Mary Garber

Mary Garber, of Winston-Salem, died Sunday.


From the wiki article:

Mary Ellen Garber (April 16, 1916-September 21, 2008) was an American sportswriter, who was a pioneer among women sportswriters. She received over 40 writing awards and numerous honors in a sports-writing career that spanned seven decades, the most prestigious of which was the 2005 Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) Red Smith Award. Garber, the first woman to win the APSE award, also became the first woman to be inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame in 2002.^[1]

From one of several articles in today's Winston-Salem Journal:

Several months ago, a minister was making the rounds at Brookridge Retirement Village where Mary Garber was a resident.

He asked her what she had in mind for a spiritual reward in heaven.

"Football season," she answered.

Mary Garber's football season began yesterday, when she died at the age of 92.

She was a special lady, a real groundbreaker.

Sometime ago, I posted a mocking Elmer's "Some of the many reasons to live here" comment.
Mary Garber was one of the many reasons to be straight-up proud of the community in which I've made my home for the past 20 years.

"Miss Mary's" 126 page Washington Press Club Foundation's 126 page interview from 1990 is worth reading. For instance, how about when she relates an interview in which Jesse Owens said to her "Miss Garber, you're a very rich lady."

Anyway....

From her NY Times Obit.

“When I first started, in the 40s, I went to one of the local [Duke] colleges, and I had press credentials, and they wouldn’t let me sit in the press box because women were not allowed to sit in the press box,” Ms. Garber told National Public Radio in 2000. “And while I was talking with the sports information director, there was a little boy hopping up and down in the aisles in the press box, and he could sit there, but I couldn’t.”

Among other searches:

'Miss Mary' Garber, longtime sportswriter who paved way for women ...
Los Angeles Times, CA - 15 hours ago
Mary Garber, a sports fan growing up, stepped in and took his place. When he returned from the war, he reclaimed his job and Garber returned to her pre-war ...
Longtime sports writer Mary Garber dies at age 92 The Canadian Press
Famed Sports Writer Mary Garber Dead At 92 AHN
Garber's influence touched all of us Greensboro News Record
Winston-Salem Journal - The Associated Press
all 89 news articles »