|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Remembering '77 Stanford journalism fellow Kay Mills
Kay Mills"Her passing is a tremendous loss for the Knight Fellowships program," said Director James Bettinger. " I can't think of a greater champion of this program. She eagerly embraced its evolution over the years. We will miss her."
Mills worked for several major news organizations in her career, blazing a trail as one of the first women (and often the only one) on the Los Angeles Times editorial board, as well as chronicling courageous women in history. Mills was the author of five books, including "A Place in the News: From the Women's Pages to the Front Page," her anecdotal history of women in American journalism (1988), and "This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer" (1993). Mills was driven to write "A Place in the News" because, she told the New York Times some years ago, "I was trying to sort out why this profession I cared so much about really didn't return the favor for women - and I might add, minorities - for such a long time." She believed that broadening newspaper staffs beyond "the same old interchangeable races running America's newsrooms" would improve coverage. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree from Northwestern University in African history. It wasn't until she began looking for her first job out of college that she realized just how tough things were for women. She recounted that while interviewing for a job with Newsweek's Chicago bureau in 1966, the bureau chief said, "I need someone I can send anywhere, like to riots. And besides, what would you do if someone you were covering ducked into the men's room?" Kay Mills was a reporter for Newhouse News Service in Washington, D.C. when she was selected as Professional Journalism Fellow (now called the Knight Fellowships) at Stanford University for the 1976-77 academic year. In her essay applying for the fellowship, she declared her love of the craft: "Journalism, for me, has always been there," she said. "There was never a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. " At Stanford, she focused her studies on the historical trends and media coverage of social movements, including the civil rights movement and the women's movement. And she made a great number of life-long friends. "She had a gift for reaching out to people," said Solveig Torvik, one of her journalism fellowships classmates from 1977. "She mentored younger journalists and kept up a witty, thoughtful, far-flung correspondence with a large network of friends. She'll be missed." Nick Snow, another of her '77 classmates at Stanford, recalled Mills as an incisive questioner of authority figures, but also with a "wicked sense of humor." The following year after her fellowship, she took a job as an editorial writer with the Los Angeles Times. She ultimately served as assistant editor of the Sunday Opinion section. During her years at the Times, Kay became one of the early members of the Journalism & Women Symposium, a national nonprofit organization created to support the professional empowerment and personal growth of women in journalism. She was a member of the first board of directors, served as the JAWS newsletter editor beginning in 1987 (a job she would hold off and on for years) and was JAWS' unofficial historian. Knight Fellowships deputy director Dawn Garcia recalled great conversations with Mills in recent years as they edited the quarterly JAWS newsletter via telephone when Garcia was JAWS president from 2007-2009. "She always had a sense of historical perspective, a feeling for the importance of women in journalism, and a good sense of humor." Mills also kept strong ties to the Knight Fellowships program, helping interview U.S. fellowship candidates for many years, and attending every one of the seven Knight Fellowships alumni reunion conferences. Emeritus director James Risser remembered Mills as "a great supporter of the Knight Fellowships because she knew what a difference it had made in her life and career." In 1991, Kay decided to leave the Times and devote herself to writing books and freelancing full-time. For all her serious work, Mills' friends from the Knight Fellowships, JAWS and elsewhere remember her best as a wonderful mentor, offering advice over a glass of wine or making a salient point in group discussions. She was ready for a tennis match or a hike or a quiet conversation. "Kay's generous spirit and intrepid curiosity will continue to inspire me, and my sadness will gradually be tempered by the knowledge that Kay's life and work made a huge difference for so many," wrote Margie Freivogel, a past president of JAWS, who now runs the news web site, the St. Louis Beacon. At the time of her death, Kay was working on a mystery novel set in Paris, which she slyly said required plenty of on-the-ground research. Corrine Nelson, whose late husband Lyle Nelson was director of the Knight Fellowships from 1969 to 1985, remembered Mills' wonderful annual travel letters "so full of fun and fact-filled adventures - where to have tea, what museums to visit and what guide to use. High on the list of Kay's gifts was her enthusiasm for sharing her love of life." A memorial service has been set for Tuesday, Feb. 8, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001. A Los Angeles-area memorial event is being planned for Feb. 27 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica: 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, 90404. Memorial donations for the Mary Katherine Mills Scholarship Fund may be sent to the Penn State University College of the Liberal Arts, Dean's Office, 111 Sparks Building, University Park, Pa. 16802.
|
|
|
|
|
