Learn more about our rich history through these short items about our members:
From The WPCI Mid-Day Moon, Nov. 3, 1916, Volume 2, No. 2, in Sports:
“Miss Esther Griffin White — the famous Hammer Thrower of Richmond — made a new record this past Thursday. She hit a prominent citizen at a distance of seven feet and knocked him flat.”
Esther White Griffin, 1869-1954, a founding member of Woman’s Press Club of Indiana, became the reporter of “choice” for society coverage, arts reviews, politics and special events in Richmond, Ind., during a long journalism career. She was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1992.
North Vernon Plain Dealer and Sun
From the WPCI Bulletin, March 1980:
Mary Lee Cull is the only unpaid female deputy sheriff in the state of Indiana. She was sworn in on Jan. 1, 1979, has taken all the law enforcement courses, has learned to shoot a gun and has become radar certified. Those Cull sisters are quite a pair. Betty is a Kentucky Colonel and Mary Lee is an Indiana Deputy Sheriff.”
Betty Margaret and Mary Lee Cull both wrote for the North Vernon Plain Dealer in North Vernon, Ind. Betty died in 1988, at age 68. When Mary Lee died in 2004, at age 79, she left funds for a Woman’s Press Club of Indiana scholarship in both their names, which is used for membership continuing education and sending delegates to the NFPW national convention.
A major road in North Vernon is name Betty Cull Drive. The two sisters tied for the Kate Milner Rabb Award, the highest award given by Woman’s Press Club of Indiana, in 1976. It is given for continuing excellence and continuing service in journalism.
From the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Overview: Journalism:
“Women journalists also made significant contributions for several decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Grace Julian Clarke wrote a column and edited a woman’s page for the Indianapolis Star. Mary Elizabeth Bostwick was one of the first female reporters in Indianapolis. She covered the 1913 flood for the Sun and later worked for the Star from 1914 to 1958. Margaret Moore Post worked for over 50 years with Indianapolis Newspapers Inc., and founded the journalism program at Franklin College.”
Of the three, two were members of WPCI:
Grace Julian Clarke, a charter member of WPCI and a member of the committee appointed to draw up the bylaws, was woman’s club editor of the Indianapolis Star when it printed a center page story on the founding of WPCI, with photos of seven officers, on Feb. 19. 1913. Clarke one of Indiana’s first advocates for women’s suffrage and the author of several books.
Margaret Moore Post, when she was Margaret L. Moore, was a wartime president of WPCI (1942-44). As Margaret Moore Post. she was Woman of Achievement in 1967, 1971 and 1974. She also is the author of “First Ladies of Indiana & the Governors, 1816-1984,” and “Our Town Yesterday: Plainfield, IN, A Pictorial History,” 1986.
From the South Bend Tribune, April 5, 2011:
“Evelyn Larson Hudson, a former Tribute editor and columnist, died Saturday (April 3, 2011) in Naples, Fla. She was 87 years old.
Then known as Evelyn Larson, she served on the Tribune’s staff for 25 years, until she retired in 1989.
Hudson joined The Tribune in 1964 as a writer for the society pages, which focused on weddings, social events and other news deemed primarily of interest to homemakers. After becoming the department editor in 1970, she led the change to the Living Today section, which included lengthy articles about lifestyle issues and topics of interest to working women.
Hudson was a quiet, modest, mannerly woman who managed to push a then male-dominated profession into publishing broader offerings for women. She was rather shy, but had an inner strength that carried her through obstacles she encountered.
She was known as a considerate and challenging supervisor who served as a mentor to numerous young reporters.”
Hudson was a WPCI member when she died. She continued throughout her career to further the goals of our founders, which included putting emphasis on issues important to women, such as child labor, wages, family and health care and the rights of women to lead their own lives as late as 2009.
More:
Read a press release regarding the club’s centennial year.
See the Indiana proclamation for Woman’s Press Club of Indiana Day.
See the City of Indianapolis proclamation for Woman’s Press Club of Indiana Day.