Carol Hall (1944-2005)
So, there is a reason I didn’t post on schedule and it wasn’t because I forgot (although the fact that I was doing a reading might have made that happen)
On Thursday just after noon, my beloved mother-in-law (in purple) passed away after a lengthy illness.
But Carol was not just my mother-in-law. If you read the Minneapolis Star-Tribune any time from the mid to late seventies to the mid nineties, you probably read her work. She was one of, if not the, first women the paper permitted to report the news, not merely write features, although she was good at that too. For many years, she was their White House Correspondent.
If you are a veteran, you might also be familiar with her work. A piece on a deceased Vietnam War soldier published in the Star Tribune was reprinted in Stars and Stripes, where it apparently made quite the splash…with many men contacting her to thank her for it.
She then moved to North Carolina, where she joined the team at the Raleigh News & Observer as an editor…and a mentor to young woman journalists.
Oh, and after she retired, she was on the Chatham County Library Board and an active member of the Chatham County Historical Society, whom she helped write signs. She fought book banners (ironically, she was fighting for Harry Potter…that hasn’t aged well, but…)
She was a fine woman, a fine journalist, and she gave me the love of my life. Her memory is, and always will be, a blessing.
And if you ever did encounter her work…or value the work of journalists who work with skill and integrity…spare a bit of your charity money to donate to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists if you can. It’s needed more than ever.