journalism history
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Wisconsin Badgers, Rose Bowl & Discrimination
In honor of the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl this year, here is a women’s page reference from a previous Badger Rose Bowl appearance – from a former Wisconsin women’s page journalist Dorothy Kincaid. Dorothy was the longtime food journalist at the Milwaukee Sentinel. (The cookbook that she edited is pictured above – I found it on eBay.) When she retired, she shared this memory of banned from the press box during the 1963 Rose Bowl she traveled to California with the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team. Her assignment was to write a color piece about the parade and game. Shehad tried to make advance plans to cover…
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Happy Anniversary!
Today Lance & I have been married for nine years – which means we have been researching women’s page editors for about the same amount of time. We have spent countless hours going through archives and writing about the women whose stories we feel lucky to document. Together, we spent several days at the home of Curtis and Vivian Castleberry in Dallas. We got to interview the daughter of Ruthe Deskin. In 2008, Lance gave a great talk about our work together: “Tales of an Accidental Journalism Historian: What Four Archives in Four Months Taught a College Media Adviser About Pre-Women’s Liberation Newsrooms.” Here is a link to the speech.…
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from Curtis James, Paul Jacob, Lance & I! Curtis is named for Curtis Castleberry, the husband of legendary Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry and James Bellows, husband of groundbreaking women’s page editor Maggie Savoy. Paul is named for Paul Myhre – a champion for women’s page journalism as the director of the Penney-Missouri Awards.
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Wearing Pants: Fashion & Feminism
The New York Times published a story this week about women wearing pants as a protest to women’s roles in the Mormon Church. According to the article: “Wear Pants to Church,” an event on Sunday, was meant to draw attention to the role of women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, using attire as a symbolic first salvo in a larger struggle over gender inequalities. Though the Mormon Church has no official policy against women wearing pants to church, many say they feel peer pressure to wear a dress, particularly in the Western United States, organizers said.” This is not a new idea. Fort Lauderdale women’s page…
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Anniversary of Maggie Savoy’s Death
It was on this date in 1970 that women’s page editor Maggie Savoy died of cancer at age 50. Here is her final column. She was a groundbreaking women’s page editor in Arizona & California. She was an outspoken feminist and the wife of legendary editor Jim Bellows. Here is a link to my article about Maggie Savoy. I have always felt a special connection to Maggie as she died a few days before I was born. I am lucky to enjoy the rights that she fought for.
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Milwaukee Press Club & Carol Matusin
I week or so ago I received an email from journalist Carol Matusin. She was a reporter in Milwaukee when the Press Club began to accept women as members. She noted that the Milwaukee Press Club misspelled her name on the list of new female members. That list was included in the article that Lance & I wrote about the integration of the Press Club. The above letter can be found in the Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Milwaukee Journal women’s pages editors who became initial members included Lois Hagen and Peggy Daum.
