Scan barcode
A review by komet2020
On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star by John Dickerson
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I first became aware of women journalists holding prominent positions in the national news broadcast media as a small child in the early 1970s. Before going to work, my Mom would have the TV turned on to The Today Show, which was hosted by Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs. Barbara Walters was the woman journalist in the national spotlight who made the biggest impression on me then, followed by Stephani Shelton (CBS), Ann Compton (ABC), Sylvia Chase (also with ABC), Lesley Stahl (CBS), and Jessica Savitch (NBC). Nancy Dickerson did not enter my consciousness then, though I may have seen her on TV without taking note of her presence.
On Her Trail helped so much to give me a full and comprehensive view of the arc of Nancy Dickerson's life, both as a pioneering journalist and to a smaller extent --- courtesy of the author, who provided useful and valuable insights throughout the book into the woman he knew while growing up (and by his own admission, not always valuing his mother) and later as a young journalist himself when their relationship became closer, shortly before Dickerson's death --- her self apart from journalism in some of its complexities.
Among Nancy Dickerson's achievements as a pioneering woman journalist were: the first woman TV journalist (with CBS) to cover first-hand a national political convention (the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles) and 2 presidential inaugurations (JFK in 1961 and LBJ in 1965), as well as providing coverage in real time of the March on Washington and President Kennedy's assassination (from the time Kennedy's body and a grieving Mrs. Kennedy returned to Washington -- along with the newly sworn-in President, Lyndon Johnson, and his wife -- aboard Air Force One hours after the tragedy that had taken place in Dallas earlier that day: November 22, 1963) and subsequent state funeral.
John Dickerson provides what is perhaps an apt summation of his mother --- "The full life of Nancy Dickerson can withstand the scrutiny. To look at the frailty, tenderness, nastiness, vanity, generosity, love, pride and humility all in proper proportion still yields a very impressive woman, and a more genuine one. Mom loved image and glamour and insinuation, but she also liked to know a true thing when she could find it. She would understand my need to search for the story because she had that same need. I went looking for my mother's story and found a woman who was compelled to find stories and tell them too."
For anyone who wants to gain a understanding of the struggles experienced by women to gain acceptance and respect as journalists in the U.S. national news broadcast media from the 1950s to the 1970s and beyond, I highly recommend reading On Her Trail and learning about Nancy Dickerson, who was a rather remarkable person.
On Her Trail helped so much to give me a full and comprehensive view of the arc of Nancy Dickerson's life, both as a pioneering journalist and to a smaller extent --- courtesy of the author, who provided useful and valuable insights throughout the book into the woman he knew while growing up (and by his own admission, not always valuing his mother) and later as a young journalist himself when their relationship became closer, shortly before Dickerson's death --- her self apart from journalism in some of its complexities.
Among Nancy Dickerson's achievements as a pioneering woman journalist were: the first woman TV journalist (with CBS) to cover first-hand a national political convention (the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles) and 2 presidential inaugurations (JFK in 1961 and LBJ in 1965), as well as providing coverage in real time of the March on Washington and President Kennedy's assassination (from the time Kennedy's body and a grieving Mrs. Kennedy returned to Washington -- along with the newly sworn-in President, Lyndon Johnson, and his wife -- aboard Air Force One hours after the tragedy that had taken place in Dallas earlier that day: November 22, 1963) and subsequent state funeral.
John Dickerson provides what is perhaps an apt summation of his mother --- "The full life of Nancy Dickerson can withstand the scrutiny. To look at the frailty, tenderness, nastiness, vanity, generosity, love, pride and humility all in proper proportion still yields a very impressive woman, and a more genuine one. Mom loved image and glamour and insinuation, but she also liked to know a true thing when she could find it. She would understand my need to search for the story because she had that same need. I went looking for my mother's story and found a woman who was compelled to find stories and tell them too."
For anyone who wants to gain a understanding of the struggles experienced by women to gain acceptance and respect as journalists in the U.S. national news broadcast media from the 1950s to the 1970s and beyond, I highly recommend reading On Her Trail and learning about Nancy Dickerson, who was a rather remarkable person.