Published on Show Me Mizzou Jan. 10, 2024
Who: Mary Margaret McBride (1899–1976)
Degree: Bachelor of Journalism, 1918
Birthplace: Paris, Missouri
Claim to fame: Considered to be the “First Lady of Radio,” McBride was “one of the first to create and promote daytime radio programming that went beyond the soap opera and to prove that it was possible for daytime programming to be profitable,” according to the Library of Congress. Starting in 1934 as Martha Deane, a fictional grandmother with an exaggerated Missouri drawl, McBride offered advice and discussed her many imaginary offspring for WOR in New York. On her daily afternoon radio show for NBC’s New York affiliate, which first aired in 1941, McBride interviewed hundreds of influential figures, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Tennessee Williams, Bob Hope, Mary Pickford, Tallulah Bankhead and Zora Neale Hurston.
Further reading: It’s One O’Clock and Here is Mary Margaret McBride: A Radio Biography by Susan Ware (New York University Press, 2005).
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