Thelma Chiles Taylor
American editor
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Thelma Ida May Mercer Chiles Taylor Lee (December 7, 1900 – May 30, 1984) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, poet, librarian, and educator. She was editor and owner of the Topeka Plaindealer, a weekly newspaper serving Black communities in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Missouri, from 1930 to 1932.
December 7, 1900
Thelma Chiles Taylor | |
|---|---|
Thelma Chiles Taylor, from a 1930 newspaper | |
| Born | Thelma Ida May Mercer Chiles December 7, 1900 Topeka, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | May 30, 1984 (aged 83) Wahiawa, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Other names | Thelma Chiles Lee |
| Occupations | Editor, poet, educator, publisher |
Early life and education
Chiles was born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Nick Chiles[1] and Minnie Elizabeth Morris Chiles.[2][3] She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1923.[4][5] She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[2][6]
Career
Taylor taught school in Gary, Indiana, and Chicago after college, and was a librarian at Virginia State College.[2][7] She took over as editor and owner of the weekly Topeka Plaindealer in 1930,[7][8] after her father died.[9][10] She wrote an editorial supporting senator Henry J. Allen, a fellow newspaper owner.[11]
In 1932 Taylor was appointed librarian of the Kansas Vocational School,[12][13] and she wrote "State Capitol News", a column for The Kansas City American newspaper, on events on Topeka,[14][15] including an appearance by Langston Hughes.[16] She was vice-president of the Kansas Jeffersonian League in 1933.[17] She spoke at a meeting of the C.M.E. Church council in 1935.[18] In 1942 she lived in Kansas City, Missouri,[19] and sponsored a women's book club and a bridge club.[20][21] In 1945, she was a member of group representing Black women's organizations when it confronted Omar Bradley about racial segregation in veterans' hospitals.[22]
Taylor was a member of the National Council of Negro Women[23] and the National Negro Press Association. She also wrote and published poetry.[2] Later in life, she worked as an education services officer at Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu.[24]
Personal life
Chiles married lawyer Euclid L. Taylor in 1924.[25] They had a son, Nicholas, and divorced by 1930. She married newspaperman Davis Lee in 1936.[26][27] She died in 1984, at the age of 83, in Wahiawā, Hawaii.[24]