Josephine "Jo" Pugh Woestendiek

Jo Woestendiek -- whose journalism career spanned seven decades and included stints as an editor and reporter at the Raleigh News & Observer, Winston-Salem Journal and Houston Chronicle -- died Sunday at a Winston-Salem retirement community. She was 89. At a time when there were few women in the field, she was one of a pioneering handful who helped bring diversity to the industry. Fifty years later, when the industry was shrinking amid mergers and downsizing, she was still at work, producing stories for a publication aimed at senior citizens, for the Winston-Salem Journal. During her newspaper career, which began in the 1940s, she won 32 state and national journalism awards. A native of Asheboro, she attended Greensboro College in the early 1940s, where she was once reprimanded for unlady-like behavior. Her offense? She’d walked across the street from campus to get some ice cream -- without wearing gloves. She mostly stayed out of trouble after that – even when, 70 years later, she secretly harbored nine motherless baby ducks in a box in her room at a retirement center after hearing they were often gobbled up in their infancy by turtles. She died Sunday night in her sleep at Arbor Acres. Born Mary Josephine Pugh, Jo, as she was more commonly called, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as features editor of the Daily Tar Heel. It was there she met the man who would later become her husband, a DTH reporter named Bill Woestendiek (who would go on to become the student paper’s editor). According to reliable sources, the young couple used to hide when security officers came to lock the DTH offices up at night, ensuring – since dormitories had rules against visits from members of the opposite sex – that they would be able to discuss news coverage late into the evening. She had a caustic wit, and a rebellious streak, but she was compassionate, well-informed and a loving mother who loved good books and good conversation. She graduated from UNC in 1946 and went to work for the Fairmont Messenger in eastern North Carolina, as managing editor. The next year, she married Bill Woestendiek. While he got his master’s degree at Columbia University, she worked as a copy editor at Kings Crown Press in New York. They then returned to North Carolina, where she worked as a reporter for the Winston-Salem Sentinel, he as a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal. When Bill Woestendiek received a Neiman Fellowship, she, and the two children they had by then, accompanied him to Harvard, where she took post graduate courses in art, psychology and creative writing. When, in 1955, he was hired as an editor at Newsday, she – though a mother first – kept her hand in the business, writing reviews of children’s books, and serving on the Huntington library board. After another move in 1964, when he became an editor at the Houston Post, she worked in the public relations department for the Houston Museum of Art. Following a divorce in 1965, she went back to newspaper work full-time, as a feature writer and later book editor at the Houston Chronicle, while simultaneously raising three children, aged, by then, 8, 12, and 16. It was the kind of balancing act not uncommon nowadays – being both breadwinner and lone head of the household – and she somehow managed to give more than 100 percent to both, according to both offspring and former employers. When her editor at the afternoon paper once scolded her for arriving at work too late, insisting she be there by 7 a.m., she showed up bright and early the next morning -- in bathrobe and hair curlers. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d register some dissatisfaction with the edicts of management, but it was always done with grace and humor. In 1970, she left the Houston Chronicle to return to North Carolina as women’s editor, as it was still called at the time, of the Raleigh News and Observer. She oversaw the News and Observer’s features department with humor, kindness and high principles. More than once, word would trickle down to her that management was upset because “too many” photos of African-Americans were appearing in her section. That – given her mischievous and quietly defiant side – only made her use more. She didn’t abide unequal treatment of minorities, or second-class treatment of women in the workplace. In Raleigh, a boss once told her she would have to start leading tours for school children on field trips to the paper. She responded by saying she would be happy to do that if they would take over the responsibility of wedding and engagement announcements. They did not bring the subject up again. Similarly, shortly after arriving at the Raleigh paper, she declined a request that she use her maiden name for her byline. The name Woestendiek, she was told, might be confusing to readers. Using her maiden name, she responded, might be confusing to her children. One year she concocted a contest, based on the popular cartoon strip “Love Is …” Readers were invited to submit their definitions, and they poured in at a clip far greater than she expected. As a result, a long series of weekends were spent at the newspaper office, youngest son in tow, sifting through the thousands of entries. She insisted each one had to be read before the winners were picked. In 1977, she became a features reporter for the Winston-Salem Sentinel, until it ceased to be, and then the Winston-Salem Journal. Her feature stories for the News and Observer and the Winston-Salem newspapers won 32 state and national awards, including a Penney-Missouri award from the University of Missouri. She won 16 state awards alone between 1989 and 1992. She liked writing about the average person, and always claimed that they made for far more interesting stories than celebrities and politicians. She also tackled some stories that were far ahead of their time, such as, in the 1970s, the rising rate of suicides among gay teens and sexual harassment in the workplace. After her “retirement” from the Journal, she continued writing, from an office in her home, serving as editor of what was called, initially, “Mature Times” (later “Thrive”), a publication about and for senior citizens. Even as her mobility lessened, she continued to write and report, often inviting the subjects of her stories to come to her house for an interview. They almost always obliged. After moving to Arbor Acres, she continued writing from time to time for the community’s publications. Mrs. Woestendiek was a charter member of Winston-Salem’s first Arts Council. She also served on administrative boards, councils and outreach commissions of Centenary United Methodist Church. She served on the task force that led to the creation of The Shepherd’s Center in Winston-Salem, an interfaith ministry that promotes and supports successful aging by providing direct services, volunteer opportunities and enrichment programs for older adults. She is survived by her three children, Kathryn Scepanski, of DeForest, Wisc., John Woestendiek of Bethania, N.C., and Ted Woestendiek of Winston-Salem, N.C.; a sister, Edna Faye Cobb of Cary, N.C., and two grandsons, Christopher Hughes of Bellelvue, Wash., and Joe Woestendiek of New Albany, Miss. Jo was preceded in death by her parents, Jesse and Mary Pugh and brothers, J.T. "Jack" Pugh, Glenn Pugh, and Jody Pugh. A memorial service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at Arbor Acres’ Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to The Shepherd’s Center, 1700 Ebert St., Winston-Salem, N.C., 27103.