I found this reference book at a used bookstore. It’s a great resource for researching women journalists. Included in the book are many women’s page editors including Gloria Biggs and Vivian Castleberry. Above is information about Betty Preston Oiler, a women’s page editor from Glendale, California. I am working on a revise-and-resubmit about Betty that I hope to finish over Spring Break.

I am going through this great book about California history, 1950-1963. It is helpful as I finish up the final edits on my article about Betty Preston. Betty was the women’s page editor at a Glendale, California newspaper from the 1940s until the 1970s when she was promoted. She won several Penney-Missouri Awards and several of her letters were found at the University of Missouri. (She did not leave her papers.) I also interviewed several of her former co-workers and her step-daughter. I hope to send the article out for review this week.

Betty Preston Oiler went from an award-winning women’s page editor to a publisher during her career in Glendale, California. A Michigan native, she graduated from Petoskey High School and attended Michigan State College (now Michigan State University). She graduated in 1941 with a degree in journalism. She was taught by the chair of the journalism program Albert Applegate who had a daughter, Roberta, near Preston’s age. Roberta Applegate (mentioned in an earlier post) would also go on to be a significant women’s page journalist. She said: “My dad was extremely supportive of women who were highly ambitious.” After moving to California to be with her parents and escape the snowy…