Women’s History Month: Edee Greene, Part I
Day 23 of Women’s History Month features Fort Lauderdale News women’s page editor Edee Greene.
Greene was a Penney-Missouri award-winning Florida women’s page editor. Her section included progressive content that tackled important social issues in Fort Lauderdale.
A Florida resident since the age of 12, she began her media career with radio station WSUN in St. Petersburg in 1932. She wrote soap opera scripts and had her own movie show. A year later, she married Tom Greene. She left radio to take care of her family and working for her husband’s advertising business. It ended after 17 years, leaving her financially and emotionally drained. She was suddenly a single mother with three children.
She worked for the women’s pages at the Orlando Sentinel from 1950 to 1957. In 1955, she married her second husband, Joe Rukenbrod, a fellow reporter at The Orlando Sentinel.
Her big moment came in 1957 when she became the women’s editor and columnist at the Fort Lauderdale News – Rukenbrod joined her at the News. (Her witty column, “AhMen,” was a popular column for 17 years.) Her groundbreaking approach led to a full-page article in Editor & Publisher in the 1960s. She remained at the News until 1976.
She was a leader in establishing a women’s domestic violence center in her community in the early 1970s – the center still exists today. She was named to the Broward County Women Hall of Fame.
Here’s a link to an article describing Edee as a nationally known editor.
The obituary of Edee’s brother proved that “Edee” was a nickname for Edith.
