Koky Dishon
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Gossip & the Women’s Pages
The book When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in American History is now up on Amazon. My chapter is: “Gossip in the Women’s Pages: Examining and Legitimizing the Work of Female Journalists in the 1950s and 1960s.” In it, I examine the role gossip played in the coverage of society news, brides and politics in the women’s pages. The book comes out in August.
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Talk at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
I had a great time at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about the Milwaukee women’s page journalists and the food editors from my book, The Food Section.
- Bobbi McCallum, Florida Women's Pages, journalism history, Koky Dishon, Roberta Applegate, Ruth Ellen Church, women's history, women's page history
Working as a Public Historian
I have been asked why I spend so much time doing research when that work is not considered research by my university. My answer is that I believe in public history. I have written before about having to twice as hard to get tenure because I study regional rather than national figures in journalism history. While it does not feel fair, the women I write about were rarely treated fairly and faced much bigger hurdles than my own. I have the usual peer-review history journal articles that I publicize through social media, especially Academia.edu and Linkedin. My article about food editor Jeanne Voltz has more than 560 page views on…
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Fashion Writers Marian Christy & Bobbi McCallum
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Women’s History Month: Colleen “Koky” Dishon
Day 17 of Women’s History Month features Colleen “Koky” Dishon. She started her career covering hard news for the Associated Press during World War II. After the war, she was a progressive women’s page editor in Columbus, Ohio, and Milwaukee before moving on to Chicago. She was hired by the Chicago Tribune in 1975 and in 1982, Dishon was named associate editor, becoming the first woman listed in the Chicago Tribune’s masthead. At the Tribune, Dishon created 17 special sections that were often quickly copied at newspapers across the country. In the words of Tribune Managing Editor Ann Marie Lipinski: “Whether you have ever worked for Koky, or ever heard…
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The Importance of Weddings Coverage
I loved this New York Times wedding story from yesterday that is getting a lot of buzz. From the story: “The bride, 97, is keeping her name.” While often overlooked as soft news, wedding stories can have value. They were a key part of the women’s pages for decades. As Chicago Editor Colleen “Koky” Dishon noted: “As we wrote about weddings and births and debutante balls, we learned about the importance of rites and rituals in people’s lives.” And there were journalism lessons in reporting about those rituals in the lives of women. Fort Lauderdale News women’s page editor Edee Greene pointed out that writing up engagement and wedding announcements…
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Letter about Colleen “Koky” Dishon
I just received a copy of this great letter about Colleen “Koky” Dishon – a longtime women’s page editor and the first woman on the masthead of the Chicago Tribune. The letter is in response to my article in this summer’s Timeline Magazine. The letter writer was a childhood friend of Koky’s. The two women attended the 1944 GOP convention in Chicago together when Koky was reporting for the Associated Press. I loved reading about Koky’s early years as a reporter.
