Early Life
Ita Buttrose was born at Potts Point, New South Wales, and named after her maternal grandmother, Ita Clare Rodgers (née Rosenthal). Buttrose was raised as a Catholic. One of her great-grandfathers was Jewish - Montague Rosenthal, the son of an immigrant who arrived in Australia from Germany in 1852; Montague married Buttrose's Catholic great-grandmother.
Buttrose's father Charles was a journalist and at one time was editor of the Sydney Daily Mirror. By her own account she had decided on a career in journalism at the age of 11. Buttrose spent her first five years in New York City when her father was the New York correspondent for the Mirror. The family returned to Australia in 1949 and settled in the harbourside suburb of Parsley Bay. Her parents divorced during her teens, after 25 years of marriage, and details of her father's private life were printed in the tabloid press, causing considerable anguish to her mother. Buttrose briefly attended a private school but because her father couldn't afford the fees she was then moved to a public school. She completed her secondary education at Dover Heights Home Science High School, leaving at 15 to begin her career. She started her career at Australian Consolidated Press, owned by the Packer family, working as a copy girl at the Australian Women's Weekly, then became a cadet journalist on The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. Her first byline came in 1959 when the 17-year-old covered the Australian tour by Princess Alexandra.
Read more about this topic: Ita Buttrose
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)