Marie Anderson
Marie Anderson | |
---|---|
Born | Marie Willard Anderson April 19, 1916 Pensacola, Florida |
Died | July 2, 1996 Altamonte Springs, Florida | (aged 80)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Katharine Gibbs School |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, editor |
Years active | 1946 - 1972 |
Parent(s) | Robert Hargis Anderson Marie Willard Anderson |
Marie Willard Anderson[1] (April 19, 1916 – July 2, 1996) was a Miami, Florida newspaper editor. Under her leadership in the 1960s the Miami Herald Women's Page transformed into a nationally recognized progressive women's section, one of the first in the country to do so,[2] and won the Penney-Missouri Award four times.
Early life
Anderson was born in
Career
After working as a secretary in a law firm, Anderson took a job as a cub reporter at the
In 1956 Marjorie Paxson joined the department. In 1959 Jurney moved to the Detroit Free Press and Anderson became Women's Page editor at the Herald,[3][2] making Paxson her assistant.[1] Together they continued work Anderson and Jurney had begun to transform the Women's Pages into reporting on "hard news stories about health, social, employment, and political issues that concerned women" rather than society news and "the four Fs": food, fashion, furnishings, and family,[3] which at the time was the focus of most newspapers' women's page sections.[1] Anderson transformed the section from one containing little information of any importance into one that addressed the emerging women's issues of the day such as reproductive rights.[1]
In the early 1960s, Catherine Shipe East, living in Washington D.C., recognized the unusual nature of Anderson's section and developed an informal news service to make sure the work was seen by important women in the feminist movement. She subscribed to the Herald, clipped and duplicated the best articles, and mailed packets to other feminists around the country.[2] Influential Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry "read Anderson's section religiously."[4]
Anderson ran stories other newspapers wouldn't cover. She ran excerpts of
Working with the Herald's Clubs editor
In 1970, Anderson requested a transfer to the city room but instead was moved to the home and design department. She left the paper in 1972 to become dean of University Relations and Development at Florida International University.[3]
In 1973 she was appointed by Florida governor Reubin Askew to the Florida Commission on the Status of Women.[1]
In 1980 she wrote Julia's Daughters: Women in Dade's History for Herstory of Florida.[1]
In 1989 she was selected to participate in the Washington Press Foundation's
Awards
As Women's Page editor for the Miami Herald Anderson won four Penney-Missouri Awards for General Excellence.[3] The section won the award in 1960, the year of the awards' inauguration.[3] In 1961, it won again, and the program director asked Anderson to sit the 1962 awards out.[3] In 1963 the paper took second place, and in 1964 another first, and the paper was barred from competing for the next five years. In 1969 it won another first. Kimberly Wilmot Voss and Lance Speere, writing in the scholarly journal Florida Historical Quarterly, said Anderson "personified" the Penney-Missouri competition's goals.[1]
Impact
Voss and Speere called her "A Women's Page Pioneer."[1] Writing in the scholarly journal Journalism History, Rodger Streitmatter said that Anderson, along with Jurney and Vivian Castleberry, were the "major forces in helping to change women's pages" and that Anderson "ultimately built one of the most progressive women's sections in the country."[2] Castleberry said, "Back then, there were just a few papers that were on the cutting edge of women's issues, and Marie Anderson's was one of that small number. Papers like The New York Times were light years behind."[2] Herald publisher Lee Hills called her "a leader of the transition from the traditional women's section to the modern living section"[2] and said her leadership had made the Herald "a pioneer in that trend."[1] The Herald called her "a trailblazer who transformed women's page journalism into an arena for politics and social issues."[1]
Anderson's papers are in the National Women and Media Collection, housed at the Western Manuscripts Collection at the University of Missouri.[1]
Personal life
Anderson died July 2, 1996, in Altamonte Springs, Florida. She had no children and was never married.
References
- ^ JSTOR 30150079.
- ^ doi:10.1080/00947679.1998.12062493. Archived from the original(PDF) on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Kimberly. "Marie Anderson". State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ISBN 9780252033544.