Gloria Biggs
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Betty Preston Oiler memo
This memo is from Glendale News-Press women’s editor Betty Preston Oiler to Gloria Biggs, a Florida women’s page editor. Betty is writing to congratulate Gloria on becoming the first woman to be a publisher of a Gannett newspaper. The women knew each other through the Penney-Missouri workshops. In later years, Betty, herself, would become an executive editor. Here’s an earlier post about Betty. This letter can be found in Gloria’s papers in the National Women and Media Collection at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. I am in the process of writing about both Gloria and Betty.
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Gloria Biggs
Gloria Biggs was another Florida women’s page editor who won numerous Penney-Missouri Awards. Here is an article about her. In 1966, after a difficult experience as women’s page editor at the St. Petersburg Times, Biggs became the head of women’s sections for the Gannett newspaper company in Florida. According to Gannett head Al Neuharth: “Having someone of your proven ability and high caliber run the women’s show simply adds to the insurance policy for success.” In 1973, she was promoted to publisher of the Melbourne Times – the first woman named publisher among the Gannett Company’s 53 daily newspapers. But in reality, Biggs’ new position was really just a title…
