Beth Campbell Short was one of the first women identified by the oral history committee as a "must" interview. Of particular interest were her early reporting jobs in the Midwest as a "stunt-girl" reporter and a columnist in the late twenties and thirties. She also was a reporter for AP from 1936-1940, one woman among 88 men.

She left to raise a family and upon her husband's unexpected death worked as correspondence secretary for Harry S. Truman and later had a long career as a congressional press secretary.

These interviews took place in her home although her health had forced her to actually live, by turns, with her son and daughter. I picked her up for each interview and drove to her house in Alexandria, Virginia, where the interviews were conducted amid her considerable memorabilia.

She died in January 1988 soon after these interviews were completed.

Beth Campbell Short's papers will eventually be in the National Women and Media Collection which is part of the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection of the University of Missouri at Columbus, Missouri.

In the indexes of the Washington Press Club Foundation oral history collection, she is listed primarily as Beth Campbell, the name by which she was known as a writer.

Margot H. Knight
March 29, 1990