Margaret Parton (1915–1981)

Born of journalist parents who knew many of the people that shaped twentieth century journalism, literature, and politics, Margaret Parton (1915-1981) became a journalist, critic, and author in her own right. During her childhood Parton's parents, Lemuel Parton and Mary Field Parton, moved in circles that included Sinclair Lewis, Clarence Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, sculptor Jo Davidson, Will Irwin, and Berta and Elmer Hader. Margaret's aunt, Sara Bard Filed, was a California poet who was married to Colonel Charles Erskine Scott Wood, a noted attorney, poet, satirist, and Indian fighter (later Indian friend).

The Partons moved from San Francisco in 1926 and settled at Sneden's Landing in Palisades, New York. Margaret was educated at the Lincoln School of Teachers in New York City and Swarthmore College. Upon graduation, Ms. Parton took a number of odd jobs in New York and San Francisco. After the death of her father in 1943, she was hired by the New York Herald Tribune and wrote her first book Laughter on the Hill (Whittlesey House, 1945) which dealt with her Bohemian life style in San Francisco. In 1946 she was assigned by the Herald Tribune to cover post-war Japan, and in 1947, just as the British were ending their rule, she was transferred to India. While situated in New Delhi she covered the Ghandi assassination, the partition riots, and traveled throughout the Indian provinces of Burma and Pakistan. In 1948 she married Times of London correspondent, Eric Britter. They had a son, Lemuel, in 1950. Her 1959 book The Leaf and the Flame describes her experiences as a woman journalist and mother in India. After a brief stay in Japan in 1953, Parton and Britter separated. Margaret returned with her son to New York and went back to work for the Herald Tribune. Her coverage of the Sam Sheppard murder trial and a twelve part series on juvenile delinquency were widely praised. She also did general reporting and book reviews for the Herald Tribune until 1955 when she left for an associate editor position with Ladies Home Journal. At the Journal she covered a variety of social issues as they were coming into the American consciousness. After leaving the Journal in 1963 she married Alfred Rodman Hussey, who died in November 1964 after a long illness. Throughout the middle-sixties Parton concentrated on raising her son and writing her autobiography. In 1969, both her son and her mother died. Although Margaret was devastated by her loss, by 1972 she had completed her revised memoir, Journey Through a Lighted Room. Throughout the 1970's she worked on an unpublished biography of her mother, wrote book reviews and freelanced for Woman's Day. She died of cancer in 1981.