Women’s History Month: Day 11 & Billie O’Day
Today I presented a paper about women’s page editor Billie O’Day at the Florida Conference of Historians.
I have long been interested in the story of Billie O’Day. I first learned of her as a winner of two Penney-Missouri Awards (the top recognition for women’s pages) for her work in the women’s pages of the Miami News in the 1960s. I also knew that she had quite a career in music and radio.
Billie Corinne Womack (O’Day was her radio name that she began using as her own name) was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1919. As a child she both played football and musical instruments. She earned an undergraduate degree in music at Hendrix College.
She moved to Miami with her mother in 1943 and began taking graduate classes at the University of Miami. She played violin for the University of Miami Symphony for four years.
In 1944, she became the music librarian at Radio WIOD. She then teamed up with Jack Berry for the weekday program “Billie and Jack.” In 1949, she became the conductor of the Miami Symphonic Society Orchestra. She was named the Miami Young Woman of the Year in 1954 for her work at Radio WIOD.
She was hired as the club editor at the Miami News in 1958 and soon became the women’s editor at the newspaper. She won Penney-Missouri Award in 1962 and 1963. She continued to be a conductor until at least 1964, according to a newspaper article. After the end of the women’s section, she was a music and television editor at the newspaper. She retired from the News in 1984
