Mary Paxton Keeley

Mary Gentry Paxton Keeley (June 2, 1886 – December 6, 1986) was an American journalist. Born in Independence, Missouri, she grew up next door to Bess Wallace, future wife of President Harry S. Truman, and the two became close friends. Following her mother's early death from tuberculosis, she graduated from Manual Training High School and studied first at Hollins College and the University of Chicago, before joining the first class of the Missouri School of Journalism in 1907. While studying there, she was romantically involved with one of her teachers and childhood friends, Charles Ross, whom she intended to marry. Paxton graduated in 1910, the program's first female graduate and, according to the dean, "the first woman in all the world to hold a degree in journalism".

Shortly after graduating, she began working for the Kansas City Post, as one of the first female reporters in Kansas City, Missouri. She left the position after fifteen months when she fell ill with appendicitis and, when her engagement to Ross broke off, she briefly moved to Greenville, Mississippi, to stay with cousins. She was encouraged by Walter Williams, the dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, to study home economics journalism at the University of Chicago and lived in Alabama and Virginia, where she worked for 4-H clubs and as a home demonstration agent. Paxton moved to France to work in the canteens with the YMCA during World War I.

At the end of the war, Paxton married Edmund Burke Keeley and the couple had one son, John Gallatin Paxton Keeley, in 1921. Her husband fell ill two years later and she worked as a home extension agent in Holt County, Missouri, and then as a reporter for the Atchison County Mail. After his death, she received her master's degree in journalism and joined Christian College (now Columbia College) as a journalism instructor and founder of the student newspaper, The Microphone. She remained an active writer, publishing the children's book River Gold in 1928 and writing several plays which were performed locally. In 1952, she retired from teaching and became an amateur genealogist, photographer, and painter. She died in 1986 at the age of 100.

Early life Paxton was born Mary Gentry Paxton on June 2, 1886, in Independence, Missouri. Her father was John Gallatin Paxton, a lawyer, and her mother was Mary Neil Gentry, an elocution teacher. Her paternal grandfather was military officer Elisha F. Paxton, making her the great-aunt of actor Bill Paxton, while her maternal great-grandparents were Ann Hawkins Gentry and Richard Gentry. Her mother was an early graduate of the University of Missouri who established the Mary Paxton Study Class in 1895, where local women gathered to study languages, history, and literature. Her paternal uncle, Matthew White Paxton, was a journalist who published the Rockbridge County News and her maternal aunt was Sarah Jane "Sally" Gentry, the second woman to graduate from the University of Missouri in 1873. Paxton was the eldest of five children, including her brothers Frank, Matthew, and Edward, and her sister Elizabeth. After graduating in 1904, she chose to wait to attend university due to her mother's death and her father's unwillingness to pay. Classes were taught in basement of Jesse Hall, and the first cohort consisted of three professors – Williams, Charles Ross, and Silas Bent – and 97 students, including 13 women. Paxton's father agreed to support her in the pursuit despite her aunts' insisting that women could not be reporters, but she insisted on going as "[her] family were pioneers" and she "knew [she] had to behave with a certain amount of dignity because nobody would follow [her] if [she] didn't".

Only weeks into the academic year, the University of Missouri Journalism Students' Association was founded and Paxton was elected as the first vice president. Paxton was also involved with the program's newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, and was instrumental in challenging the policy of the university yearbook, the Savitar, which prohibited women from joining. She was informed that as the men smoked at meetings, women could not attend. In response, Paxton organized the women on campus to vote a certain way in the student elections, backing candidates who would agree to change the yearbook's policy. When the rule was relaxed, she was offered a position on the staff but turned it down in favor of another woman.thumb Paxton with the Missouri School of Journalism's 1910 graduating classPaxton began dating Ross in spring 1909. They knew each other from their hometown and had gone on a date the year prior, beginning a correspondence that would produce 400 letters in two years. As a student, she was living at the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house, which caused Ross embarrassment due to his status as her professor. Her father had bought her a second-hand Remington typewriter when she was twelve, which made her the only person on campus to own a typewriter, and her room in the house was nicknamed "Hell" for the mess and the sound of the typewriter. Paxton was similarly conscious of her relationship with Ross and avoided working on the Missourian as Ross taught the course. The couple made plans that summer to eventually marry.

As a member of the journalism school's first cohort, Paxton was given unusual assignments, including being asked by Bent to conduct an interview with the mascot of a rival college, which turned out to be a live bear cub.

While overseas, Paxton observed that the soldiers spoke in slang terms, which she reported in an article published in the journal American Speech in 1930 titled "A.E.F. English". The article provides a list of words, including terms such as "shavetail" and "bunk fatigue", and represents the first list of World War I slang compiled by a woman. Many of the terms that she defined were later included in Howard N. Rose's Thesaurus of Slang and Maurice Harley Weseen's Dictionary of American Slang, both published in 1934.

Due to the war, Paxton missed Wallace's wedding to Harry Truman on June 9, 1919, but arrived back in the United States shortly thereafter in July 1919. Two years later, Wallace gave birth to her daughter Margaret Truman, and Paxton was named one of her godmothers. Around the same time, Paxton's husband fell ill with kidney disease and was transferred to the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. She was a feature writer and head of public relations for the paper. Meanwhile, her husband's disease had spread to his mind and he was transferred to a state mental hospital in Virginia, where he died in 1926. While there, she taught creative writing and founded the student newspaper, The Microphone. She also wrote several plays, some of which were performed locally. It was also broadcast by the Kansas City-based radio station KMBC in February 1929. She wrote Vinnie Ream, about the sculptor and Christian College alumni Vinnie Ream, with Henry L. Mueller. The River Rat won the St. Louis Art League's contest in 1931. The following year, Wind in the Stars was performed locally, based on the story of Theodosia Burr. She published Christian College Prize Plays in 1934, an edited collection of her students' plays.

Paxton and Wallace continued to write each other frequent letters, although Paxton made a point of avoiding Washington, D.C. so Wallace would not feel she was looking for favors. Wallace and Truman were frustrated that the press often portrayed them as "rubes", including a story by a reporter for The Kansas City Star, Duke Shoop, about their experience at a party thrown by D.C. socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean. In response, Paxton wrote a letter to Wallace in February 1945, advising that Truman – by then vice-president of the United States – would benefit from appointing a press secretary. Ross was ultimately given the post, after Truman was elevated to the presidency.

Later life Paxton retired from teaching in June 1952, although she continued to write a gardening column for The Kansas City Star and to edit the Missouri Alumnus. She edited The Boone County Cookbook and wrote articles for Woman's Day, The Ladies' Home Journal, and Writer's Monthly. She was also an amateur genealogist and photographer, showing off her photographs and paintings locally in 1965, and created a series of dolls for historical women in the state which were showcased at the 1939 World's Fair. She painted a historical mural for Calvary Episcopal Church in Columbia, which Wallace described as "the most interesting thing you have ever done". Paxton was in regular correspondence with several well-known Missourians, including the Trumans, the poet Orrick Glenday Johns, the author Homer Croy, the poet Thomas McAfee, and the writer Rose Wilder Lane. Paxton helped found the Columbia Art League in 1959 and joined Kappa Kappa Gamma, Theta Sigma Phi, and Kappa Tau Alpha. Her only son died on November 5, 1971, from the same kidney disorder that had killed his father. The following year, Paxton traveled from Columbia to visit Wallace while Truman was dying in the hospital. In 1977, she moved to the Lenoir Convalescent Center in Columbia, where she published poetry in the center's anthology. Prior to Wallace's death in 1981, Paxton wrote in her final letter to her lifelong friend, "No one could take your place in my life".

Death and legacy

Paxton died on December 6, 1986, at the Lenoir Convalescent Center at the age of 100. She received the Alumni Citation Award from the Missouri School of Journalism and her graduation portrait has hung in the university's graduate studies center in Walter Williams Hall since 1974. The seminar suite in the graduate studies center was renamed to honor Paxton when she turned 100. While at Christian College, Paxton acquired the original copy desk from the Missouri School of Journalism and a plaque was added to the desk to honor her in May 1966. In fall 2002, Mary Paxton Keeley Elementary School of the Columbia Public School system was named in her honor.

Paxton was described as "The First Lady of Missouri Journalism". Following her death, her book Back in Independence was published, at her request. Her papers are held by the State Historical Society of Missouri and the National Women and Media Collection at the University of Missouri. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library has her correspondence with Ross and an oral history with Paxton that was conducted by James R. Fuchs.

Works

River Gold (1928) Mary Gentry and John Gallatin Paxton, a memoir (1967) Christian College Prize Plays Volume I (1934) Back in Independence'' (1992)