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Mary Kimbrough – 2007

Mary Kimbrough worked at three St. Louis newspapers, at a time when few women could be found in newsrooms. She received the Quest Award and was named 2004 Communication of Achievement by the National Federation of Press Women in recognition of her outstanding work as a journalist. In addition to her work in the newsrooms of the Post-Dispatch, Globe-Democrat and Star-Times, Mary was a prolific free-lance writer and authored 16 books. She was the first woman to be honored as the St. Louis Press Club’s Media Person of the Year.

Carlos Hurd – 2010

After two years at the St. Louis Star, Carlos Hurd worked for the Post-Dispatch for over 50 years, but he is most widely known for his firsthand reports of the race riots in East St. Louis and the sinking of the Titanic, the latter of which accounted for his lifelong nickname, “Titanic Man.” As a passenger on the first ship to reach the Titanic, Hurd literally wrote his account on a roll of toilet paper. His graphic writing style conveyed the horror of both events, transporting the readers to the scene.

Ray Hartmann – 2010

Although his first job out of college was working as a newspaper reporter in New York, Ray Hartmann hit his stride after returning to St. Louis. In March of 1977, at the age of 24, he founded Hartmann Publishing and its initial publication, Profile St. Louis. Within months, that paper was dropped and the Riverfront Times was born. Under his ownership, the RFT became one of the ten largest alternative newsweeklies in the nation, and it was twice named Missouri’s top news weekly. He sold the paper and bought St. Louis Magazine, where he served as CEO. Ray was showered with local and national honors, and he was also a popular member of the weekly panel on “Donnybrook” on KETC-TV.

Martha Gellhorn – 2009

Martha Gellhorn, born and raised in St. Louis, quit college to get into the newspaper and magazine business. Her work evolved into literary journalism, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch carried some of her free-lance articles. Her wanderlust was legendary, and she traveled the world, often writing about her firsthand observations of wars, once stowing away on a hospital ship to get to the front lines in Europe. Hunkered down with the 82nd Airborne for several months, Gellhorn sent back eyewitness accounts of the Battle of the Bulge. She was in Vietnam in 1966 and at age 80, covered the U.S. invasion of Panama. Martha Gellhorn wore her emotions on her sleeve, and her writing endeared her to a generation of magazine and newspaper readers in Europe and the U.S.

Daniel Fitzpatrick – 2006

Fitzpatrick twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1891, Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick studied anatomy and life drawing for two years at the Art Institute of Chicago before getting his first cartooning job at the Chicago Daily-News in 1911. Two years later he moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He retired in 1958 after 45 years at the newspaper. Acknowledged by many as the dean of editorial cartoonists, Fitzpatrick strongly supported the rights of the underdog while attacking the conservative establishment. During his time at the newspaper he created some 14,000 editorial drawings that championed the underdog.

Linda Eardley – 2011

Linda Eardley showed up for her first day of work at the Post-Dispatch in 1969 to see row after row of white men, typing, smoking and yelling. She would soon learn that she was the first woman reporter hired onto the city desk. After a few months of working general assignment, Eardley was assigned to work with other female writers for the now-defunct Women’s Page and Sunday Society Page. In 1972, she returned to the increasingly diverse city desk where she worked for the next 24 years as a general assignment and Illinois reporter, education reporter, assistant Illinois editor and fill-in for a variety of day and night editors. Among her most memorable stories, she listed those on  excessive spending by the St. Louis Schools superintendent; the murder-for-hire of the highly insured inventor Victor Null; the St. Louis schools desegregation case; and being a part of the on-going coverage of major stories such as the flood of 1993. She retired from the Post-Dispatch in 2005.