Oppenheimer, Evelyn

Evelyn Oppenheimer was born in Dallas, Texas in 1907 and graduated from Forest Avenue High School, now Madison High School. She received her Ph.B. at the University of Chicago where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1929. During her time at college, Oppenheimer began writing book reviews for local newspapers. While recovering from an emergency appendectomy, she heard a radio broadcast of New York radio reviewer Alexander Woollcott and knew she had found her calling.

In 1934, after returning to Dallas, Oppenheimer began giving oral book reviews, first at Sanger Brothers and then at A. Harris and Titche-Goettinger department stores. Due to her Dallas success, she traveled from East Texas to the Texas Panhandle speaking in various cities. In 1949, she began weekly radio book reviews, first at KRLD-AM and other local Dallas stations, and in the early 1970s at WRR-FM, where she continued to broadcast until a few months before her death. Her radio program was the longest running radio book review show in the United States and could be heard in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

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