Sallie Joy White

Sallie Joy White (1847-1909) was an American journalist. In 1870 she became the first woman staff reporter on a Boston newspaper when she was hired by the Boston Post, and she continued to write for local newspapers until her death in 1909. She co-founded the New England Woman's Press Association, and was an officer in several national press groups.

White was a strong supporter of women's suffrage and women's education. In addition to her regular work as a journalist, she wrote and lectured on the subject of career paths for women. Having had a valuable mentor in suffragist Mary A. Livermore, she in turn mentored countless younger women over the course of her long career.

Early life and education

Sarah Elizabeth "Sallie" Joy was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1847, the only child of Samuel and Rhoda Joy. She attended the Glenwood School for Girls. While still a teenager, she began publishing articles, poems, and short stories in local newspapers and journals, sometimes using the pen name "Flora Forrest." After graduation she moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts (now part of Boston), where she lived with family friends.

Career

She worked for some time as a schoolteacher before being hired as an assistant for the Loring Circulating Library. The Loring was a gathering place for authors and intellectuals at the time, and it was there that she met two women who became her mentors: a magazine editor named Mrs. Bingham, and the suffragist Mary A. Livermore. During this period she continued to publish articles in New England newspapers and journals.

That spring she traveled throughout New England reporting on the suffrage movement, and making news herself simply by being a woman reporter. One journalist, after describing her charming appearance and demeanor, declared that she had "made a reputation as a newspaper correspondent and reporter of which any man may be proud. And this is saying a great deal for a woman." The Post offered her a permanent position, making her the first woman staff reporter on a Boston newspaper. In 1871 and 1872 she wrote an acclaimed series for the Post on Boston's North End Mission. Meanwhile, she supplemented her income by publishing letters and articles in several other newspapers, such as the New York World.

Club activities

During the 1870s White became secretary of the Middlesex County Suffrage Association. She was a founding member of the Daughters of Vermont and the Fortnightly Study Club of Dedham, and a member of the New England Women's Club.

In November 1885, White hosted a meeting at her office with five other Boston newspaper women, and together they founded the New England Woman's Press Association.

In 1889, she was involved in the founding of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She was elected president of the International Federation of Women's Press Clubs in 1891. Also in 1891, after finishing her term as NEWPA president, she established the Boston Woman's Press Club, which restricted admission to women working on Boston newspapers. The following year she was elected vice president of the International League of Press Clubs, a mixed-sex group in which she was the only female officer. She also served several times as a delegate to the National Editorial Association.

Lecturing and authorship

As a nationally known woman journalist, she was often invited to speak on the subject of women in journalism. In 1891 she traveled to California to speak at a meeting of the Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association. At the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, she presented a paper on the role of women in the press. The same year, she traveled to St. Paul to speak at the convention of the International League of Press Clubs. Although more women were entering the field, they were still a minority, and White was surrounded by prominent male journalists. She wrote to her daughter afterwards, "I was the one woman to make a speech at the banquet, and was said to have made the best speech of the evening. When I tell you that Murat Halstead, Col. De Long, and two members of Congress made the other speeches, you may imagine that I felt proud."

Personal life

She married musician Henry K. White, Jr. in 1874 and quit her job at the Post. The couple had two daughters, Bessie and Grace. In 1879, shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Henry moved to California, leaving Sallie to support herself and the children. Her widowed mother came to live with her and care for the children while she worked. White later dedicated her book, Housekeepers and Home-makers, to her mother, "the best housekeeper and the dearest home-maker I ever knew."

She died of anemia at her home in Dedham, Massachusetts, on March 25, 1909, after a long illness. Many of her newspaper colleagues attended her funeral service in Forest Hills, including several Boston Herald associates who served as pallbearers. Among those representing the New England Woman's Press Association were civil rights leader Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and NEWPA co-founder Helen M. Winslow.

Selected writings