Doris Fleeson

Doris Fleeson

Doris Fleeson (right) with Eleanor Roosevelt
Born May 20, 1901
Sterling, Kansas
Died August 1, 1970 (aged 69)
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Kansas
Occupation Journalist
Spouse(s) John O'Donnell

Doris Fleeson (May 20, 1901 - August 1, 1970) was an American journalist and columnist and was the first woman in the United States to have a nationally syndicated political column.[1]

Early life and education

She was born in Sterling, Kansas. She received her B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1923. Her first journalism job was at the Pittsburg Sun. She moved to Evanston, Illinois to become the society editor of the News-Index and then to Long Island, New York to be an editor at Great Neck News. In 1927, she joined the New York Daily News as a general assignment reporter, eventually moving to the newspaper's Albany bureau to cover state politics. She married fellow Daily News reporter John O'Donnell in 1930.[2]

Washington career

Fleeson and O'Donnell moved to Washington D.C. to work on at Daily News' Washington Bureau in 1930. They started a column together called "Capital Stuff" in 1933 that was published until their divorce in 1942. She left the Daily News in 1943 to be a war correspondent for Woman's Home Companion. She reported from France and Italy during the war before returning to Washington to write a political column for the Boston Globe and Washington Evening Star. In 1945, the column was picked up by the Bell Syndicate and distributed across the country. At its height in 1960, her column ran in about 100 newspapers.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Sayler, Carolyn (April 25, 2010). Doris Fleeson, Incomparably the First Political Journalist of Her Time. Sunstone Press. ISBN 978-0865347595.
  2. ↑ Riley, Sam G. (Jan 1, 1995). Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 89. ISBN 978-0313291920.
  3. ↑ Howells, William Dean. "Brief Encounters". http://www.cjr.org/''. Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 7 March 2015.