Inside Out Offers Local Scholarship

By J.M. Pasko, Managing Editor

A new scholarship for students majoring in Women's studies, Public Policy and/or Journalism locally will be available starting this coming January.

The Lorena Hickok scholarship will provide up to $1000 for a student with at least a B average in one of these majors at Marist College, SUNY New Paltz or Vassar College.

Hickok was a feminist pioneer in journalism. She helped to expand the number of female reporters, as well as making a big name for herself. She worked greatly to promote social justice and change. She began her own journalistic career in 1913. Stints at the Battle Creek Evening News, the Milwaukee Sentinel and the Minneapolis Tribune eventually led to a job as a reporter for the Associated Press in 1928.

The AP allowed Hickok the opportunity to make a name for herself. She became the AP?s first female reporter allowed to cover national front-page news such as the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, according to historical records. Her career introduced her to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932, and the two became devoted friends. Based on correspondence between the two, many historians believe they may have also been lovers.

Their intimate relationship in fact, led to Hickok?s resignation from the AP, as she believed her friendship with the first lady kept her from being completely objective.

In 1954, nearly blind from diabetes, Hickok moved to Hyde Park, N.Y. to be closer to Roosevelt. The two women collaborated on a book about female political leaders, "Women in Courage," and Hickok also wrote Roosevelt's biography.

According to Joanne Myers, Director of the Women?s Studies department at Marist College, the scholarship is just one part of a larger effort to memorialize Hickok. Four years ago, Linda Boyd Kavars, editor and publisher of local magazine InsideOUT, produced a play about Roosevelt and Hickock, called "Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Love Story." A Hyde Park woman who attended the play remembered seeing Hickok in town and was inspired to find out more. What she discovered was that after "Hick's" death in 1968, her ashes remained at the funeral home for 10 years, after which she was buried like a pauper in an unmarked grave. This prompted a group of local women to work to memorialize her. They put a plaque, bench and tree over her gravesite, and decided they would build a scholarship fund in her honor.

The scholarship recipient will be decided by an advisory committee, said Myers, and will be based on several criteria. To apply for the it, entrants must submit a letter of interest that shows their commitment to social change, two letters of reference, their college transcript and an essay. For inquiries and more information, contact ellenorpat@hvc.rr. Applications must be postmarked by December 15.