USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 26
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A special study of native African tribes was basis of a series of radio talks made by Mrs. Heekin following her African safari. In this program she emphasized fine traits disclosed by natives with whom she had come in contact. In the light of present day happenings in the white man's world, she brought out, he might do well to avoid rating by the African's yard- stick. It measures for three essentials-endurance, trustfulness and good faith.
LOTTIE MOON
It's high time, before this type of story loses its present popularity, to write a modernized version of the life of LOTTIE MOON, said to have been a Confederate spy in the Civil War, whose former home still stands on High Street in Oxford, Ohio.
According to Caroline Williams, whose recent book, "City of the Seven Hills" has revived many colorful anecdotes of Southwestern Ohio, Lottie enjoyed one thrill right after another. But she probably reached tops- because by that time danger of sudden death was all in the day's work and meant little or nothing-when she was captured by the forces of General Ambrose Burnside within the Union lines. The point of this is the fact- and to Lottie Moon it must, even at the moment, have seemed a great and vainglorious fact-that Miss Moon had, some time before, turned down young Ambrose Burnside, then just a young officer, at, so to speak, the very altar.
The marriage was about to take place-the ceremony was started-in the High Street house at Oxford.
"Do you take this man to be your wedded husband?" duly asked the parson.
"No-siree-Bob" came Lottie's truly surprising and undoubtedly quite disconcerting answer. The lady was, of course, within her rights and doubt- less had her own reasons. But the remembrance must have rankled when she was brought face to face with the-by this time-famous General Burn-
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side and accused of running contraband. The General was a gallant gentle- man-he ordered Lottie escorted to a place of safety. But at that, the Gen- eral was no softy. Let him catch her again, he told his former lover-just like that-and she'd be shot or hung like any other spy.
There is a continuation of the story, for the truth of which the present writer does not vouch but which is certainly worth the telling.
Some years later, according to Miss William's book, Lottie again stood at the altar, facing another would-be bridegroom. But this one was taking no chances-forewarned was forearmed. He pressed the hard, cold muzzle of a revolver against his truelove's side while he whispered "This will be either a wedding or a funeral." And thus, says ancient rumor-Lottie Moon began her honeymoon.
ANNIE OAKLEY
Readers of this story may coldly claim previous knowledge of the fact that ANNIE OAKLEY, world famous riflewoman, was born a Buckeye but if so, such readers may as well know that this writer does not believe them.
Why should everybody else have known that Annie, the world's lady hot shot, was an Ohioan, when until recent research, this writer never even suspected such a break.
It is, however, quite true. Annie Oakley, who once shot a cigarette from the doubtless pale and quivering lips of the then Crown Prince of Germany-Annie Oakley, who could slice the thin edge of a playing card tossed into mid-air, is qualified, by both birth and residence, to be high lighted in "Women of Ohio."
Annie-her maiden name was Phoebe Ann Mozie-was born in 1860 near Greenville, Ohio, within a mile of the little village of North Star. Whether this village took its name from any convenient use for target purposes that Phoebe Ann may have made of the original north star is not known-at least to the writer. But it is known that Annie shot game all over the place-it is even said that she sold enough game to pay off the mortgage on the cabin she was born in.
Anyhow, by this time Annie was 15 and her marksmanship had become celebrated-locally-and a shooting match was arranged with her by Frank Butler, professional marksman, right in Cincinnati. Annie won the match- by a single point.
She won Butler also. Shot to the heart, not by Annie's bullets but by her ballistics. Frank Butler proposed to the new queen of the rifle range. They were married and they proceeded to tour the country very successfully together.
By the mid-eighties Annie Oakley was so famous that she became the big shot of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. They travelled all over the world for nearly 20 years.
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But it was for business not pleasure. Buffalo Bill, it is said, was not a bit pleased with Annie, as often happened, stole his show. He liked shooting stars but he also liked everybody to know that he himself was a star, of the first magnitude. Life is like that-and anyhow, it was all to the good with Annie.
It was better and better, in fact, until the fateful turn of the century. Then-in 1900-the show train was wrecked and Annie Oakley, the world's greatest markswoman was injured.
It ended her career. She lived to a good old age and gave occasional ex- hibitions at which spectators especially those of the newer generation, who knew little or nothing of the once world famous Annie Oakley, were given the thrill of a lifetime.
Annie died in 1926 in Greenville, near her old home. For the knowledge that this had been her birthplace and for other interesting facts about her, the writer is indebted to Virginia Cooley of Columbus and her article on "Five Ohio Women" in the Ohio Nurses Review.
As for those who pretend always to have known all there was to know about Annie Oakley, this writer as said above, simply does not believe them. Moreover, plenty of O. N. W. A. members hitherto uninformed as to Annie's place of nativity will not believe them either.
CLAIRE KATHRYN VAN HORN
Though at this time only fourteen years old, CLAIRE KATHRYN VAN HORN of Somerset, Ohio has won a place among the illustrious women of Ohio. She is the proud possessor of the Army and Navy award for valor which was presented to her in September 1936 by President Roosevelt for her courageous deed of the previous winter.
Two of the young girl's companions, both boys, were coasting down hill, speedily approaching a railroad track unaware that a fast train was ap- proaching. The young heroine, seeing the danger, threw her body in front of the sled between its path and the railroad track. Though Kathryn re- ceived some minor injuries, she escaped actual harm. And she saved the lives of the boys.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Women in Journalism, in Publicity and in Radio
DELIA AMOS SMITH (Mrs. George M.) Warren, Ohio, Charter Member, Ohio Newspaper Women's Association
CHAPTER, TWENTY
OHIO WOMEN IN JOURNALISM, IN PUBLICITY AND IN RADIO
By DOROTHY TODD FOSTER
President, O. N. W. A.
There are, it is estimated, about 500 women employed in reportorial or editorial capacities by Ohio newspapers. This total is only a guess. There is no accurate list, nor does this estimate include women on the business side of newspaper work. Neither does it include publicity women and women in radio, although, because their work has certain similarities, a resume is adjoined.
A keen and curious interest in human phenomena, a sensitiveness to and an intuitive understanding of human motives, has undoubtedly influenced many newspaper women to choose journalism as a profes- sion. Without question it has caused many of them to stick to this job despite opportunities to which newspaper work is often a stepping stone.
This last is often true of newspaper men. So perhaps the main difference is that with newspaper women this odd urge-this so-called fascination, to use the trite term constantly applied-finds especially apt expression in special types of the work -in what are known as human interest and feature stories, interviews, comment columns, society and club pages, household pages, in music, drama and art departments, in book reviewing and school news.
There can be no question but that women have done much to diversify the newspaper. They have developed all sorts of departments reflecting women's special interests. They certainly have done most to bring out the possibilities of the personal experience story. Their work has gained for newspapers the patronage of club women, who total millions.
They have fostered news of education, of public health, of child welfare, of a vast variety of services all essential to the well grounded
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newspaper. Women must be credited, undoubtedly, with developing the modern newspaper along lines of constructive human service.
But they must also carry their share of responsibility for the ills to which the newspaper, like all imperfect human institutions, is still heir. Women are, on the whole, quicker to break with tradition than are men. But what real progress have they made in their dealings with primitive human interests still catered to by the newspaper of today? What about sex appeal? What about crime, which still holds lead, although the dubious pair seem to charge neck and neck through all too many newspaper columns?
Newspaper women certainly did not start these appeals to the lowest forms of "human interest." But they do not seem to have lessened them a bit.
The theory of human progress is one to which famous newspaper men have clung tenaciously. Charles A. Dana charged his reporters to "never forget that humanity is advancing; that the future will be greater than the present or the past."
Is this true? For the past year and longer the perilous position of the whole world has justified little hope in the preservation and improvement of civilization. What can newspaper workers in general -what, to be specific, can the newspaper women of Ohio do to turn the tide, to advance the real progress of humanity?
The things they can do are all too many and too important to be dealt with in this brief introduction. But they suggest themselves to any and every thinking person willing to face frankly and honestly the inescapable demands of a really progressive civilization.
We have space here for but one specific effort, as made by the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association in this direction.
The world is surely weary of bad news. It is true that what may be called destructive news-news of danger, catastrophe, crime and terror-still challenges our deepest interest. This is inherent in our human nature, it is perhaps inescapable. What may be called con- structive news-news, very broadly stated, that deals with tidings for the ultimate welfare and betterment of humanity-is therefore of sec- ondary interest. At least, this has always been true.
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But at last, perhaps, the time has come when this is no longer wholly true. When the news of what human beings have done and are doing, steadily, inconspicuously but persistently, may awaken a keener interest because of the assurance it gives and the hope it cher- ishes of basic and continuous human progress.
In this belief, the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association has this year sponsored a special project. This is "Women of Ohio" a history- biography which tells the story of the state in terms of the women of the state, their attainments, their achievements and their services.
For those of us who have been troubled deeply these last months as to how and if America and all it stands for can carry on, the brief and seemingly uneventful annals of Ohio women that have reached us by the hundreds bring a real reassurance. They tell of the efforts, aims, ideals that have motivated the intellectual, civic, social and spiritual life of a thousand or more Ohio women. In this year of international agony, of national doubt and fear and distrust and dis- may, they have brought us a real comfort because we believe that with this background Ohio and all the other states of which it may be regarded as a fair cross section, will find a way to a real progress and a real prosperity through continued effort, through courageous years.
The history of the O.N.W.A., outlined elsewhere in "Women of Ohio" tells of the aims, purposes and progress of this organization. We admit our pride in its past achievements and our purpose to live up to the possibilities of the future.
In addition to this statewide newspaper women's organization, several of the larger cities have local newspaper women's organizations of their own, with many individual memberships in both.
Active members of the Cleveland Women's Press Club include the following: Helen Allyn, Anna Beattie, Lilian Campbell, Eleanor Clarage, Florence Chilson, Cornelia Curtiss, Louise Davis, Nina Dou- berg, Eleanor Farnham, Winifred Goodsell, Mary Hirschfeld, Grace Kelly, Marie Kirkwood, Alice Kuehn, Florence LaGanke Harris, Ethel Laney, Flora MacFarlane, Betty Manning, Josephine Robertson, Helen Robertson, Winifred Rogers, Hildegarde Stashower, Maude Truesdale, Marjorie Western, Etta Wilson, Angela Bowne, Dorothy Harmon,
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Clintie Winfrey, Lois Maxon and Louise Eisle. Associate membership is held by Edith Howard, Bonnie Witt Keller, Mrs. E. C. Pierce, Josephine Porter, Peggy Seltzer and Ruth Wells Spaeth.
MEMBERS OF THE CINCINNATI NEWSPAPER WOMEN'S CLUB ARE: Lily Leroy (Mrs. Homer Waltman) president, whose mother, the late Clarinda Leroy, preceded her as member (for 27 years) of the Times Star staff; Anita Auch, Sara M. Austin, Helen Boswell, Mary D. Bradstreet, Gertrude Carmichael, Elizabeth Chat- field, Elizabeth Collis, May Dearness, Helen Detzel, George Elliston, Jane Finneran, Norine Freeman, Frances Faulkner, Mary Gorey, Dorothea Hake, Daisy Jones, Lucy Kerley, Anne Russell, Edna Mae Shewitz, Adele Slade, and Mary Katherine Wersel.
Associate members are Bertha C. Burns, Amoretta Fitch, Natalie Giddings, Alma Hillhouse, Ruth Neely (Mrs. W. C. France), Ruth Small Ramer, Maude Stephens (Mrs. Forest Frank), and Duffy Westheimer.
DAYTON WOMEN'S PRESS CLUB MEMBERSHIP LIST: Miss Mary Louise Breen, Mrs. Laurence Collins, Mrs. Francis Doody, Mrs. Robert Doty, Miss Merab Eberle, Mrs. Clement Fischer, Miss Jerry Fox, Blanche Gouffaut, Ethel Harper, Evelyn Hart, Clara Huffine, Helen Hultman, Mrs. Betty Jack Kemper, Elizabeth Kennedy, Elizabeth Lyman, Mrs. Y. B. Mirza, Patty Murphy, Ruth Ohmer, Miriam Rosenthal, Mrs. Ednor Rossiter, Ida Odelle Rudy, Mrs. E. L. Slaggie, Mary Ann Struck, Virginia Sturm, Mrs. Jerrold Swank, Kathleen Whetro, Mrs. Sherl Winter, Mrs. Dwight Young, Mrs. Fred Beyerman, Mrs. Harold Boian, Mrs. Peter Cable, Mrs. Roger Powell, Carrie Eisenmenger, Mrs. Lola J. Hill, Agnes Reeves, Mrs. C. F. Riden- our, Mrs. G. L. Stallings, Mrs. Paul Bixler, Mrs. Morgan Schwind.
In the following biographies, arranged alphabetically, we have tried to give an adequate cross section of the work done by all Ohio newspaper women, past and present. We are, in one instance, dis- regarding the alphabet, however, in that we are leading these biogra- phies with that of Mrs. Delia Amos Smith, who, as acting president, was in reality the first leader of the O.N.W.A. and who has given us staunch support and service ever since.
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MRS. GEORGE M. SMITH
MRS. GEORGE M. SMITH (Delia Amos Smith), of Warren, O., it might well be said, as of other members of the Amos family, that she was reared on printers' ink. Daughter of the late General James O. Amos, who was adjutant-general of Ohio from 1874 to 1876 and editor of the Shelby County Democrat, also founder of the Sidney Daily News, Delia Amos was closely associated with the newspaper business from the time almost, of her graduation from Sidney High School.
So definite was her journalistic bent that her father made Delia manag- ing editor of the News, which grew and prospered under her management and, later, that of her brother, Ernest Amos, until today it is one of the best small city dailies of the country.
Comparatively few women hold executive positions on newspapers, even today. When the Sidney News was launched with a young woman at the helm, comment, within and without the fourth estate, was widespread. But the aptitude of Delia Amos was equal to her responsibility. This too was soon realized and she was recognized by leading national newspaper or- ganizations. She was sent as delegate to the National Editorial Association by the Ohio association a number of times, was put on the program, quoted, asked to make shop talks all over the country.
So in addition to her responsibilities as newspaper manager, Miss Amos was widely listed as writer and lecturer. This last was partly due to the fact that she had managed to travel extensively during her vacation-had been to Egypt, the Holy Land, Europe, Mexico, Canada. Articles on these travels were in demand, not only by the News but presently by a number of dailies.
Meanwhile, the able Miss Amos had important part in founding the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, of which she was not only a charter mem- ber but in reality was the first acting president. This was due to the fact that Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood, of Toledo, who was elected president when the association was organized at Toledo in 1902, was unable to officiate for the ensuing year and delegated her responsibilities to Delia Amos, who had been elected vice president. So Delia planned the second meeting, held at Columbus, and was then elected president, the term-now two years-then being one.
In the fall of 1905 Miss Amos was married to Horace Holbrook, a Cali- fornia newspaperman, and went there to live. They returned in 1907, when Mr. Holbrook bought the Western Reserve Democrat at Warren, O.
After her husband's death, in 1923, Mrs. Holbrook operated the paper until it was sold a year or so later. Shortly after her return from Cali- fornia she was again elected president of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, of which her sister, MISS KATHERINE AMOS, later became an
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officer, as did, several years ago, her niece, ANNE AMOS BROWN (Mrs. James Brown, of Wyoming, O.) vice president of the ONWA from 1935 to 1937. SALLY AMOS, of the Sidney News, another niece, is now an active member of the ONWA.
Several years ago Mrs. Amos Holbrook married George Smith, of War- ren, where they make their home. She is deeply interested in the growth and progress of the O.N.W.A., attends conventions at which she, in turn, centers interest as a born newspaper woman, one who never failed in service to her profession or to her fellow newspaper women.
NANCY GRIMES ALLEN
NANCY GRIMES ALLEN, of The Portsmouth Times, was born December 7, 1907, at Portsmouth, Ohio, daughter of John A. and Frances Coleman Grimes. She attended Miami University, Oxford, where she was affiliated with Sigma Kappa Sorority and Owen, national sophomore honorary society. After a tour of Europe during 1929, she became associated with The Ports- mouth Times in the advertising department. In 1930, Nancy was transferred to the editorial side.
She is now church editor, dramatic editor and book review editor, besides which she writes general feature stories, and does general assignment work and takes pictures. Her work has won excellent prizes in the yearly con- tests of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association and she was elected secre- tary of the O. N. W. A. in 1937 at the Cincinnati convention.
Nancy Grimes was married May 14, 1938, to Dr. Chester H. Allen, but continues her newspaper work and her newspaper name of Nancy Grimes. She is a niece of the late Harry E. Taylor, former prominent Ohio newspaper editor and publisher.
HELEN ALLYN
HELEN ALLYN, star reporter, has been a member of the Cleveland Press staff for the past 11 years. She joined the staff as woman's club editor but quit after two years in favor of a trip to Europe. On her return Miss Allyn became reporter and feature writer for the same paper. Since then she has been covering the "woman's angle" on every type of newspaper story from births to murders.
High spot in the reporting, Miss Allyn says, was the hurried flight to North Bay, Ont., in chartered plane to cover the very early days of the quin- tuplets' existence. To date, she has followed the Dionne girls' progress through seven trips to their northern home.
Daughter of Hugh H. Allyn, vice president of the Cleveland Trust Com- pany and Minerva Allyn, she is married to William R. McDonald, marine at- torney with the firm of Duncan, Leckie, McCreary, Schlitz and Hinslea.
WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER 28, 29, and 30th
CLEVELAND : SCENE OF THE 1938 ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE OHIO NEWSPAPER
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Outside of two years at Hillsdale College, Michigan, two years at the University of Wisconsin, and two trips to Europe, Helen has spent her life in Lakewood, Ohio, where she was born.
When Helen Allyn and Jane Williams of the Mansfield News Journal, ob- tained permission from their respective papers to exchange jobs for a week during the spring of 1938, neither regarded their unique proposal as an im- portant step in the direction of newspaper progress.
It was novel, it should be interesting and might prove helpful in, clarify- ing the difference and the similarities of small and large city newspaper work.
It proved far more than that. Every member of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association present at the Sunday morning session of the 1938 con- vention, held in October at Cleveland, sat, literally on the edge of her chair, intent on the findings given by Helen and Jane on this new experience.
Every newspaper woman there had known beforehand the general char- acteristics of local and of metropolitan journalism. But as Helen epitonized the essential differences she discovered between technical procedures of town and city news getting and newshandling, each listener realized vividly, many for the first time, the stream-lined systemization and regimentation essential to the service on a metropolitan daily, in order to meet the instant and in- cessant challenge of instant and incessant happenings.
There is no "so what" this expert reporter made clear, on a big city paper. News must be discovered as well as covered. This necessity de- velops in the trained reporter a psychological technique as well as a sociologi- cal understanding.
"You have to know" said Helen "just when to be tactful and when to get tough. You must be ready and willing, as well as able, to pare your story down to the bone of action. And you must be just as ready to jump from that story to the next and to the next, as they break or, as you can break them, even if you should never see a line of one of them in print. The big time paper cannot stop for post mortems. It has to keep pace with the 'pulse of the world'."
SARA MACDUFF AUSTIN
SARA MACDUFF AUSTIN (Mrs. David Austin), women's page editor and feature writer of the Cincinnati Times Star, was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of Gilbert Stephan and Norma Bruner Macduff.
She attended Miss Kendrick's Collegiate School for Girls and after gradu- ation entered University of Cincinnati. But she left U. C. in her second year to work on the Cincinnati Post as reporter. This was during the World War when reporters were badly needed. Sara, in fact, took over the news- paper job while her fiancee was in the army. She rode troop trains with the returning wounded and checked on casualty lists-grim work but ex- citing.
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She married David Sharp Austin, Cincinnati Post newsman, on his re- turn and for a time adventured in housekeeping. But like most other real newspaper women, she soon returned to the fold. She conducted a shopper's column for the Post for about six years, also served as publicity director of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Hotel Alms.
Later Mrs. Austin joined the staff of the Times Star and conducted a shopper's column for a year before being made editor of women's pages for the Times-Star.
Sara Austin was sent by the paper to the Republican National conven- tion in Cleveland in 1936, also to New York on series of fashion stories. She later developed a column, "You Meet Such Interesting People" which won one of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association prizes in 1938. She had inter- viewed Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Mrs. Robert Taft, Mrs. John Bricker and seems to really enjoy buzzing around at political meetings, covering the League of Women Voters, Woman's City Club, Republican and Democratic Women's clubs and wom- en's news generally. Mrs. Austin is a former treasurer of the Ohio News- paper Women's Association of which she has been a highly valued member for the past 12 years.
MARY BERGER
For the past eight years, MARY BERGER, society and club editor of The Herald-Star, Steubenville, Ohio, has steadily been winning prizes in Ohio Newspaper Women's Association contests. She writes features, drama and music. She is a member for Ohio of the National Advisory Board of Wom- en's Participation in the New York World's Fair.
Mary Berger is the daughter of Earl and Bluma Z. Berger, 701 Oakmont Avenue, Steubenville and came to Steubenville from Pittsburgh at the age of four. She was graduated from Steubenville High School; studied at Kent State University to teach English but gave up her studies for newspaper work.
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