Yesterday, Morris Library at Southern Illinois University reminded me that it was the birthday of Virginia Marmaduke, better known in Illinois as “The Duchess.” Earlier this month, three Carbondale Middle School students, Carly Hertzog, Lily Bishop, and Khadia Coulibaly, presented Virginia Marmaduke: Writing Her Way into History to my P.E.O. chapter. The group’s history fair project in the junior group performance category had won at the Illinois State competition and was moving on to the National History Day competition. It was an opportunity for the chapter to see the talents of Carbondale students and another dress rehearsal for the young women before they headed to Washington, D.C.
The group was coached by Betsy Brown, a Tri Delta alumna from DePauw and a retired Carbondale teacher. Only one Illinois group placed at the national competition, and while the young women did not leave D.C. with an award, they have memories galore and a great foundation for future research. They learned a valuable lesson about perseverance, according to an article in the Southern Illinoisan:
The girls decided one person they wanted to interview for their project is Scott Simon of National Public Radio, Marmaduke’s godson. There was just one problem. No one called them back. So, they sent him a tweet. It was not long until Simon replied and agreed to be interviewed. The girls said he seemed eager to talk about Marmaduke.
Betsy Brown, Lily Bishop, Carly Hertzog, and Khadia Coulibaly
Virginia Marmaduke joined Kappa Alpha Theta while a student at the University of Iowa. From 1930 when she married Harold E. Grear, whose parents owned the Herrin Daily Journal, a newspaper in the southern Illinois town of Herrin, until 1943, when she and Grear separated, she wrote most of the stories in the newspaper, although few had her by-line.
She then moved to Chicago, where she had spent much of her formative years, and she was hired by the Chicago Sun. Marmaduke told the editor she wanted to cover news, not the topics of the “women’s pages” – fashion, cooking, and social events. She had moxie and managed to get the scoop before others on important news stories including the beheading of a six-year-old girl. The term “Duchess” came about because the editor said that “Miss Marmaduke” was a mouthful to shout across a crowded newsroom. The moniker stuck. After she was featured on This Is Your Life television show, she hosted programs on radio and tv. She is in the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. After she retired to southern Illinois, she became a staunch supporter of SIUC.
April 26, 1953, The Pantagram, Bloomington, Illinois
January 31, 1954, The Pantagram, Bloomington, Illinois
