Never mentioned in the show, but she was likely Aunt Flo's
twin sister...

apologies for fugly formatting.  Earlier poster to alt.obituaries
came in through Google.  Uggggg.

Newsgroups: alt.obituaries
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2024 10:25:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Ruth Ashton Taylor, 101, TV/radio newscaster
From: Lenona <[email protected]>

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/ruth-ashton-taylor-dead-pioneering-female-newscaster-1235787124/

Ruth Ashton Taylor, Pioneering Female Newscaster and Reporter, Dies at 101

She got her start alongside Edward R. Murrow at CBS News in New York, then =
made history at KNXT-TV in Los Angeles.

By Mike Barnes

 Ruth Ashton Taylor, the trailblazing journalist who was the first female T=
V reporter on the West Coast and an inspiration to generations of women cov=
ering serious news, has died. She was 101.

Ashton Taylor died Thursday in San Rafael, California, her daughter Laurel =
Conklin told The Hollywood Reporter.

After getting her start at CBS Radio alongside Edward R. Murrow in the 1940=
s, Ashton Taylor returned to her native Los Angeles and, in 1951, became th=
e first woman on the West Coast to work in television news when she took a =
job with KNXT-TV (now KCBS).=20

 Ashton Taylor exited in 1958 to work as a college public information offic=
er but came back to the station in 1962 to join a program produced by TV pe=
rsonality Ralph Story and to co-host The Ruth and Pat Show on the radio wit=
h comedian Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney on Green Acres) for about a year.

Ashton Taylor turned exclusively to television in 1966 as a general assignm=
ent reporter and as co-host of a weekend news interview show. She retired i=
n 1989 but continued as an occasional contributor, covering stories in the =
Sacramento area into her 70s.

=E2=80=9CI remember how she was always fighting to break the then-conventio=
nal role of every female reporter: to cover the =E2=80=98women=E2=80=99s an=
gle=E2=80=99 for every story,=E2=80=9D her former CBS colleague Joe Saltzma=
n, now a professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism=
, wrote on Facebook. =E2=80=9CShe won the fight and became one of the best =
broadcast reporters in local news history.=E2=80=9D

Ashton Taylor received the Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement from th=
e Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1982 and a star on the Hollywood=
 Walk of Fame in 1990.

Ruth Ashton was born in Los Angeles on April 20, 1922. She graduated from L=
ong Beach Polytechnic High School and Scripps College in Claremont, Califor=
nia, then earned her master=E2=80=99s degree from the Columbia Journalism S=
chool in 1944.

She quickly landed a job as a news writer at CBS Radio alongside original m=
embers of a documentary unit led by the legendary Murrow and made it on the=
 air in 1949 despite the fact that management, she said, =E2=80=9Cjust didn=
=E2=80=99t like those squeaky voices.=E2=80=9D

One of her favorite interviews, she noted, was with Albert Einstein, J. Rob=
ert Oppenheimer and Glenn Seaborg for a piece on atomic science.=20

Ashton Taylor was married twice; her second husband was a colleague, camera=
 operator Jack Taylor, whom she wed in 1968. Survivors include her daughter=
s, Laurel and Susan; her grandson, Damon; and her great-grandson, Demare.

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