Marjorie Hunter, Elon class of 1942 and one of the nation's pioneering female journalists, died April 10. Details...
Ms. Hunter was managing editor of the Elon student newspaper and was also a correspondent for the local paper, The Burlington Times-News. After graduating from Elon she worked as a reporter for The Raleigh News and Observer, The Houston Press and The Winston-Salem Journal.
She joined the New York Times in 1961 and covered Washington, breaking through the male-only barrier that existed in the 1960s.
Ms. Hunter was named Elon’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 1972. Her estate specifies that her memorabilia, including personal papers and historical photographs beginning with the Kennedy and Johnson eras will be left to Elon. They will be archived and placed on display at the Elon School of Communications. She also left a bequest to Elon, and a classroom will be named in her memory.
Photo (right): Sept. 9, 1969: Marjorie Hunter with Carl Albert and Gerald Ford on occasion of her swearing in as president of the Women’s National Press Club. Carl Albert was House Speaker at the time and President Ford was then the House Republican minority leader.
Following is the text of the New York Times obituary by Irvin Molotsky (reprinted by permission)
Washington, April 10
Marjorie Hunter, a reporter for The New York Times who covered the White House and Congress at a time when most other women in Washington journalism were assigned to the activities of the first lady, died here today. She was 78.
The cause was acute leukemia.
Journalism was almost completely a male bastion here until Eleanor Roosevelt started holding press conferences every other Tuesday in the 1930’s and decreed that only women could attend.
The Times at first resisted assigning a woman to its Washington bureau and instead sent a reporter from New York to the White House each time that Mrs. Roosevelt held a press conference.
In time, that reporter left the paper and Ms. Hunter — Maggie to everyone from copy boys to presidents — was hired in 1961 as her replacement.
But Ms. Hunter, who had covered the Legislature in North Carolina and had an affinity for politicians, soon tired of news of the first lady and persuaded her boss, James Reston, to assign her to cover Congress and other government news.
In “The Girls in the Balcony,” (Random House, 1992) Nan Robertson, a former reporter for The Times, wrote of the obstacles that women in Washington journalism faced in the 1960’s. The balcony in the title referred to the perch above the auditorium of the National Press Club, which did not allow women on the floor and barred them from membership.
“Maggie Hunter recalled the day she started a little mutiny at The New York Times bureau because of the balcony,” Ms. Robertson wrote. “Scotty Reston, then the bureau chief, had sent her off to the club to cover a speech by Madame Nhu, the beautiful and sinister female leader of South Vietnam, the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu.
“Now, Maggie, a Southern lady and a thorough professional, was no feminist firebrand. That day, however, `I stood on a rolled-up carpet in the back of the balcony and I couldn’t hear a goddamned word going on down there — I couldn’t hear a word.’
“Afterwards, she marched, fuming into Reston’s office. She blurted out, `Scotty, don’t you ever send me to that damned National Press Club ever again.’
“Reston turned to Wallace Carroll, the bureau’s news editor, who had befriended Maggie at The Winston- Salem Journal in North Carolina and had brought her to The Times. `Wally,’ said Reston slowly, with an air of innocent wonderment, `what’s wrong with Maggie?’
“‘I don’t think,’ she said years later, `that Scotty ever understood why I was so mad.’ ”
Ms. Hunter was born June 2, 1922, in Bethany, W.Va., and grew up on the campus of Elon College in North Carolina, where her father, Joshua A. Hunter, was a professor and her mother, Minna, taught in the local school system.
She was managing editor of the Elon College newspaper while a student and was also a correspondent for the local paper, The Burlington Times-News. She graduated from Elon in 1942 and then worked as a reporter for The Raleigh News and Observer, The Houston Press and The Winston-Salem Journal.
She retired from the Times in 1986.
Ms. Hunter is survived by a niece, Susie Frye of Hickory, N.C., and a nephew, Thomas Walker of Richmond, Va.
In 1969, Ms. Hunter was elected president of the Women’s National Press Club. Its name was changed to the Washington Press Club when it started admitting men. The National Press Club finally admitted women in 1971 and the two clubs were merged in 1985.
Ms. Hunter was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations Hall of Fame in 1992. Her citation said:
“A firm believer in the watchdog function of the press, Hunter gained notoriety for a 1955 incident in which she challenged the Appropriations Committee’s right to convene in closed session and had to be carried from the room while still sitting in her chair.”
Ms. Hunter was managing editor of the Elon student newspaper and was also a correspondent for the local paper, The Burlington Times-News. She graduated from Elon in 1942 and then worked as a reporter for The Raleigh News and Observer, The Houston Press and The Winston-Salem Journal.