Women’s History Month: Polly Paffilas
Day 24 of Women’s History Month features Polly Paffilas, the longtime food editor at the Akron Beacon Journal.
According to her obituary:
“”Polly was one of the grand dames of journalism,’ said her former longtime colleague Mickey Porter. “She’d tackle any kind of story.”
Her newspaper career covered more than 45 years before she retired in 1987.
She and colleague Frances B. Murphey, who died in 1998, broke into the business as temporary hires through Manpower. When the staff was short in the newsroom during World War II, they were called in.
It was a male-dominated business when Miss Paffilas signed on in 1942, in the low-tech days of pencils, typewriters and hot metal type.
Hired at $23.50 a week as a clerk in the reference library, she tried to learn every job at the paper. She even learned how to operate the manual elevator.
Miss Paffilas became a cub reporter on the city desk. She later moved to the Woman’s Department, where she became food writer, women’s editor, and spent 10 years as the About Town columnist.”
This is how Polly described her position: “The newspaper food editor is the homemaker’s best friend, mother confessor and mentor. Mrs. Jones calls us when she can’t understand a recipe in a national magazine or when Graham Kerr talks about clarified butter. Mrs. Jones doesn’t call the magazine or the TV station. She calls me.”
Her recipe collection was donated to the Akron Public Library. Here is a link to the finding guide.
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