She's Always a Woman

<p>In 1920, a woman in Smithfield sat down and made a decision.</p><p>Her husband had just died. He&#39;d been the editor of the Smithfield Herald. She had children, half-ownership of a newspaper she&#39;d never run, and a list of things a widow in Johnston County in 1920 was expected to do.</p><p>She walked into the office and started editing the paper instead.</p><p>When people asked why, she had an answer ready: she was keeping it for her boys.</p><p>That&#39;s what she said. Here&#39;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.</p><p>While telling everyone she was just holding it together in the meantime.</p><p></p>