Famous Kansans » Journalism
Peggy Hull Deuell
- Born: December 30, 1889
- Died: June 19, 1967
- Connection to Kansas: Born near Bennington, raised in Marysville
Achievement:
Peggy Hull Deuell was the first woman war correspondent accredited by the United States government. She began her career Junction City Sentinel newspaper and later worked for newspapers in Colorado, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. She covered stories on four battlefronts, first traveling to France to cover World War I, U.S. military action in Siberia, the Japanese invasion of China and finally the Pacific theater during World War II. She gained popularity on the home front because her articles presented personal stories of the lives of soldiers.
Photo courtesy of New York Women in Communications
Steve Doocy
- Born: October 19, 1956
- Died:
- Connection to Kansas: Raised in Abilene, graduated high school in Clay Center
Achievement:
Television personality Steve Doocy began his career in journalism as a news reporter in Topeka, Wichita, and Kansas City. Today he serves as a co-host of Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends and as a contributer on other shows on Fox News Channel. His television credits include: House Party with Steve Doocy (1990), Not Just News (1990-1994), NFl on Fox (1994), Fox & Friends (2006 - present), and other appearances. He has wone 11 local Emmy Awards for feature reporting, was named the Associated Press' Feature Reporter of the Year and in 2014 was named "Kansan of the Year" by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas. On top of his television career, he is also a New York Times bestselling author having written two books, Mr. and Mrs. Happy Handbook and Tales from the Dad Side.
Photo courtesy of Fox News Network
Martin & Osa Johnson
- Born: Martin - October 9, 1884, Osa - March 14, 1894
- Died: Martin - January 13, 1937, Osa - January 7, 1953
- Connection to Kansas: Martin - Born in Lincoln, Osa - Born in Chanute
Achievement:
Martin and Osa Johnson were famed explorers, photographers, authors and documentary filmmakers who captured the public's imagination with their adventures in exotic lands. Their travels took them to East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo, then unknown lands in the 1920s and 1930s. Their films and photographs of the wildlife, people and landscapes gave filmmakers and reseachers of today an important source of ethnological and zoological material that has long since vanished and ceased to exist. In all the Johnson's made dozens of films, took thousands of photographs and published nine books including Osa's best-selling autobiography I Married Adventure. The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute is dedicated in their honor.
Photo courtesy of the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
Jim Lehrer
- Born: May 19, 1934
- Died:
- Connection to Kansas: Born in Wichita
Achievement:
Jim Lehrer's career in journalism started in 1959 as a journalist for The Dallas Morning News and later moved to the Dallas Times-Herald where he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He then moved on to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and and in 1975 would become the host of PBS NewsHour serving until 2011. He is an Emmy Award winner, Peabody Award winner, recipient of numerous other journalism awards and was named the 1990 Distiguished Kansan of the Year by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas. He is the author of 20 novels, three memoirs, three screenplays and three plays and was nicknamed the "Dean of Moderators," as he has moderated 12 presidential candidate debates.
Photo courtesy of PBS
Clementine Paddleford
- Born: September 27, 1898
- Died: November 13, 1967
- Connection to Kansas: Born in Stockdale
Achievement:
Clementine Paddleford was a food writer and editor who introduced readers to a global range of food for over 40 years. Known as "America's Number One Food Editor, she wrote food articles for the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Sun, The New York Telegram newspapers and had a weekly column in This Week magazine. While very few food editors strayed from their desks, she traveled 50,000 miles a year in search of food stories. She coined the term "Hero" relating to a submarine sandwich and even tasted the food served on an actual submarine. Her book How America Eats, published in 1960, was the first book to really study the regional cuisine within the United States.
Photo courtesy of Kansas State University Libraries
Roy A. Roberts
- Born: 1887
- Died: February 23, 1967
- Connection to Kansas: Born in Muscotah, raised in Lawrence
Achievement:
Roy A. Roberts worked for the Kansas City Star newspaper for 56 years beginning as a reporter and workin his way up to managing editor, general manager and eventually president. During his time in charge he was closely identified with shaping Kansas Republican politics and guided the paper during its influential period during the presidencies of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Kansas City Star won five Pulitzer Prizes while he was in charge. He authored 22 published works during his life including his own autobiography which won him a second Pulitzer Prize in 1947.
Photo courtesy of Time, Inc.
William Allen White
- Born: February 10, 1868
- Died: January 29, 1944
- Connection to Kansas: Born in Emporia
Achievement:
William Allen White was a newspaper editor, politician and author. He began his career in journalism as an editorial writer for the Kansas City Star newspaper and in 1896 he purchased The Emporia Gazette newspaper and also served as its editor. Known for his fiery editorial he became known as "The Sage of Emporia," and in 1923 won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. He was a leader of the Progressive movement in Kansas and became the iconic spokesman for middle America. Two awards were created in his honor, the William Allen White Award for outstanding Journalistic merit and the William Allen White Children's Book Award. The School of Journalism at the University of Kansas the library at Emporia State University are named in his honor, and a statue of his likeness stands in the rotunda of the Kansas Capitol in Topeka.
Photo courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society