Kathleen Hite

Mary Kathleen Hite (June 17, 1917 – February 18, 1989) was an American writer for radio and television, including writing for the popular Western series Gunsmoke. Hite was the first female staff writer for CBS.

Early life and education Kathleen was born in Wichita, Kansas, the youngest of three children of Estelle (née Worrell) and Frank Hite. Her father was a cattleman, as was her older brother Russell, who later operated the family's ranch in New Mexico.

Career Hite's career in radio and television started in Wichita, where she began working at a radio station soon after her graduation from Wichita State University. In the coming years, she also proposed stories and wrote scripts for several television series, including The Jane Wyman Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mystery Playhouse, Thriller, Gunsmoke, and The Waltons.

Hite's contributions to TV series about the American West were particularly substantive, as she wrote over 100 scripts in total for shows like Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, The Monroes, and Empire. During the 1950s and 1960s, she was among a small number of female writers for television Westerns and was identified in that period as "one of the top Cowboy-and-Indian scribes of all time".

Awards and honors Hite received the Headliner Award from the National Professional Journalism Society in 1964. She was also made an honorary member of the Choctaw Native American tribe in 1965.

Death Hite died on February 18, 1989, in Carefree, Arizona, at the age of 71.