Blazing the trail ...
MARTHA HAND BROWN, 1923-2006
She interviewed such famous people as Winston Churchill and Clark Gable and Burgess Meredith, and she called John Steinbeck friend. She was the first female reporter in the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Gannett newspaper chain and sat in on news conferences with Franklin Roosevelt.
After joining Gannett, she got to know Roosevelt, and when Churchill came to America, she asked FDR if she could please have an interview with the British prime minister. She was fresh out of Arlington and all of 20 years old, if that.
She could handle any kind of news story at a time when most women reporters were stuck in the society section. "She could be charming in one minute," recalled her colleague, former Star-Telegram managing editor Phil Record, "and tough as nails in the next."
In a 50-year career, she covered every beat except sports in Washington, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington, where she worked for the Arlington Journal while she was 16.
She attended North Texas Agricultural College (now UTA), Columbia University on scholarship and UT Austin. She was one of the first women editors in the Dallas bureau of the Associated Press, and a longtime member of SPJ.
Martha Hand Brown died March 18. She was 83.
She had been called a pioneering Texas journalist who blazed trails for women reporters. And that she surely was.
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MEETINGS
Program to be announced.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 25
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
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Writing Well to Get Reporters' Attention -- and Respect
Paul Harral, Star-Telegram editorial page editor, and J.R. Labbe, deputy editorial page editor, jump the fence for a day to share journalism's best writing secrets with PR flacks, er, pros, during a PRSA professional development seminar, "The Write Stuff," April 12 at the Petroleum Club.
The half-day seminar will impart advice and humorous (now) accounts of seriously bad stuff reaching the editor's desk from among local PR ranks. Want more? Stay for lunch. Harral and Labbe are the noon program, too.
Time & date: seminar 9-11:45 a.m., lunch noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 12
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: seminar and luncheon, members $55, nonmembers $65, students $30; seminar only, members $35, nonmembers $45, students $15; lunch only, members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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STRAIGHT STUFF
The simply huge Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, sponsored by the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at UNT, returns July 14-16 to the Hilton DFW Lakes in Grapevine. More info next month, or, if you can't wait, go here. ...
Do you know what bloggers are saying about your company? Do you subscribe to a podcast? Is your web site interactive? Local experts Eric Naiman with Jumpin' Tex Media and Brian Oberkirch at WeblogsWork will outline the latest techno-trends at the Fort Worth Chamber's half-day wiki-workshop Thursday, May 11. More info next month. Remember, that's May 11. Mark your PDA. ...
Worth a reminder: The TCU Schieffer School of Journalism's second annual Schieffer Symposium, with Bob Schieffer, Jill Abramson, Larry Kramer, Judy Woodruff and Len Downie, will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in TCU's Brown-Lupton Student Center Ballroom. Call (817) 257-5976. ... The D/FW Network of Hispanic Communicators' scholarship reception brunch will be Saturday, April 22, at Los Vaqueros Restaurant on Fort Worth's North Side. Inquire at email@dfwhispanic.org. ...
Application deadline is May 1 for the $500 Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award for a student SPJer who has demonstrated service to the First Amendment. The $500 must be used to attend the 2006 national conference. Send documentation, one-page biography, résumé and three recommendation letters to SPJ/Lewis First Amendment Award, 3909 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, Ind. 46208. Robert Lewis was SPJ national president in 1985-86 and national FOI chair from 1978 to 1983. Call Heather Porter at (317) 927-8000, ext. 204. ...
The Urban Communication Foundation is offering $5,000 for excellence in reporting, analysis or commentary on urban issues. Nominations will be accepted until May 1. E- listra@optonline.net. ... Postmark deadline is July 1 to apply for the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing. The $75,000 award covers courses, travel or other ways to enrich knowledge of a public interest issue. Looks like a typo, but it's not. Entries must be in English. See spj.org. ...
