Margaret Moore Post

(Aug. 16, 1909-Oct. 31, 1987). Born Margaret Stephenson in Plainfield, Indiana, Post earned her first byline in the Plainfield High School newspaper. While studying journalism at Louisiana State University, she interviewed Governor Huey Long. Her coverage of his 1929 impeachment trial a short time later received national attention.

Following graduation, Post returned to Indiana as a reporter for the Logansport Press. Within a short time, she was city editor. Later, as editor of the Mooresville Times, she again garnered national attention reporting the exploits of notorious Indiana criminal John Dillinger. In 1932, Post married and began her long career with Indianapolis Newspapers, Inc. She continued an association with either the Indianapolis Star or the Indianapolis News in various capacities until her 1983 retirement.

While working in the Star / News public relations department in 1959, Post served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Crime Control Panel. Subsequently, she was associated with a variety of crime control efforts, including Indiana’s first Child Abuse Conference, the Indianapolis Anti-Crime Crusade, Women Against Rape, and the Presidential Crime Prevention Commission.

The mother of two daughters, Post was also concerned with social reform and education. She was a member of the United Cerebral Palsy board of directors and a founding member of Big Sisters and the Indiana Association for the Prevention of Blindness. As an educator, Post headed the journalism department of Franklin College, taught journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the Fort Benjamin Harrison Defense Information Center, and was a faculty member of the University of Louisville School of Police Administration.

She received numerous awards, including 50 first-place awards from the Women’s Press Club of Indianapolis, seven community service CASPERs (the Community Appreciation in Public Enrichment and Relations award was established by the Community Service Council in 1951 for in-depth reporting on community services and problems), the Sagamore of the Wabash twice, and Indiana Mother of the Year. Post also received the Freedom Foundation award, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs first-place award, plus two Clarions and a Headliner award from Women in Communication. She authored four books, among them The Lawbreakers: America’s Number One Domestic Problem (with M. Stanton Evans, 1968) and First Ladies Of Indiana And The Governors (1984).

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