White, William Lindsay, 1900-1973

American journalist.

Author.

Biographical/Historical Note

American journalist.

William Lindsay White was born at Emporia, Kansas on June 17, 1900 to William Allen and Sallie (Lindsay) White. He attended the University of Kansas and Harvard University, graduating from Harvard in 1924. White then joined the newspaper staff of his father's Emporia Gazette, and was named its associate editor in December 1927. He was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1930, and on April 29, 1931 married Kathrine Klinkenberg. His first book, What People Said, was published in 1938.

In 1939, White became a war correspondent for Reader's Digest, writing a daily syndicated column and issuing weekly CBS radio broadcasts from the Finno-Russian front. He won 1939's National Headliners Club citation for best European broadcast. In 1941, the Whites adopted their daughter Barbara, a London war orphan who was the subject of White's popular book of that year titled Journey for Margaret .

With his father's death in January 1944, White became editor of the Emporia Gazette. The following summer, he toured Soviet Russia as a correspondent for the Reader's Digest and the North American Newspaper Alliance. His resulting 1945 book ( Report on the Russians ), ignited controversy for its criticisms of Soviet Russia in a period of emphasis on American-Soviet friendship.

In 1946, White brought to publication his late father's autobiography, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1947. He remained a prolific author in his own right, producing a total of thirteen books, over ninety magazine pieces, and several thousand signed newspaper commentaries. Three of his books were adapted for the screen and released as motion pictures. White died at Emporia on July 26, 1973.

William Allen White(1868-1944)

William Allen White was born at Emporia, Kansas, on February 10, 1868, to Dr. Allen White and Mary Ann (Hatten) White. The family soon moved to El Dorado, Kansas. After graduating high school, White attended the College of Emporia, and then the University of Kansas. He left the University for newspaper work, first in El Dorado, and later with the Kansas City Journal and the Kansas City Star .

On April 27, 1893, White married Kansas City schoolteacher Sallie Moss Lindsay. In 1895, they moved from Kansas City to Emporia, where White purchased the Emporia Gazette . White became nationally known for his grass roots social and political editorials, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1923. He authored many articles and books, including a Woodrow Wilson biography and two Calvin Coolidge biographies, and was a regular contributor to journals such as the Saturday Evening Post . He was also a co-founder of the Reader's Digest Book of the Month Club and a lifetime member of its editorial board. White was active and influential in state and national politics of the Republican Party, and was National Committeeman of the Progressive Party under Theodore Roosevelt.

The Whites had two children--son William Lindsay and daughter Mary Katherine. Born in 1904, Mary White died in a horse-riding accident at age sixteen. White's moving editorial in her memory was carried nationally and became one of his best-known writings. William Allen White died on January 29, 1944 at Emporia.

Sallie Moss (Lindsay) White(1869-1950)

Sallie Moss (Lindsay) White was born on December 3, 1869 in Nicholasville, Kentucky to Joseph Moss Lindsay and Frances (Batcheldor) Lindsay. Her family moved to Kansas City, Kansas when she was eight. She became a schoolteacher at age sixteen and married William Allen at age twenty-three. In her marriage, she served as full partner and advisor in her husband's professional life. Sallie White died at Emporia on December 19, 1950, at the age of eighty-one.

Dr. Allen White (1819-1882) and Mary Ann (Hatten) White (1830-1924).

Allen White was born on April 20, 1819, near the community of Norwalk in Huron County, Ohio. He attended medical school at Ohio State Medical College, Columbus, took post-graduate study, and moved to Kansas in 1859, where he practiced medicine and eventually settled in the town of Emporia. On April 15, 1867, he married Mary Ann Hatten, a local schoolteacher. Born on January 3, 1830 at Oswego, New York to Thomas and Ann (Kelly) Hatten, Mary Ann Hatten had been orphaned in childhood, and had worked her way through Galesburg, Illinois' Knox College. In her first teaching appointment at Council Grove, Kansas, she earned notoriety for defying the law and opening her class to African American students.

Soon after their son William Allen was born in 1868, the Whites moved to El Dorado, Kansas, where Allen White operated a drug store, engaged in farming for a time, and from 1879 to 1881 operated their home as a hotel, called "The White House." Allen White died at El Dorado on October 4, 1882. Mary Ann (Hatten) White died at Emporia in 1924.