{{Short description|American journalist (1867–1939)}} {{distinguish|Ada Paterson}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox person |name = Ada Patterson |image = AdaPatterson-JoeTracy-VanderbiltCup1905.jpg |alt = |caption = Patterson in a race car, reporting on the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup |birth_date = 5 July 1867 |birth_place = Mount Joy, Pennsylvania |death_date = 26 June 1939 (aged 71) |death_place = |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = Journalist }} '''Ada Patterson''' (5 July 1867 – 26 June 1939) was an American print journalist.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Patterson, Ada|title=American National Biography|chapter-url=http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03398.html|publisher=Oxford University Press}} ''Subscription needed''.</ref>
==Early life== Patterson was born in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, and received her education at Franklin Academy in Franklin, Nebraska.<ref name="Bennett2010">{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Alma J.|title=American Women Theatre Critics: Biographies and Selected Writings of Twelve Reviewers, 1753-1919|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTXn2WMkBngC|date=2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786460250}}</ref>
==Career== Patterson wrote for the ''St. Louis Republican'', where she was dubbed "the Nellie Bly of the West".<ref name="Lutes2007-13">{{cite book|last=Lutes|first=Jean Marie|title=Front Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880-1930|url=https://archive.org/details/frontpagegirls00jean|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801474125}}, page 13</ref> She also wrote for the ''Salt Lake Herald'', the ''San Francisco Call'', and the ''New York American''.<ref name="Bennett2010"/> For several years, Patterson also wrote a column in ''Theatre Magazine'', which she signed as "The Lady with the Lorgnette".<ref name="Bennett2010"/>
Patterson covered a number of notable murder trials, including those of Anne Madison Bradley (charged with the murder of Utah Senator Arthur Brown) and Charles Becker.<ref name="Bennett2010"/> Patterson covered the trial of Harry Kendall Thaw along with three other women (Winifred Black, Dorothy Dix, Nixola Greeley-Smith) and together, they were given the dismissive nickname of the "sob sisters." The phrase became a term of derision for other female journalists, who were believed to be overly emotional or compassionate.<ref name="Lutes2007-65">{{cite book|last=Lutes|first=Jean Marie|title=Front Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880-1930|url=https://archive.org/details/frontpagegirls00jean|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801474125}}, page 65</ref>
Patterson wrote a biography of Maude Adams ''By the Stage Door'' and co-wrote a Broadway play, ''Love's Lightning'', with Robert Edeson.
==Bibliography== *''By the Stage Door''. New York, The Grafton press, 1902.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Ada}} Category:19th-century American women journalists Category:1867 births Category:1939 deaths Category:People from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania Category:Journalists from Pennsylvania Category:19th-century American journalists