# Betty Wason
> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Betty_Wason
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Betty_Wason.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Wason
> Source revision: 1316253445
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
{{Short description|American writer and broadcast journalist}}{{Infobox person
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1912|03|06}}
| birth_place = [Delphi, Indiana](/source/Delphi%2C_Indiana)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|02|13|1912|03|06}}
| alma_mater = [Purdue University](/source/Purdue_University)
| occupation = Writer and broadcaster
}}
'''Elizabeth Wason''' (March 6, 1912{{spaced ndash}}February 13, 2001)[''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. [Social Security Administration](/source/Social_Security_Administration).] was an American writer and broadcast journalist; a pioneer, with such others as [Mary Marvin Breckinridge](/source/Mary_Marvin_Breckinridge) and [Sigrid Schultz](/source/Sigrid_Schultz), of female journalism in the United States.[{{cite book|last=Bliss|first=Edward|title=Not the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism|year=1991|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAdv3youHkYC&pg=PA95|isbn=0231521936}}] She worked for and with [Edward R. Murrow](/source/Edward_R._Murrow) during World War II, although despite her significant contributions she, along with a handful of other journalists closely associated with Murrow, were rarely recognized in the famed group of war correspondents known as the [Murrow Boys](/source/Murrow_Boys). She also wrote numerous books on food and cooking from the 1940s through 1981.
==Early life==
Elizabeth "Betty"[https://blog.library.in.gov/elizabeth-betty-wason-pioneering-journalist-and-hoosier-cook-book-author/] Wason was born in [Delphi, Indiana](/source/Delphi%2C_Indiana), to judge James Paddock Wason of [Toledo](/source/Toledo%2C_Ohio), who was appointed to the 39th Indiana Circuit Court in 1906,[{{cite book|title=General Catalogue of Officers and Students|date=1912|publisher=University of Michigan|page=470|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqM6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA470|accessdate=13 July 2017|language=en}}] and Susan Una Edson Wason, who was born in [Navesink, New Jersey](/source/Navesink%2C_New_Jersey).[''Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940''] Wason grew up in Delphi, where she studied classical violin and painting. She eventually enrolled in [Purdue University](/source/Purdue_University) hoping to become a dress designer.
Wason graduated from Purdue in 1933 with the [Great Depression](/source/Great_Depression) in full swing. Work was not easy to come by and she settled on a job selling yard goods in the basement of [Ayres Department Store](/source/L._S._Ayres) in Indianapolis. Her first broadcasting experience came doing a program for a radio cooking school in [Lexington, Kentucky](/source/Lexington%2C_Kentucky). "I was young and wanted to see the world. I had no money, so I decided I would become a journalist," she said in a 1997 interview.[{{cite web|last1=Davies|first1=Tom|title=Betty Wason|url=http://mediaschool.indiana.edu/ijhf/betty-wasonjhf/betty-wason|website=Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame|publisher=Indiana University|accessdate=16 December 2016}}]
==Foreign correspondent==
===Transradio Press Service===
Wason went around New York City telling any editor that would listen that she was going to Europe and wanted to be their correspondent. When she reached [Transradio Press Service](/source/Transradio_Press_Service), a new wire service, the company president Herbert Moore asked her where she expected to go. Her reply: "Wherever things are happening."
In 1938 Wason found herself in [Prague, Czechoslovakia](/source/Prague%2C_Czechoslovakia), working for Transradio. She was there when the Nazis took over. She accompanied Hungarian troops as they entered the country and then traveled to Rome for [Neville Chamberlain](/source/Neville_Chamberlain)'s meetings with [Benito Mussolini](/source/Benito_Mussolini).
The pay at Transradio, however, was not enough, and she had to return to New York, discouraged.
===CBS News===
After a stint doing promotional recipes for [Welch's Grape Juice](/source/Welch's_Grape_Juice) she soon returned to Europe as a regular [stringer](/source/Stringer_(journalism)) for [CBS](/source/CBS)'s nascent news division, checking in with their Berlin correspondent [William L. Shirer](/source/William_L._Shirer), who relied heavily on her work as a stringer as time went on.[{{cite book|last1=Cloud|first1=Stanley|last2=Olson|first2=Lynne|title=The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism|date=1996|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=0395680840|url=https://archive.org/details/murrowboyspionee00clou|url-access=registration|accessdate=16 December 2016}}]
Soon after, Wason was on her way to [Norway](/source/Norway) after the [Nazi invasion](/source/German_occupation_of_Norway) began. Her cross into Norway was anything but routine. She eluded border guards and hitched a ride in a truck across the mountainous terrain where she hid in the woods to wait out an air raid. She interviewed numerous wounded British soldiers and found out just how poorly the Allied defense had gone. She returned to [Stockholm](/source/Stockholm) and her broadcast by hitching rides and walking.
Wason was regarded as an excellent writer and reporter. However, her contributions went largely unappreciated by CBS management in New York. In April 1940 she gave a live report about women spies in Norway. The immediate response from CBS was criticism of her voice, with management saying that it was "too young and feminine" for war news.[{{cite book|last1=Porter|first1=Jeff|title=Lost Sound: The Forgotten Art of Radio Storytelling|date=2016|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1469627779|page=106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TeBsjgEACAAJ&q=Lost+Sound:+The+Forgotten+Art+of+Radio+Storytelling|accessdate=16 December 2016}}] She felt betrayed when they insisted that she find a man to read her reports on air, particularly after the man she found, [Winston Burdett](/source/Winston_Burdett), ended up with a contract and long career with CBS.[{{cite book|last1=Sorel|first1=Nancy Caldwell|title=The Women Who Wrote the War: The Compelling Story of the Path-breaking Women War Correspondents of World War II|date=2013|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.|isbn=978-1628721157|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__gsAgAAQBAJ&q=The+Women+Who+Wrote+the+War|accessdate=16 December 2016}}]
Despite the setbacks, she left Sweden in the spring of 1940 in search of the next big story, and she soon ended up in Greece after short stops in the Balkans and Istanbul. With an expected [Italian invasion of Greece](/source/Italian_invasion_of_Greece) on the horizon, CBS again hired Wason. She also started stringing for ''[Newsweek](/source/Newsweek)'' and the newspaper ''[PM](/source/PM_(newspaper))'' during this time.[{{cite journal|last1=Hosley|first1=David H.|last2=Yamada|first2=Gayle K.|title=Hard News: Women in Broadcast Journalism|journal=Contributions in Women's Studies|date=1987|issue=85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-fthy9rdNC4C&q=editions:h_HRbibiRK4C|accessdate=16 December 2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313254772 |issn=0147-104X}}]
Wason remained in Athens through the winter of 1940 and refused to leave the next spring, April 1941. She was listed as Athens Correspondent for CBS in the 1941 as German air attacks ramped up in Greece's capital. When the [Nazis took Athens](/source/Battle_of_Greece), Wason was stuck in the city for several weeks. Though America still remained "neutral" in the war, Wason and several other reporters were held by the Germans, who refused to allow anyone to broadcast. Eventually, Wason left Athens on a [Deutsche Lufthansa](/source/Deutsche_Luft_Hansa) plane bound for Vienna.[She based her 1943 book, ''Miracle in Hellas'' on a diary she kept during this period. It is held by the [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmss5/ww2.html Library of Congress].] Also on the plane were [Wes Gallagher](/source/Wes_Gallagher) of the [Associated Press](/source/Associated_Press) and [George Weller](/source/George_Weller) of the ''[Chicago Daily News](/source/Chicago_Daily_News)''. Once in Vienna, the [Gestapo](/source/Gestapo) detained the entire group under suspected espionage. Soon the male reporters were released, but Wason was kept another week for, according to her, "reasons never divulged except that the police wanted to know more about me." When a CBS executive intervened, the Gestapo released her.
She had married a Mr. Hall by 1943. On her return to the United States, Wason was inundated with interview requests, lecture requests and press attention. She recalled, "Everyone made a fuss over me but CBS," Wason wrote. "When I went to see [news director] [Paul White](/source/Paul_White_(journalist)), he dismissed me with, 'You were never one of our regular news staff.' Then what, I wondered, had I been doing for CBS all that time in Greece?"
===After CBS===
Wason turned her wartime work as a correspondent into a long career in broadcasting and writing. After leaving CBS, she worked as women's editor at [Voice of America](/source/Voice_of_America), and as an editor at ''[McCalls](/source/McCalls)'' and, ''[Woman's Home Companion](/source/Woman's_Home_Companion)''. Wason also spent six years moderating ''Author Rap Sessions'' on [NBC](/source/NBC) Radio.