Doris Fleeson (May 20, 1901 – August 1, 1970) was an American journalist and columnist and was the first woman in the United States to have a nationally syndicated political column.
Early life
Fleeson was born in Sterling,
Kansas, to clothing store manager, William Fleeson, and Helen Fleeson (née Tebbe).
She was the youngest of six children.
In 1918, she graduated from Sterling High School, where she was the class
valedictorian.
In 1918, Fleeson attended Sterling College, then known as Cooper College, for an academic year.
Career
Early career
Fleeson's first journalism job was at the
Pittsburg Sun. She moved to Evanston, Illinois, to become the society editor of the
News-Index and then to Long Island, New York to be an editor at
Great Neck News. In 1927, she joined the
New York Daily News as a general assignment reporter, eventually moving to the newspaper's Albany bureau to cover state politics.
Washington career
Fleeson and her husband, fellow
Daily News reporter John O'Donnell, moved to Washington D.C. to work on at Daily News' Washington Bureau in 1930. They started a column together called "Capital Stuff" in 1933 that was published until their divorce in 1942. She left the
Daily News in 1943 to be a war correspondent for
Woman's Home Companion. She reported from France and Italy during the war before returning to Washington to write a political column for the
Boston Globe and
Washington Evening Star. In 1945, the column was picked up by the
Bell Syndicate and distributed across the country. At its height in 1960, her column ran in about 100 newspapers.
Honors and memberships
-
1957: Fleeson received an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa) from The Sage Colleges, the former Russell Sage College.
-
1954: Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, the American Society of Newspaper Editors
-
New York Paperwoman's Club for Distinguished Reporting
-
Member, Women's National Press Club
Personal life
In 1930, Fleeson married
New York Daily News colleague, John O'Donnell, with whom she had a daughter, Doris O'Donnell. The marriage ended in divorce in 1942.
In 1958, Fleeson married Dan A. Kimball,
In 1970, Fleeson died of complications from a stroke.
Further reading
