Maurine Dallas Watkins (July 27, 1896 - August 10, 1969) was an American journalist and playwright.
She was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Crawfordsville High School, followed by five colleges (including Hamilton College, Transylvania University, Butler College (Indianapolis, IN), and Radcliffe College). While at Butler, Watkins joined the Gamma chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta Women's Fraternity and was initiated in 1919. After these coll...
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Maurine Dallas Watkins (July 27, 1896 - August 10, 1969) was an American journalist and playwright.
She was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Crawfordsville High School, followed by five colleges (including Hamilton College, Transylvania University, Butler College (Indianapolis, IN), and Radcliffe College). While at Butler, Watkins joined the Gamma chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta Women's Fraternity and was initiated in 1919. After these colleges, she took a job as a reporter with the Chicago Tribune. After her Tribune tenure—which lasted less than seven months—she enrolled at Yale in the 47 Workshop (see below).
She covered two 1924 murders and the subsequent trials of Belva Gaertner, a twice-divorced cabaret singer, and Beulah Sheriff Annan. Watkins focused on the sensational aspects of the two cases, two "jazz babies" corrupted by men and liquor, characterizing Beulah as "beauty of the cell block" and Belva as "most stylish of Murderess Row."
Watkins also reported on the famous...
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