Enslow, Catherine Bliss, 1899-1973

Catherine Bliss Enslow was born on February 14, 1899, in Huntington, West Virginia. She was the youngest of three daughters of Edward Bliss Enslow and Constance Brockenborough Kelly. The former, who died in 1912, was a member of one of the Tri-State region's most prominent families. During her years in Huntington High School, Miss Enslow helped found the T. T. Club, a small charity organization composed of several local socialites; this group evolved into the Huntington Junior League in the 1930's. After graduating from high school in 1917, she spent some time in Chicago (where her closest sister, Constance, resided) taking lessons in social dancing. In 1918, she joined the staff of the Huntington Advertiser as a reporter. She later became a feature writer for the Herald-Dispatch before being promoted to society editor of that newspaper. The mid-1920's seem to have been financially difficult years for Catherine Enslow and her widowed mother. For unclear reasons, Miss Enslow left the newspaper staff to become, first, an insurance salesperson, then, an agent for the Frigidaire Company. In the latter part of the decade, she broadcasted a nightly show over the WSAZ radio station. These programs continued to air for thirteen years. In the 1930's, she was reemployed by the Huntington Publishing Company as society editor, travel editor, and featured columnist of the Advertiser. Despite her official retirement in 1966, she continued to write her columns until shortly before her death. Active in the Democratic Party, she served as executive committeewoman for eight years, and as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention twice during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War II, Miss Enslow directed recreation activities for aviation cadets stationed at the Marshall University quarters in Huntington. She also served as director of the Huntington unit of the American Women's Voluntary Services and was the only woman on the local board of the United Service Organizations during the war. In addition to the T. T. Club and the Junior League, she was a charter member of Huntington's Altrusa Club, the Junior Department of the Huntington Women's Club, and the West Virginia Association of Newspaperwomen. Her honors included memberships in Civic Leaders of America, the Kentucky Colonels, Personalities of the South, Two Thousand Women of Achievement, and Who's Who in American Women. She died in Huntington on February 13, 1973, one day before her seventy-fourth birthday.

From the description of The Catherine Bliss Enslow Papers, 1899-1973. (Marshall University). WorldCat record id: 731025475

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