Twenty-five Years Later, Arizona Knows About Maggie Savoy
I was so excited to get an email from columnist Karina Bland last week. As part of the 125th anniversary of the Arizona Republic, she was writing about late women’s page editor Maggie Savoy.
We still lived in St. Louis when I started researching Maggie’s life and work – more than a decade ago. I was familiar with her name – she wrote letters back and forth to Marjorie Paxson, Paul Myhre and Edee Greene. I knew she won several Penney-Missouri Awards and had given several important speeches.
Other than her letters (found in the National Women & Media Collection – created by Paxson’s funding), I had a difficult time learning more about her. I finally went through her Arizona columns and found references to Maggie in her husband’s book about his life. Later I found the memorial book that her husband, Jim Bellows, created for her. Ultimately I was able to interview Jim and one of her friends.
Ultimately, I was able to publish an article about Maggie’s life – Forgotten Feminist.
I could not find anyone who remembered her at her former newspaper, the Arizona Republic. It was as if she never existed. As an example of her marginalization, I used to give a lecture about Maggie and then hold up this book, All The Time a Newspaper: The First 100 Years of The Arizona Republic. It is a large book – more than two inches thick and 422 pages long. It was written in 1990 and does not include an entry for “Maggie Savoy” nor “women’s pages.”
I am so happy that 25 years after that book was published, Maggie is part of the newspaper’s history. Thank you Karina! I appreciate it.
You May Also Like
