Gertrude Poe
| Gertrude Poe | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 21, 1915 Granite, Maryland |
| Died | July 13, 2017 (aged 101) Ashton, Maryland |
| Alma mater |
Laurel High School (1931) Washington College of Law (J.D. 1939) |
| Occupation | Journalist, lawyer, real estate agent, insurance agent, and radio broadcaster |
Gertrude Louise Poe (September 21, 1915 – July 13, 2017) was an American journalist, lawyer, real estate agent, insurance agent, and radio broadcaster who served as the editor of Laurel Leader in Laurel, Maryland from 1939 to 1980. She was known as "Maryland's First Lady of Journalism."
Poe was born in Granite, Maryland in 1915, the youngest of five daughters of Worthy and Bertha Poe, and moved with her family to nearby Laurel as a child. Shortly after graduating from Laurel High School at the age of fifteen in 1931, Poe was hired by local attorney George McCeney to work as a secretary in his law offices, which were located at 357 Main Street in Laurel. After five years of working as a legal secretary, she matriculated to the Washington College of Law, where she graduated with her J.D. degree in 1939.
Upon graduating, Poe returned to the McCeney's law firm with the intention of joining the firm as an attorney. The head of the office, G. Bowie McCeney, the son of by then-deceased George McCeney, instead named Poe the editor of The Leader, a paper he had acquired the previous year from its founder, James P. Curley.
"He [McCeney] hands me a copy [of the Leader] with a grin and says, 'My career as an editor just ended. Yours is just beginning." Poe protested this assignment, reflecting in a column in 1980: "I am stunned. I am indignant. Law is my love. I know nothing about writing...With considerable disinclination, I take up my new duties." McCeney's intention as that Poe operate the paper while studying for the bar exam.
Under Poe's guidance, the Leader shifted its coverage model from national news to a focus on local news, and in 1946 the paper changed its name to The News Leader when it merged with The Bowie Register, The Beltsville Banner, and The College Park News, each of which were also owned by G. Bowie McCeney. Previously, Poe had served as the editor of all three of those publications as well. In 1950 Poe joined McCeney as co-publisher and business partner of The News Leader, while remaining its editor.
For the first two decades of the paper, Poe was forced to perform numerous roles in order to ensure it published on a weekly schedule. "I guess from 1939 until about 1956 or 1957, it was a one-woman show. I sold the ads, made them up, wrote the copy, went to the printing plant, proofread and saw the newspaper locked up and printed. Then I brought the paper home with me and put it in the mail." Beginning in the late 1950s, after the National Security Agency moved to nearby Fort Meade, Poe increased coverage of military and on-base issues, and was later awarded a Patriotic Civilian Service Award for her efforts. As part of her duties as an editor Poe drew attention to positive news in the city, and was known to write letters to the editor to the Washington Post and other papers which published negative stories about the city of Laurel.
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