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HELEN MORGAN PETERSON
1914-1997
Inducted June 10, 2004
The Crow Tribe called her Akiichiwee’ichebia – Good
Story Woman. Montana journalists also knew Helen Morgan Peterson
as the first woman to preside over the Montana Press Association.
Both honors were celebrated at the MNA’s annual convention
in 1967, nearly 30 years after she and her husband Hollis M.
Johnson published their first issue of the old Hardin Herald-Tribune.
A native Nebraskan, Helen Morgan earned a bachelor’s
degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1935 and married
Johnson
the same year. They briefly published a paper in Torrington
before acquiring the Herald-Tribune in early 1938.
Her husband’s death nine years later left her with sole
responsibility for running a weekly newspaper and rearing two
young children. She married R.E. Peterson late in 1947 and
turned the publishing duties over to her managing editor for
a decade
while she tended her family.
But she took back the paper’s reins in 1958 and made her
weekly one of Montana’s best and a real power in southeast
Montana. Her trademark front-page column, “Strictly Biased,” was
a lively blend of boosterism and tough but fair-minded concern
for the community’s well-being. She promoted an array
of projects, ranging from street paving to the construction
of a
new hospital and Yellowtail Dam.
Her professional peers took notice, and in 1961 Helen Peterson
became the first woman named to the state Press Association’s
executive committee. By 1967 she was the organization’s
first female president. A staunch Democrat, she also caught
the attention of state political leaders, and in 1970 she was
named
to the Montana Commission on Civil Rights, an appointment she
held for six years.
Politics had its attractions , and in 1973 she retired from
journalism and moved to Helena to become a full-time member
the state Tax
Appeals Board. From 1978-1982, she served as the board’s
chairman. She also served a one-year stint as co-chair of Gov.
Forrest Anderson’s Task Force on Indian Affairs.
Helen Peterson died in Billings in Jan. 6, 1997, a month shy
of the 59th anniversary of publishing her first edition of the
Hardin Tribune-Herald.
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