Jurney, Dorothy Misener (1909-2002), Papers, 1920-1992 (C3904)
2 linear feet
INTRODUCTION
Professional papers of Dorothy Misener Jurney, a reporter and editor on newspapers in Indiana, Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The papers consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence, speeches, photographs, slides, and miscellaneous material.
DONOR INFORMATION
The Dorothy Misener Jurney Papers were donated to the University of Missouri by Jurney on 19 October 1988, with additions on 24 May 1989, 12 June 1989 and 18 July 1989 (Accession No. 4886). The papers are part of the National Women and Media Collection.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dorothy Misener was born on 8 May 1909 in Michigan City, Indiana, to Herbert Roy Misener and Mary Zeola Hershey Misener. Her father was the publisher of the Michigan City News and her mother was a suffragist who, in 1928, became one of the first three women elected to the Indiana House of Representatives. Dorothy was encouraged from childhood to pursue the career of her choice, but it is not surprising that she followed her father into journalism. She attended Western College for Women in Ohio and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she received her degree in 1930.
Dorothy worked for her father's newspaper until he sold it in 1939, when she became women's editor of the Gary (IN) Post-Tribune. Her marriage to Frank J. Jurney took her to the Panama Canal Zone and a position as assistant to the Press Representative of the Panama Canal from 1941-1942. Upon the Jurneys' return to the United States in 1943, Dorothy accepted a job as assistant women's editor of the Miami News until a career move for her husband in 1944 led to a position for herself as assistant city editor, and later acting city editor, of the Washington, D.C. News.
At the end of World War II, Ms. Jurney and other women had to relinquish their positions to the male reporters returning from the armed services. A return to her former job as assistant women's editor at the Miami News was not at all satisfactory after the experience of wartime journalism in the nation's capital. In 1949, Dorothy moved from the News to the Miami Herald, where, as women's editor, she was given the authority to develop a women's section that became widely recognized for its excellence in the journalism field. Dorothy Jurney won several awards during this period, including the Florida Press Club award for general excellence in women's news (six times) and National Headliner of Women in Communications.
In 1959 Dorothy's marriage to Frank Jurney ended in a legal separation and she accepted a position as women's editor on the Detroit Free Press, where she was able to stretch her talents as a journalist even further. The years she spent in Detroit were exciting times for women. Her section reported extensively on the women's movement and on political, social, economic and governmental gains made by women. She was again recognized with several awards, including a nomination by the Michigan Press Women association as Newswoman of the Year of the National Federation of Press Women. In 1973 Jurney was made assistant managing editor of the Free Press, giving her the opportunity to become a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She also was the first woman board member of the Associated Press Managing Editors organization. Later that same year she was asked to move to the Philadelphia Inquirer as assistant managing editor/features during a period of transition for the paper. She retired from the Inquirer in 1975.
Dorothy Jurney kept busy after retirement from active newspaper work. She worked for the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, 1975-1979; participated in the National Women's Conference in Houston, 1977; founded the Woman's Network, an editorial talent search firm, 1977-1979; conducted a statistical study on women in news management positions and published an annual report of her findings in the Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1977-1986; and served as media specialist to the Women's Study Program and Policy Center at George Washington University on a project that analyzed newspaper reporting of issues and events of importance to women, and published the findings in a report called New Directions for News in 1983. (See collection 3901, New Directions for News, Research Project, Papers). She became a board member of the newspaper think tank, also called New Directions for News and located at the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School, which resulted from that study.
Jurney was a member of numerous professional and community service organizations including the National Federation of Press Women, the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Fund for Women, the Journalism and Women Symposium, Radnor ABC (a branch of the national A Better Chance organization to assist minority high school students prepare for college) and Soroptimist International. She also traveled extensively, especially in Asia, about which she wrote many newspaper and magazine articles. In later years she lived in a retirement community specializing in "food for the mind," as she continued her quest for knowledge and new experiences. Ms. Jurney died 19 June 2002 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The Dorothy Misener Jurney Papers consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence, speeches, photographs, slides, and miscellaneous material documenting Jurney's career as a newspaper reporter, editor and consultant from 1930 to the 1980s. The papers are arranged in three series:
The Professional series is subdivided into activities, articles, and speeches. The activities section, arranged alphabetically by the name of the organization or event in which Dorothy Jurney was involved, includes correspondence, pamphlets, programs, photographs and miscellaneous items. Of particular interest is the publication she helped produce for the U.S. Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, "...To Form a More Perfect Union...," included in folder 7.
The section of articles is arranged chronologically from 1929 to 1987 and includes correspondence, notes, clippings and photographs relating to published articles written by Jurney on a variety of topics, often about women or her own foreign travels. Folders 41-44 contain photographs of a 1972 trip to the Soviet Union and provide glimpses of architecture and people in some of the less-visited areas of the USSR, such as Uzbekistan and Siberia, as well as Moscow and Leningrad. A 1969 interview with Imelda Marcos of the Philippines in folder 33, and articles about China and Bhutan are also quite fascinating.
Jurney's speeches are also arranged chronologically from the 1940s to 1988 and usually concern women in journalism. Folder 66 contains slides of pages from the women's and lifestyle sections of the Detroit Free Press and other newspapers, for use in demonstrating certain points in her talks about news coverage of women's issues.
The Women Editors series consists of research notes, statistical charts, news clippings, and correspondence relating to a ten-year study of women in directing editorships -- policy-making, management positions on newspapers -- conducted by Jurney from 1977 to 1986 and reported annually in the publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Arranged by type of material, the series is subdivided into background material, annual worksheets and reports, correspondence, and published comments about the study. It is interesting to see the changes in the percentages of women in positions of power on newspapers during the period examined.
The Biographical series, arranged by type of material, consists of clippings and awards, correspondence and photographs documenting career achievements of Dorothy Misener Jurney. Of particular interest are letters in folder 109 from newspaper columnists Emily Post and Dorothy Dix, and from Mary Welsh (Mrs. Ernest) Hemingway; a 1929 photograph of a small-town newsroom in folder 112; and, in folder 114, a photograph of a 1969 interview with Imelda Marcos, wife of the president of the Philippines.
FOLDER LIST
| f. 1-27 | Activities |
| f. 1 | Asian-American Women Writer's Conference, Hawaii, 1967 |
| f. 2-3 | International Newspaper Women's Conference, Washington, D.C., 1971 |
| f. 4 | International Women's Media Conference, Washington, D.C., 1986 |
| f. 5-11 | National Committee, Observance of International Women's Year, 1975 |
| f. 12-15 | National Committee for U.N. Women's Conference, Nairobi, 1985 |
| f. 16 | Radnor ABC Alumni, 1987-1988 |
| f. 17-18 | U.S. Committee for U.N. Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 1984-1988 |
| f. 19-21 | Western College Conference, 1983 |
| f. 22-26 | Women's Network, The, 1976-1978 |
| f. 27 | Miscellaneous activities, 1935-1985 |
| f. 28-55 | Articles written by Dorothy Jurney |
| f. 28 | 1929-1942--Miscellaneous |
| f. 29-30 | 1954--Jamaica |
| f. 31 | 1956-1964--Miscellaneous |
| f. 32 | 1965--Scandinavia |
| f. 33 | 1969--East Asia and Philippines |
| f. 34-44 | 1972--Articles and photographs of Soviet Union |
| f. 45 | 1972-1974--Miscellaneous |
| f. 46-47 | 1975--China |
| f. 48 | 1975-1978--Miscellaneous |
| f. 49-51 | 1979--Bhutan and miscellaneous |
| f. 52 | 1980--China's 'Wild West" |
| f. 53 | 1982--Native American history |
| f. 54 | 1984-1986--Miscellaneous |
| f. 55 | 1987--Journalism |
| f. 56-66 | Speeches |
| f. 56 | 1940s--Panama travelogue |
| f. 57 | 1975--Journalism |
| f. 58 | 1976--Chinese women, women journalists |
| f. 59-60 | 1977--Women journalists |
| f. 61 | 1978--Journalism |
| f. 62 | 1980-1981--Women journalists |
| f. 63 | 1984--Journalism |
| f. 64 | 1986--60th high school reunion |
| f. 65 | 1988, n.d.--Journalism |
| f. 66 | Slides illustrating women's sections of newspapers |
| f. 67-70 | Background material |
| f. 71-73 | Worksheets and reports, 1977 |
| f. 74-75 | Worksheets and reports, 1978 |
| f. 76-77 | Worksheets and reports, 1979 |
| f. 78-79 | Worksheets and reports, 1980 |
| f. 80-81 | Worksheets and reports, 1981 |
| f. 82-83 | Worksheets and reports, 1982 |
| f. 84-85 | Worksheets and reports, 1983 |
| f. 86-87 | Worksheets and reports, 1984 |
| f. 88-89 | Worksheets and reports, 1985 |
| f. 90-91 | Worksheets and reports, 1986 |
| f. 92-96 | Correspondence, 1978-1987 |
| f. 97-99 | Published comments |
| f. 100 | Clippings and awards, 1920-1955 |
| f. 101 | Clippings and awards, 1956-1959 |
| f. 102 | Clippings and awards, 1960s |
| f. 103 | Clippings and awards, 1970s |
| f. 104 | Clippings and awards, 1980-1984 |
| f. 105 | Clippings and awards, 1984 |
| f. 106 | Clippings and awards, 1985-1988 |
| f. 107 | Clippings and awards, 1988 |
| f. 108 | Clippings and awards, 1991-1992 |
| f. 109-111 | Correspondence, 1942-1992 |
| f. 112 | Photographs, 1920s-ca.1958 |
| f. 113 | Photographs, 1959-ca.1960s |
| f. 114 | Photographs, 1961-1986 |
| f. 115 | Miscellaneous |
INDEX TERMS
These index terms are the subjects, people, places, etc. under which this collection is listed in all available indexes at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia. If you are interested in a specific index term, please contact the reference staff.
- Allan, Mrs. Wallace H.
- Allan, Virginia R.
- Asia, Southeast--Description and travel
- Asia--Description and travel
- Bhutan (Asia)
- Bhutan (Asia)--Description and travel
- China--Description and travel
- Costume, 1950s
- Costume--Uzbekistan
- Dix, Dorothy
- Far East--Description and travel
- Home economics, 1929
- Homemakers, 1929
- Household equipment & supplies, 1929
- Indians, Cherokee
- International Women's Year, 1975
- Journalism
- Jurney, Dorothy Misener (1909-2002)
- Marcos, Imelda (1929- )
- National Women & Media Collection
- Newspapers, Newsroom, 1929
- Panama, Description & travel
- Paxson, Marjorie
- Philippine Islands, Description & travel
- Post, Emily (1873-1960)
- Professional ethics
- Religion & science
- Scandinavia, Description & travel
- Soviet Union, Description & travel, 1972
- Soviet Union, Leningrad, 1972
- Soviet Union, Moscow, 1972
- Soviet Union, Siberia, 1972
- Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, 1972
- Soviet Union, Women, 1972
- West Indies--Description and travel
- Wilson, Jean Gaddy
- Women journalists
- Women, China
- Women, Soviet Union, 1972
- Women--Mass media
- Women's movement