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Al Neuharth Has Died
Gannett executive and USA Today founder Al Neuharth died on Friday. He is pictured above with women’s page editor Dorothy Jurney. Neuharth was an advocate for women in journalism. He named women’s page editor Gloria Biggs as the first woman to be a Gannett publisher. Several years later, he named women’s page editor Marjorie Paxson to be a Gannett publisher. Neuharth was married to Florida Senator Lori Wilson in the 1970s. Here is a link to an article I wrote about Wilson and her fight to get the E.R.A. passed in her state.
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Cookbook Author Myra Waldo
In researching newspaper food sections, I came across cookbook author and newspaper columnist Myra Waldo. Here is a section from her obituary:“Starting in the mid-1950’s, Ms. Waldo wrote more than two dozen travel guides and cookbooks, which she periodically updated. Her ”Serve at Once: The Soufflé Cookbook” of 1954, for instance, was revised as ”The Soufflé Cookbook” in 1961 and, reissued in 1990, remains in print. A book she wrote in 1955 with the actress Gertrude Berg, ”The Molly Goldberg Cookbook,” based on Ms. Berg’s famous television character, was reissued most recently in 1999.” Here is a link to one of her syndicated food columns which ran in the Milwaukee…
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Billie O’Day Has Died
I learned yesterday that Billie O’Day has died. She was the longtime women’s page editor at the Miami News and won several Penney-Missouri Awards. The image above is from a hotel room in Missouri where she and the Miami Herald’s Marie Anderson came to speak at the workshops that were part of the Awards. She loved music and sports. Here is a link to a previous post about Billie’s music career. Here is a link to a post about her interest in football.
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Junior League Cookbooks
I was interviewed for this story that was posted yesterday on NPR’s food blog, The Salt. Above is an image of my copy of a cookbook produced by the Augusta Junior League. “It was an example of women using their power behind the scenes, says Kimberly Voss, a food historian and associate professor at the University of Central Florida. But “in the ’70s, there was a huge backlash against women’s groups that produced cookbooks as fundraisers because it was somehow reinforcing the tradition of the woman in the home.” In recent years, she says, feminist researchers have reconsidered the role of these cookbooks, which required a lot of entrepreneurial muscle…
- food editors, food history, food journalism, Jane Nickerson, Jeanne Voltz, journalism history, ruth gray, women's page history
Women’s Pages & Florida Food History
Lance are going to hear my favorite Florida historian tonight – Gary Mormino. He is going to speak about one of my favorite topics – the history of food in Florida. The event is being held at the Orange County History Center. Florida newspapers have had some great food editors over the years. Jeanne Voltz was the food editor at the Miami Herald during the 1950s and traveled the state looking for food stories. After being the first food editor at the New York Times, Jane Nickerson went on to be the food editor at the Lakeland Ledger. Ruth Gray was the food editor at the St. Petersburg Times who…
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
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Who Says We Can’t Cook?
I recently came across this 1955 cookbook “Who Says We Can’t Cook” that was put together by the Women’s National Press Club. The members noted that the book was not a defense of their culinary talents but rather a fundraising venture to rent space for a clubhouse. A story by the journalists accompanied each set of recipes. Henrietta Poynter who was then editor of Congressional Quarterly contributed recipes for “Heavenly Hamburger” and “Cheese Wafers.” She explained: “I learned to cook at about 14 when my mother went on a three-month speaking tour for suffrage and left me to keep house. Whatever I saved out of the budget was mine, so…
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
