Ruth Montgomery - Journalism

Journalism

Montgomery began her long journalism profession as a cub reporter for Waco-News-Tribune while receiving her education at Baylor University (1930–1935). Later she graduated from Purdue University (1934) and began work as a reporter on the Louisville Herald-Post.

In 1943, she became the first female reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Daily News, and embarked on her extensive Washington DC career. She covered notable foreign affairs (the Berlin Airlift among them), was a syndicated columnist for Hearst Headlines and United Press International and was a well-read correspondent with the International News Service.

At Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral, Montgomery was the only female of the 12 invited reporters. In 1950, while a reporter for the New York Daily News, she was voted president of the Women’s National Press Club. In 1959, she was a member of then Vice-President Nixon’s press corps on his tour of Russia. Montgomery wrote of her 25 years covering Washington in her 1970 book, “Hail to the Chiefs; My Life and Times with Six Presidents”.

Montgomery wrote annual newspaper columns listing predictions by psychic Jeane Dixon beginning in 1952. In 1962, “Once There was a Nun: Mary McCarran's Years as Sister Mary Mercy” was published and thus began Montgomery’s long career as a non-fiction author. In 1965 her book, “A Gift of Prophecy” about Jeane Dixon was published and became a best-seller, selling over 3 million copies.

Montgomery retired from her journalism career in 1969. As part of their Texas Collection, the Archives Division at Baylor University contains a research collection which include papers of Montgomery.