Category Archives: Member Blog Post

By Betty Medsger, JAWS member

I was the only woman in the newsroom when I was hired to be a reporter at my first job at The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, PA.

The whole situation was unusual, beginning with how I got the job. I graduated from college in January 1964 and planned to teach history in Pittsburgh, beginning that fall. I was living at home and signed up to do substitute teaching. I was disappointed at the infrequent calls, and, as I was walking by the newspaper offices one day, I decided I should get some kind of steady work until my full-time teaching job started.

By Katherine Ann Rowlands, JAWS Ambassador

An exciting and important effort to memorialize the work and lives of JAWS members is well underway, thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri who are documenting the oral histories of many of our members.

By Jessica Langlois, JAWS member

On a rainy December Saturday in central Los Angeles, eight JAWS members met with a local documentary filmmaker over brunch to discuss the work-art-life balance. Many of us were meeting for the first time, so we all wore name tags, but they were hardly necessary — before long, we were splitting sides of pancakes, sampling our neighbor’s quinoa, and embracing, eager to follow up on one another’s work and meet again in Palm Springs in January. Like so many JAWS events, this local gathering felt less like a formal networking meetup, and more like an intimate brunch between creative friends.

By Linda Deutsch, the AP’s special correspondent in Los Angeles.

Below is a first-person account I wrote on the first big story I ever covered — the ’63 March on Washington.

Through the years, when I tell people that I covered the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, they often ask: “Did you know?”

They mean did I know I was present at the making of history? Did I know I was hearing one of the greatest speeches of all time — Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech?” Did I know that the nation would change because of this day?

The answer seems to be yes.