food section
-
Women’s History Month: Julie Benell
Day 20 of Women’s History Month features Julie Benell. Julie Benell, a reporter and editor on food who worked 25 years at the Dallas Morning News. Benell, a native of San Antonio, was a former concert pianist who switched to the stage and later to performances on radio and television. She was the author of several cookbooks, including the popular Let’s Eat at Home. She had a daily television show about food and fashion for 15 years while she was at the newspaper. It was her show that was interrupted when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. She judged the 1962 great national Cookout Championship for Men Only in Hawaii,…
- Dorothy Chapman, Florida food, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food journalism, food section, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Dorothy Chapman
Day 19 of Women’s History Month features Dorothy Chapman. She had been the women’s page editor at the Orlando Sentinel when Barr was the food editor. When Barr retired in 1969, Chapman became the food editor. In 1971, Chapman became the first restaurant editor at the newspaper. She wrote several cookbooks based on her column, “Thought You’d Never Ask.” According to her obituary: “As the Orlando Sentinel’s first restaurant critic, Chapman wielded her pen and fork with a civil tongue. “We [chefs] gave her a lot of respect because she gave us a lot of respect,” said longtime Orlando restaurateur Major Jarman. “She was fair. Everyone took her comments as…
- Florida food, food editors, food history, food journalism, food section, Grace Barr, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Grace Barr
Day 18 of Women’s History Month features Orlando Sentinel food editor Grace Warlow Barr. She attended Goucher College in Baltimore before marrying Leal Barr. The couple had twins: Gracia and Graham. They divorced in 1936 and she joined the Sentinel in 1940 to support her family. She initially became the society editor with a column called “Cynthia’s Tea Table Chatter.” The column ended in 1964 and she focused on food. She was the food editor until her retirement in 1969. Her cookbook, Cooking with Grace, was published in 1970. She was known for her recipes that began with “start with a stick of butter.” She had an active social life…
- food editors, food journalism, food section, Josephine Gibson, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Josephine Gibson
Day 17 of Women’s History Month features Josephine Gibson of the Pittsburgh Press. According to the newspaper’s photo archive:This photo was taken at Pittsburgh’s Hilton Hotel in 1961, the year that Josephine Gibson retired after a 24-year career as food editor of The Pittsburgh Press. Gibson had earned a degree in home economics from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1924. In 1927, she founded and directed the home economics department at the H.J. Heinz Company. At a model kitchen arranged on a stage in the Heinz plant auditorium, she lectured while demonstrating how to cook specific dishes. She developed and tested recipes using Heinz products and gave demonstrations to more…
- Florida food, Florida newspapers, Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food history, food journalism, food section, Virginia Heffington, women's history month
Women’s History Month: Virginia Heffington
Day 16 of Women’s History Month features Virginia Heffington – a food editor in Florida and California. Recently, the Miami Herald cited a recipe from its 1960s food editor Virginia Heffington. This is the book that Heffington wrote in 1968 when she was the Homemaking Editor of the Miami Herald. At that point she had been at the Herald for five years and had won a Vesta Award – the top recognition for food journalism. In the introduction to the book, she mentioned that she was a graduate of Iowa State in home economic journalism. I also found an archive in Canada that had ten of Virginia’s clips in its…
- food editors, food journalism, food section, Maude Coons, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Maude Coons
Day 15 of Women’s History Month features Maude Coons. Maude Charron Coons was the longtime food editor at the Omaha World-Herald. She graduated from the home economics program at Iowa State University after overcoming paralysis caused by polio, as noting in the story above. She started at the Omaha World-Herald as the household editor in 1936. She and her husband had relocated to Omaha in the hopes that either of them could find a job during a trying economic time. They were thrilled when they both found jobs. Initially, she wrote under the byline of “Mary Cooks.” By the 1940’s, she wrote under her own name. She wrote several food pamphlets and…