from 1843-1920. It is well written and well researched.

I loved this passage: "Cities, not the frontier, emancipated American women."
And, "Dallas was a contradiction of custom and tradition." (pg 180)

I also liked her examination of early club women - whose work was often covered in the women's pages. It was a power partnership.

Carol Sutton's daughter

Here is a short Q & A with Carrie Orman, the daughter of Louisville women's page editor turned managing editor Carol Sutton. Here is what she said about her mother:

"Historical character identified with: My mom, Carol Sutton. She is a historical character and has been written about several times. (Sutton, former managing editor of The Courier-Journal, was the first woman to hold that position at a major U.S. daily, according to the newspaper's archives.)"

Fashion reporter Yvonne Pendleton

I just ordered the oral history of Yvonne Pendleton from the Sixth Floor Museum, who was a fashion reporter at the Dallas Times Herald. She worked for women's page editor Vivian Castleberry, who I am writing a book about.

The Sixth Floor Museum oral histories have been very helpful in understanding Dallas in the 1960s.

Who's Wearing the Pants?

NCA Paper About Women Wearing Pants

I am getting ready to present my paper, "Who’s Wearing the Pants? How The New York Times Reported the Changing Dress of Women" at its conference in San Francisco. In it, I examine how the New York Times represented women wearing pants from 1950 through 1975. I found various themes against women wearing pants ranging from political to religious to workplace issues.

Some of these articles were in the women's pages and some were in the hard news sections and editorial sections.

Current New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote of this time: "It was a convoluted expression of the classic view of sexual differences: women did not wear the pants in the family - or anywhere else for that matter."

Save the National Women & Media Collection

Help! The National Women and Media Collection is in danger of being marginalized. The NWMC is located in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri. Recently, the WHMC has been placed under the State Historical Society – and lost the $1 million UM allocated. There is a serious concern about the future of the archivists at the WHMC – people who know the collections best.

The SHS head may eliminate the WHMC reference staff - some of the best archivists out there. With the reference staff gone, the SHS staff will be responsible for providing reference service to historians and they don't have archival training. They are largely librarians, a fine profession, but caring for manuscripts and caring for books are two different skill sets. Service will suffer considerably and collections will go unprocessed. People I respect could lose their jobs and this increases the likelihood that unknown women journalists in the papers of the NWMC will remain unknown.

The NWMC is an important resource in telling the stories of significant women journalists. These pioneers laid the groundwork for the women who are in the profession today. They worked to stretch the definition of news to be more inclusive to women. They were the trailblazers who fought battles big and small so that women would have a voice in a male-dominated profession. Yet, their stories are not part of much of journalism history. This Collection is a vital resource to record their stories. Some of the papers have been explored but there is still much that needs to be examined.

I urge you to contact leaders who can provide the funding to keep the WHMC archivists employed and allows historians to better use these collections. Gary Forsee is the UM system president (http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/president/contact.php) and Brady Deaton is the chancellor (Chancellor_Office@missouri.edu)

Koky Dishon Tribute

Interview with Darwin Payne

This morning, I interviewed Dallas historian Darwin Payne. He worked with Dallas Times Herald women's page editor Vivian Castleberry. They also went to the same church.

We gave me same interesting insight and reinforced my premise that it was Vivian's ability to be ladylike that also allowed her to be so progressive. In other words, she did not come off as threatening so she got away with many things that helped women.

Conference proposal about Gloria Biggs

Today I am working on an abstract about Gloria Biggs - Florida women's page editor turned publisher. It is called: “I Weep When I Read the Lines About Not Being the Feminist”: Gloria Biggs’ Transition From Women’s Page Editor to Publisher

I am sending it off to a state history conference that will be held next Spring in Jacksonville, Florida - a new city for us to visit. And, best of all, there is a jazz festival in Jacksonville the same weekend.

My research on Gloria comes from her papers in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri. I also interviewed her niece a few years ago.

Cape Canaveral

We had hoped to take Baby Curtis to see the shuttle launch this week but it was scrubbed again.

In the early years on the Space Coast, there were many profiles of the astronauts and their crews. One series - featuring the women at Cape Canaveral - ran in the women's pages of the Miami Herald. The five-part series, featured below, was written by the wonderful Roberta Applegate.

Virginia Whitehill

Dallas civic leader and women's rights advocate Virginia Whitehill often worked with Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry to create a better place for women.

Beginning in the 1960s, the two women helped co-found the Dallas Women's Coalition, Women's Issues Network, Dallas Women's Foundation, The Family Place shelter, and the Women's Southwest Federal Credit Union.

From a Dallas Morning News profile: "Each was intended to help with the issues confronting women, but that didn't make Ms. Whitehill and
other leaders popular in some circles.
"When we went down to Austin to lobby state leaders, some called us 'FLACs' – 'Fat Lesbian Atheist Communists,' " she said. "There was that kind of bad-mouthing. You hated men if you supported women's rights."

But Ms. Whitehill was resilient, and came naturally to the role of activist. Her mother, Myrtle Bales Bulkley, marched for women's suffrage as a young woman and remained a vocal supporter of women's rights until her death in 1990.

"She was a teen in World War I and I was a teen in World War II, and those were wonderful times for women," Ms. Whitehill said.

"They showed there was no job they couldn't do as well as men, and in some cases better."

I met Virginia in September at a brunch in Vivian's honor in Dallas.

Bonnie Cashin grant

I am applying for a UCLA Research Fellowship in order to go through the extensive papers of the designer Bonnie Cashin. She has often been referred to as one of the "Mothers of American Sportswear." I would focus on the 1950s and 1960s, her post Broadway and Hollywood years as she designed for middle-class women. As New York Times fashion writer Bernadine Morris wrote in 1968: “Women buy Cashin clothes because they are cozy and comfortable, not because they bowl people over.”

I hope to examine her interaction with fashion journalists at newspapers. I initially came across Cashin’s work with women's page editor and fashion journalist Eleni Epstein, the longtime fashion reporter at the Washington Star. Using textual analysis, I will identity themes and then examine the media’s messages – focusing specifically on gender roles.

I have gone through the extensive finding guide and have identified numerous files of interest. Examples include “Journalistic Coverage of Bonnie Cashin” which includes 200 folders and the “Press Books and Unbound Clippings” from 1937-1979 in 37 boxes.

The application has been sent and my fingers are crossed.

Vivian Castleberry and JFK assassination

Today I am back to working on my manuscript on Dallas Times Herald women's page editor Vivian Castleberry. I am writing about her coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy. She was waiting to watch the president at the Trade Mart.

The above hate ad ran in Dallas Morning News on the morning of the assassination. In an oral history, Vivian recalled being relieved that her newspaper did not run the ad.