Louise Malloy

Louise Malloy (December 12, 1858 – ) was an American journalist, writer and social activist. She was probably the first woman to work as a newspaper journalist in Baltimore, Maryland, and spent three decades writing for the Baltimore American. She also became a playwright and two of her plays were performed on Broadway.

Early life She was born Maria Louisa Malloy on December 12, 1858, in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest of three children of John and Frances (Fannie) Sollers Malloy. She attended the Baltimore Academy of the Visitation, a Catholic school, and was a devout Catholic her entire life. Despairing what to write about, Malloy recalled an incident that became the centerpiece of her story. ...she had seen a woman, in her eagerness to cross a crowded thoroughfare, walk straight through the procession of wagons and cars, looking neither of the right nor the left, and walk to the opposite side of the street. Every vehicle had stopped to allow the woman to pass unheeding and to all appearances unheeded. Apparently she passed the test, as Angus told her to "look around and make a place for yourself". She promptly created a woman's department at the American called "Facts and Fancies". She started a humor column, "Notes and Notions", under the penname Josh Wink at a time when few women were humorists. She scored a number of high-profile interviews, including First Lady of Maryland Mary Ridgely Preston Brown and Baltimore mayor E. Clay Timanus. She also became the paper's drama critic. Producer David Belasco called Malloy "the greatest dramatic critic of her day upon whose every word we hung. Opening in Baltimore and rating her praise we inevitably went on to Broadway success." She often wrote about Catholic faith. In 1920, she attended the canonization of Joan of Arc in Rome. She wrote a pamphlet titled The Life Story of Mother Seton (1924), in which she hoped that Elizabeth Ann Seaton would become the first American-born Catholic saint.

Her plays The Player's Maid and The Boy Lincoln (1940) were both staged on Broadway.

Death Louise Malloy died on February 25, 1947, in Baltimore.