Lucile and Betty - The Ozarks' Fearless Female Journalists

Name: Lucile and Betty - The Ozarks' Fearless Female Journalists
Start: 2026-03-10T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-10T19:00:00-05:00
Location: 304 W. Trish Knight, West Plains, MO, United States, Missouri 65775

Schedule

Tue Mar 10 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

304 W. Trish Knight, West Plains, MO, United States, Missouri 65775 | West Plains, MO

When a 24-year-old schoolteacher talked her way into a job on the Denver Express a hundred years ago (1923), she was in the right place, at the right time, with the right temperament to take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves in a changing world. Even before she knew much about writing a news story, Lucile Morris Upton met the President of the US; later she reported on leading feminists of the day, flew with aviation legend Wiley Post, covered the worst single killing of US police officers in the 20th century, and spearheaded a movement to preserve iconic sites of regional history. In the 1950s and early 1960s, her partnership with news photographer Betty Love made them both famous across the Ozarks for doing what they loved – covering the news and telling stories about where they had been. The event will be on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at 6:00pm in the Ozarks Heritage Research Center.
This event is also sponsored by Missouri Humanities as part of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and West Plains Council on the Arts.
Susan Croce Kelly has been involved in the writing world most of her life. During the course of her career, she has been a newspaper reporter in St. Louis and Springfield, practiced public relations in the US and Europe, was editor of two magazines, an executive speechwriter, and author of three award-winning books.
Her newest book, Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks, won the Missouri Library Association’s 2024 Literary Award. She says the book speaks to her love of the rapidly disappearing newspaper world.
She grew up in the St. Louis suburbs, holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, and a research master’s degree from Saint Louis University. Today she lives with her husband, Joel Kirkpatrick, and a black-and-white dog named Sunshine. They have three children and two perfect grandchildren.