The attempted assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords reminded me of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. Dallas Times Herald Vivian Castleberry allowed her seventh-grade daughter, Cathy, to stay home from school to watch the president drive through the city. Cathy had pled with her parents to allow her to skip school. She later noted, that Kennedy was a hero among her peers. They were impressed that Cathy would get to see the president. Cathy helped her mother prepare to meet Jacqueline Kennedy by reading newspaper clips in the car on the way to work. After a visit to a coffee shop, Cathy went to the library to wait for…

I have written about the favorable coverage that women’s page editors gave women’s liberation leaders and issues. That was not the case in other sections of the newspapers. Take for example, the above article from the city section of the Dallas Times Herald in 1972. This is the lead: “Jaquie Davison, a voluptuous blonde mother of six from Atlanta, says pox on bra-burning ‘women libbers.’” Hill then quotes the woman while again describing her appearance, “My role as a wife and mother is being attacked. Man is divinely ordained to be leader of the home, and things should stay that way,” said “the blonde, brown-eyed Mrs. Davison said.” The woman…

I have written about the favorable coverage that women’s page editors gave women’s liberation leaders and issues. That was not the case in other sections of the newspapers. Take for example, the above article from the city section of the Dallas Times Herald in 1972. This is the lead: “Jaquie Davison, a voluptuous blonde mother of six from Atlanta, says pox on bra-burning ‘women libbers.’” Hill then quotes the woman while again describing her appearance, “My role as a wife and mother is being attacked. Man is divinely ordained to be leader of the home, and things should stay that way,” said “the blonde, brown-eyed Mrs. Davison said.” The woman…

Yesterday afternoon, I transcribed an oral histories from the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. It featured Marjorie Westberry – in the image above. She arrived in Dallas in 1971 and began the city’s first N.O.W. chapter. She was spurred on by the fact that at that time, a married woman could not get a credit card in her own name. She must get her husband’s signature. (For decades, women lost many of their rights after getting married in Texas.) She mentioned the favorable coverage she received from Dallas Times Herald women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry. Marjorie said: “Vivian was and is a great networker. She never forgets to hug a…

Yesterday afternoon, I transcribed an oral histories from the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. It featured Marjorie Westberry – in the image above. She arrived in Dallas in 1971 and began the city’s first N.O.W. chapter. She was spurred on by the fact that at that time, a married woman could not get a credit card in her own name. She must get her husband’s signature. (For decades, women lost many of their rights after getting married in Texas.) She mentioned the favorable coverage she received from Dallas Times Herald women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry. Marjorie said: “Vivian was and is a great networker. She never forgets to hug a…

I am doing more work on my book about Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry – focusing on transcribing an oral history about Dallas activist Jody Furnish that is at the Sixth Floor Museum. Vivian won numerous other awards for her reporting. For example, in 1970, she won the award for best women’s feature for the story “Neighborhood Power,” that examined a successful integrated Dallas neighborhood. In it, she wrote about one of the first integrated Dallas neighborhoods. It was a part of the community that was bounded on the north by Lovers Lane and on the east by Inwood, and on the south, by Mockingbird Lane and on the…