Barbara Blakemore papers

Barbara Blakemore was born on March 3, 1925 in Kennet, Missouri. She was the eldest child of Westley Elmo Blakemore and Nell Myers. She had one sister, Carolyn Blakemore, born in 1931. Barbara attended the Kennet public school system. During her senior year of high school, she served as president of the Kennet Chapter of the National Honor Society.

Barbara attended DePauw from 1943-1946, graduating with a degree in English Composition and minors in English Literature and Spanish. Dure her time at DePauw, she was in many honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lambda Delta and Mortar Board. She was also a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. Following her graduation in 1946, she worked as an assistant professor in the English department.

After DePauw, Blakemore attended Columbia University, earning a master's degree in journalism in 1948. She enjoyed a distinguished editorial career within the women's magazine industry in New York City. She started as a reader and staff editor at the Women's Home Companion, the she worked at Collier's, followed by nineteen years at the McCall Corporation. There, she served as fiction editor of Redbook and executive editor of McCall's Magazine. At the time of her retirement, Blakemore was the managing editor of Family Circle Magazine. Barbara Blakemore passed away on April 22, 2017.

Sources:

Ancestry.com “DePauw University Yearbooks for Barbara Blakemore.” Accessed December 4, 2024.

Ancestry.com “Kennet High School Yearbooks for Barbara Blakemore.” Accessed December 4, 2024.

Ancestry.com “1940 United States Federal Census.” Accessed December 4, 2024.

“Barbara Blakemore Obituary.” The New York Times. June 6, 2017.

Barbara Blakemore papers. DePauw University Archives and Special Collections, Greencastle, Indiana.

Commencement Programs. Columbia University Archives.

Oakes, Betsy. “Blakemore writes about rights.” Banner Graphic. June 9, 1981. Hoosier State Chronicles.

This biographical note was created by Alden Small and Lindsay Hontz as part of the HIST278: Women's History from 1890-Present course during the fall 2024 semester. It was revised by Professor Sarah Rowley and the Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections Bethany Fiechter.