Female journalist rocked the boat with talent, demands of fairness
Frances Denney of Woodstock Born: Nov. 1929 in Woodstock Died: April 22, 2018 of a heart attack
KITCHENER — Being a reporter in the 1950s was a demanding enough job on its own, but when Frances Denney was hired as women’s editor at the Record, an idealistic 21-year-old, she also had to face sexism in the industry.
Female reporters would lose their jobs once they married and there was a strict company dress code for ladies: dresses and skirts only. Frances, who didn’t like to be told “no” refused to abide by such silly rules and years later recounted “Good grief, if women in Parliament could wear pant suits, I failed to see why we couldn’t.”
She also had to face the irritating issue of women being banned from full membership in the K-W Press Club, launched in 1953.
The organization included male media types working in newspapers, radio and television. Lawyers, doctors, real-estate salespeople and city councillors could join as associate members.
Frances saw the value in this club, an after hours place for the guys to gather and chat. Likely it was about the best news source for intrepid reporters, particularly if their quarry was loose lipped, the result of a few too many whiskeys.
“Everybody who was anybody in town wanted to be a member,” Frances once told a reporter describing how women had the great privilege of washing dishes and hanging decorations at the club and they could enter as guests, but only with a male member.
Fed up with the sexist rule, one day in the late 1950s Frances organized a protest with her female colleagues at the Record.
“We marched around the newsroom and said we would not help with social functions at the press club,” she said. The club’s bylaws were changed.
In 1971 Frances became the press club’s first female to hold that office. In fact, it was thought she was the first female president of any mixed membership press club in Canada.
In the newsroom, Frances was equally fierce defending her views. As the Record’s women’s editor, she had engaged in verbal battles with editor-in-chief, C.B. (Cully) Schmidt, whose nickname was “Iron Duke.”
Cully was fair but not a man to trifle with, yet Frances was fearless when defending her ideas. She wanted the content of the women’s section to be more hardhitting and not just directed at housewives looking for recipes and fashion tips.
One day, their argument grew heated and Frances became so enraged she hurled a Coke bottle at Cully when he had his back turned. Luckily she missed and Frances eventually persuaded the crusty editor to see things her way. The women’s section was opened up and would eventually be called Lifestyles.
Frances had her victory but she was not finished progressing newsrooms for women quite yet.
In 1971, she served as a member of the Ontario Press Council, an appointed position and she was its first professional female member. She also helped develop a guidebook on sexist language for print media. In 1977, Frances became chair of the Western Ontario Newspaper Awards, the first female in that role.
Retired Record publisher, Wayne MacDonald admired Frances, a woman he described as having a strong personality and able to “hold her own against anybody.”
“She was a forward thinker, in addition to her talent,” said Wayne. “She changed how the whole newsroom felt about women and she helped moved the newsroom forward.”
At the same time, he said, she didn’t spend a lot of time as an activist, it was more through her ability to excel at her job and not accept any sexist policies that changed attitudes about female journalists.
“She was a real trail blazer,” he said.
Frances was born an only child in Woodstock. After high school she studied journalism and business administration while working in the office of a lumber company where she introduced a company newsletter.
Following that little taste of journalism, Frances joined the Woodstock Sentinel Review in 1949 as women’s editor. As was typical for most small newspapers, she also had to take her own photographs and write features.
With only one year’s experience under her belt, Frances was hired by what was then called the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, as women’s editor. Under her watch, the section expanded to become a wide ranging, topical selection of general interest features. She also highlighted stories on women in leadership roles. Several of the features were written by Frances herself as she never had quite enough staff.
Though this globe-trotting journalist never had children, Frances did get married, to Record chief photographer Richard Sutton in 1963. He died of cancer in 1976. Wayne remembers him as “one of the best, most thoughtful and creative photographers I have ever seen.”
Though Frances had made many inroads for women journalists and contributed to the paper in countless ways, there was one more towering hurdle heading her way, one she could not or would not overcome: technology. Frances wanted to continue doing her work the way she always had, but the paper had advanced and management was forced to make a tough decision: replace Frances as department head without losing her as a columnist. Frances was only in her early 40s, so she was offered a columnist’s position full time, responsible for writing about all the people and events and organizations in the region, three times a week.
“Just Talking” would be a comfortable, chatty style of information-sharing that would run for the next 17 years and help boost thousands of community groups and projects. If Frances wrote about an upcoming event, it was guaranteed to sell out, her influence was that powerful and trusted.
Her column covered everything from driving tips in bad weather to high school awards and she is credited with not only writing about the events, but helping shape them.
If it was happening in Waterloo Region, Frances knew about it and included the details in her column.
Retired editor Carol Jankowski remembers Frances as being “fun but she had a temper and she could carry a grudge.”
Jankowski also recalls just how deeply connected Frances was to the community as a volunteer and a journalist who seemed to know everybody.
“She would say ‘I wonder how the strawberries (season) are coming along,” said Jankowski, recalling how Frances knew exactly who to call for the answer.
“She had a prodigious memory, especially if it was food related,” said Carol.
In 1993 Frances was recognized with the prestigious Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship for the impact her column had on the community.
In August 1980 Frances was presented with the inaugural Hadassah-WIZO Woman of the Year award, created for non-Jewish people who helped foster greater understanding between Jews and Gentiles. In 1977 she was named KW Oktoberfest Woman of the Year in the professional category, among many other awards.
In 1992, after 42 years at the Record, Frances took what she referred to as “early retirement” moved back into her childhood home in Woodstock and largely disappeared from public view. It had been her choice not to mark her death with an obituary or a funeral.
Jankowski said her old friend really disconnected from the region though she had served as its greatest advocate and cheerleading for four decades.
“She had a great life in journalism,” said Wayne. “She could have done any job in that newsroom, she had wide ranging skills and talents.”