Myra Nye

Myra Sturtevant Nye (May 12, 1875 – January 28, 1955) was a writer, journalist, and clubwoman based in Southern California. She was the women's club editor and Hollywood columnist at the Los Angeles Times from 1919 to 1934.

Myra Nye, from a 1922 publication

Early life

Myra Bell Sturtevant was born in Ohio in 1875, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents were William Sturtevant and Mary Davis Sturtevant. Myra Sturtevant graduated from Oberlin College in 1896.[1]

Career

Myra Sturtevant first moved to California in 1896 with her father, and returned with husband and her first two children in 1901. She helped to organize the Glendora Women's Club, and was the group's first vice president.[2]

From 1919 to 1934, she was the women's club editor at the Los Angeles Times.[3] She also wrote the column "Society of Cinemaland".[4] She covered other events as well, including a lecture on quantum theory by Charles Darwin's grandson at the Ebell Club, of which she wrote, "When Charles Darwin, long ago, advanced his evolution theory he could have created no greater bewilderment than did his grandson yesterday."[5] She served a term as president of the Southern California Women's Press Club.[6]

Myra Nye wrote a historical novel, Heart of Gold (1912), and forty short stories, most of them with California historical settings. She taught evening writing classes in Covina after she retired from newspaper work.[7]

Personal life

Myra Sturtevant married William Putnam Nye, a druggist, in Oberlin, Ohio in 1898. They had four children. Their son Carroll Nye had a notable career in Hollywood. Another son, Wilbur S. Nye, was a writer.[8] She was also active with the Covina chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution,[9] and in local theatrical productions.[10] She and her son Ralph Nye also made and marketed several flavors of marmalade as "Myra Nye Marmalade", in the 1940s.[11]

Myra Nye was widowed in 1947, and died in Glendora, California in 1955, aged 79 years.[12]

References
  1. John W. Leonard, Woman's Who's Who of America (American Commonwealth Publishing 1914): 605.
  2. "Talented Pioneer Woman Has Rich Memories of San Gabriel Valley" Covina Argus (June 18, 1953): 18. via Newspapers.com
  3. "Club Editor Resigns from 'Times' Post" Covina Argus (September 28, 1934): 1. via Newspapers.com
  4. Leo Braudy, The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon (Yale University Press 2011): 59. ISBN 9780300158786
  5. Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber, The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught us to Love Uncertainty (W. W. Norton & Company 2014). ISBN 9780393245998
  6. Faye Ferguson, "Alma Whitaker is Honoree as Mrs. Myra Nye Entertains 'Copy Cats'" Covina Argus (October 20, 1933): 5. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Myra Nye to Give Writers Instructions" Covina Argus (January 8, 1937): 9. via Newspapers.com
  8. Wilbur Sturtevant Nye, Bad Medicine and Good (University of Oklahoma Press 1962). ISBN 9780806129655
  9. "Mrs. Myra Nye New Regent for D. A. R. Chapter" Covina Argus (May 9, 1930): 4. via Newspapers.com
  10. Henry L. Marshall, "Little Theater Group Passion Play Worthy of Annual Presentation" Covina Argus (March 26, 1937): 3. via Newspapers.com
  11. "Nyes to Resume Making Marmalade" Covina Argus (April 4, 1947): 1. via Newspapers.com
  12. "Myra Nye, Former Times Woman's Editor, Dies" Los Angeles Times (January 30, 1955): 4.
  • Myra Nye, "Spirit of California", a poem published in the 1922 edition of Who's Who Among the Women of California
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