She's Always a Woman

In 1920, a woman in Smithfield sat down and made a decision.Her husband had just died. He'd been the editor of the Smithfield Herald. She had children, half-ownership of a newspaper she'd never run, and a list of things a widow in Johnston County in 1920 was expected to do.She walked into the office and started editing the paper instead.When people asked why, she had an answer ready: she was keeping it for her boys.That's what she said. Here's what she actually did — she ran the paper for thirteen years, won the first journalism award the North Carolina Press Association ever gave, wrote a column that ran for thirty years, and helped build the Johnston County public library.While telling everyone she was just holding it together in the meantime.