Florida Women's Pages
- Florida food, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food journalism, journalism history, Top Food Editors, women's page history
Top Food Editors: Day 16 & Ruth Gray
Day 16 of Top Food Editors features Ruth Gray. Ruth Gray became the food editor in 1963 of the St. Petersburg Times and began reviewing restaurants in 1974. One restaurant that earned a negative review named their crab sandwich in her honor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Kansas State University. She married and raised a daughter. When she was investigating a restaurant, Gray wore hats and scarves and ducked inside the ladies room to take notes and remain inconspicuous. The disguises were needed because some restaurants posted her photo on the wall in the kitchen—a common practice because restaurant owners looked to identify critics.
- Florida food, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food history, food journalism, journalism history, Rosa Tusa, Top Food Editors, women's page history
Top Food Editors: Day 14 and Rosa Tusa
Day 14 of Top Food editor highlights Rosa Tusa – from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Palm Beach, Florida. Rosa Tulsa learned to cook from her Italian father and was hired by the Milwaukee Sentinel’s women’s pages in 1953. She became the Sentinel food editor in 1962. She married painter Kyril Vassilev after meeting when Tusa interviewed him for a story. The couple lived in a castle and raised Great Danes. She was a good friend of Poppy Cannon and judged the 1970 Pillsbury Bake-Off. In 1971, she and her husband moved to Florida and she became the food editor of the Palm Beach Post. During her career, she attempted to cook…
- Anne Rowe, Beverley Morales, Edee Greene, Florida history, Florida newspapers, Florida Women's Pages, Gloria Biggs, Janet Chusmir, Marie Anderson
Importance of Women & Regional History
I am in the middle of reviewing Eileen M. Wirth’s book From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism for an Iowa history journal. It is an important book and I enjoyed her closing messages: “I had no idea how many women of achievement in journalism and other fields have been overlooked even in state and regional histories where they might be expected to appear.” (p 163) Further, she wrote “We cannot understand the history of women in the United States unless we consider local and regional dimensions because family obligations have limited the geographic and career mobility of the vast majority of American women.” (pg 164) Her…
- Florida food, Florida newspapers, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food journalism, Jeanne Voltz, Lowis Carlton, Virginia Heffington
1960s Miami Herald Food Editor Lowis Carlton
Yesterday, I came across a new food editor: Lowis Carlton. I discovered her name in a cookbook I recently bought, Famous Florida Recipes. She had a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English from the University of Miami. She also had a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Florida International University. Like many of the top newspaper food editors of the 1950s and 1960s, she earned a Vesta Award and was a judge for the Pillsbury Bake-Off. She appears to have been the Miami Herald food editor after Jeanne Voltz left for the Los Angeles Times in 1960. By the late 1960s, the Miami Herald food editor was Virginia Heffington.
- Florida newspapers, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food history, food journalism, Virginia Heffington, women's page history
Newspaper Recipes Live On
The recipes of newspaper food editors have lived on into the internet age. From online newspaper food sections to home cooks’ food blogs, requests for or examples of old recipes are available. In August of 2012, a reader from Miami Beach wrote to the Miami Herald and requested a recipe for a dessert called “Heavenly Hash” which included graham crackers and whipped cream. Another reader sent in a Herald clipping of a May 6, 1970 recipe written by Virginia Heffington, who was listed as “homemaking editor.” Heffington explained that the recipe was popular in the 1930s. She wrote: “Long years ago ladies had fun making what they called icebox desserts…
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Roxcy Bolton, Gender & Naming Hurricanes
This is the first week of the hurricane season and the potential names have been announced. The list includes male and female names. That wasn’t always the case. Prior to the Women’s Liberation Movement, hurricanes were only named for women. Miami feminist Roxcy Bolton (pictured below) played a central role in changing the policy. She got tired of reading headlines about hurricanes with women’s names destroying communities. Instead, she suggested that hurricanes be named for senators – since they like to name things after themselves. Roxcy put up a significant fight with government officials. By 1979, the policy was changed to alternate women and men’s names when it came to…
