Frances Richards and the College Heights Herald

Creator

WKU Archives

Preview

Creation Date

1925

Description

In 1925, President Cherry announced that Frances Richards would be the editor of the new school newspaper, the College Heights Herald.

"Dr. Leiper worked carefully with her on the first issue, but the commercial printer made so many errors that ‘I cried and he cussed,’ the novice editor recalled.”

Despite a difficult start, the Herald was judged the second best college newspaper in the state in 1927, and the best in 1930. Since then, the Herald has won many more awards including:

Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards, Columbia Scholastic Press Gold Crown Awards, Columbia Scholastic Press Silver Crown Awards, College Newspapers Business and Advertising Managers Awards, and an induction into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame.

Frances Richards was a student when she was selected to be editor of the Herald in 1925. After continuing as editor of the Herald, sponsor of various clubs, English faculty, and helping to establish the foundation for award-winning journalism at WKU, she retired from the Western Kentucky State College in 1965.

Read the first issue of the College Heights Herald, January 29, 1925 and see the Leiper English Club banquet programhonoring Frances Richards and the Herald's silver anniversary.