Joan Younger Dickinson papers, 1939-1999

Joan Younger was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1917. She spent her childhood and teenager years growing up in Columbus and then graduated from Ohio State University in 1937. She began her career in journalism in Paris as a reporter for Trans-Radio Press. After the outbreak of Word War II, Younger became a reporter in New York City for United Press, now United Press International. Joan Younger Merrick’s interviews focused primarily on famous women abroad and in the United States, headliners in politics, film and mass media, and fashion. Joan Younger married William Merrick in 1940. They had one daughter before the marriage ended.

In 1947, Joan Younger married William B. Dickinson, a foreign editor for United Press. She moved with him to Philadelphia in 1949 when he became an editor at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. He eventually became the Bulletin’s executive editor.

In Philadelphia, she joined the staff of the Ladies’ Home Journal and remained at the magazine until the 1960s, writing articles on ordinary women as well as women of fame. Politicians, movie stars, murders, industrial tycoons, and war heroes were among her others subjects for interviews and articles. She answered questions about women’s health problems for the column, “Tell Me Doctor.” Joan Younger Dickinson wrote many articles about women balancing motherhood with a career. Her books include The Stork and You, Mental Illness Begins at Home, The Book of Pearls, and The Book of Diamonds.

Joan Younger Dickinson earned a M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1975). Her book, The Immigrant Woman Worker, was based on her doctoral dissertation.

Upon retirement by 1980, Joan Younger Dickinson moved to Florida where she wrote her memoirs, Girl Reporter, Wartime New York. The Dickinson family consisted of a son and daughter from Mr. Dickinson’s first marriage, a daughter from Joan Younger’s first marriage, and two daughters from the Dickinson marriage. William B. Dickinson died in 1978. Joan Younger Dickinson died June 4, 2002, at her home in Fort Myers, Florida.