Gertrude Poe

She garnered numerous awards and honors during her 41 years as editor of the Laurel Leader

Gertrude L. Poe, a pioneering newspaper editor who guided the Laurel Leader for 41 years before retiring in1980, died Thursday at her home in Ashton in Montgomery County. Ms. Poe was 101. Born on a farm in Granite in Baltimore County, she was the youngest of five daughters of Worthy and Bertha Poe. Her family moved to Laurel during her childhood.

She attended a one-room school on Gunpowder Road, where there were 20 students in grades one through seven. Ms. Poe graduated from Laurel High in June 1931 at age 15 and then landed a job as legal secretary. She left that job in 1936 to attend law school.

Her career at the Leader began in 1939 when, after graduating from Washington College of Law, Ms. Poe returned to her job in the law offices of Bowie McCeney on Main Street. Mr. McCeney, however, handed her the community newspaper he had earlier acquired in a business deal, and Ms. Poe’s career in journalism was launched.

She managed the paper’s coverage of a world war, civil rights, space race and Laurel’s emergence as a suburban, commuter community. Ms. Poe shifted the Leader’s coverage from national to local news and wrote the articles, sold the ads, drove the paper to the printers and put the paper in the mail, a “one-womanshow,” she said.

In 1950, Ms. Poe became Leader copublisher with McCeney, and in 1958, she became the first woman elected president of the Maryland Press Association, now known as the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association.

She earned the Emma C. McKinney Award of Merit from the National Newspaper Association in 1967 for her work as a woman in community journalism.

“I was the first woman to do most everything a man did” as an editor, Ms. Poe said in 2015. In her 2004 autobiography, “Lady Editor,” written for her family, she said: “It was during World War II that I began to take seriously my unwanted role as a weekly newspaper editor, unwittingly spawning a career lasting more than four decades and bringing me undreamed-of rewards, awards, experiences and recognition.”

During World War II, she oversaw not only the Leader, but also The Bowie Register, The College Park News, The Beltsville Banner and an insurance business, all owned by Mr. McCeney. She also became a broadcaster when radio station WLMD opened in Laurel.

For many years, she wrote a “Pen Points” column in the Leader, which ran on the front page. Through this forum, she spoke directly to readers, sharing her thoughts and reactions to national and local events, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the murder of a Laurel family.

After her retirement in 1980, her copublisher and business partner, assistant editor Karen Yengich, became editor. Ms. Yengich was succeeded by Joe Murchison in 1990.

“Gertrude Poe was one of the most memorable and unforgettable people in my life,” said Ms. Yengich, who left the newspaper business in 1992. “We had desks right by each other, and I learned and watched Gertrude’s leadership in how a community newspaper ... should be managed and operated.”

“When I became editor in 1990, community leaders quickly made clear to methat I was working in Gertrude Poe’s shadow,” Mr. Murchison said. “She had retired from journalism 10 years before, but in people’s minds she was still the exemplar of what local journalism should be. I knew I couldn’t measure up to the standard she set of elegant prose and fierce advocacy for her hometown. But I so appreciated that she had put the Laurel Leader on the map, not only in Maryland but nationally.”

In 1987, Ms. Poe was the first woman, and first living honoree, inducted into the MDDC Press Association Hall of Fame, “an honor that superseded all others,” she wrote in her autobiography. In 2008 at the Press Association’s 100th year gala at the Newseum in Washington, she was a guest speaker and honorary chairperson.

In 2002, Ms. Poe was featured in the book “Women of Achievement in Maryland History.” She was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011. She was selected as the honorary chairwoman of the 2015 annual luncheon the state of Maryland holds to honor state residents 100 years or older. More than 800 attended that event in May 2015. For many years, she lived at her family’s home at 708 Montgomery St. before moving to a home on Briarcroft Lane. When she retired in 1980, she moved to Ashton.

In retirement, Ms. Poe traveled to Europe, the Southwest and Alaska, among other destinations. She was frequently asked to deliver speeches, and joined the Captain John chapter of the Maryland Questers, a group devoted to the preservation and restoration of existing landmarks and the acquisition of antiques.

She was a charter member of the Laurel Historical Society and Laurel Museum, and at the Historical Society’s 2004 gala she was honored for her contributions to the Laurel community. In 1970 she was editor of the community history booklet celebrating Laurel’s centennial. The electric typewriter that she used in her 357 Main St. office and in her home for decades is on display in the Laurel Museum.

Ms. Poe was a member of First United Methodist Church of Laurel since 1925. On her 99th birthday, the Poe Chapel and a commissioned stained-glass window depicting the 23 Psalm were dedicated at the church.

Since1980, she had endowed a scholarship fund at the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism to “assure the future strength and vigor of the free press at all levels.”

In a 2015 article in the Laurel Leader on the occasion of her 100th birthday, Ms. Poe said she had had “a good life and a good livelihood.”

A celebration of life service will be held at 11 a.m. Aug. 12 at at First United Methodist Church of Laurel, followed by a reception at the church hall. Interment is private.

Ms. Poe is survived by two nieces. “I was the first woman to do most everything a man did” as an editor, Gertrude Poe said.