Marie Anderson

Marie Willard Anderson She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University with a bachelor's degree in English in 1937.

Anderson ran stories other newspapers wouldn't cover. She ran excerpts of Betty Friedan's controversial book The Feminine Mystique at the same time the New York Times and the Washington Post refused to even publish a review. Writing in the scholarly journal Journalism History, Rodger Streitmatter said that Anderson, along with Jurney and Vivian Castleberry, were the "major forces in helping to change women's pages" and that Anderson "ultimately built one of the most progressive women's sections in the country." Castleberry said, "Back then, there were just a few papers that were on the cutting edge of women's issues, and Marie Anderson's was one of that small number. Papers like The New York Times were light years behind." Herald publisher Lee Hills called her "a leader of the transition from the traditional women's section to the modern living section" and said her leadership had made the Herald "a pioneer in that trend." The Herald called her "a trailblazer who transformed women's page journalism into an arena for politics and social issues."

Anderson's papers are in the National Women and Media Collection, housed at the Western Manuscripts Collection at the University of Missouri.

Personal life Anderson died July 2, 1996, in Altamonte Springs, Florida. She had no children and was never married.