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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Feb. 22, 1952
Here's One Professor Who Practices What She Teaches
By BOB LONGSTAFF
Teaching on the Hill, handling extension classes and doing freelance writing keeps Miss Frances Grinstead, associate professor of journalism, on the go most of the time.
She admits, however, that writing is her first love. She won her first prize money in a poetry contest when she was 13 years old and has been writing ever since.
The poem, "The Fairies' Fourth of July," won first prize in the poetry division of a Woman's Home Companion contest for children.
Even before that, Miss Grinstead had won books and boxes of watercolors from magazines for which her father wrote. By the time she was 19, she had sold her first short story.
She actually began writing at seven when her father got his first typewriter. "We learned the hunt and peck. system, together." Miss Grinstead said. "And I still use it," she added with a smile.
In 1945 her first novel, "The High Road," was published, and her articles have appeared in more than 50 magazines and newspapers. At the present she is working on a novel of college life.
"The High Road" is a humorous story of a Missouri Ozarks preacher. The scene is laid in fictional Knob county. The book was written entirely during vacations in such varied places as an Ozark resort cabin, a Michigan cherry farm, and a backyard studio built around an old fashioned summer house.
By the time Miss Grinstead started to school, her father was established as a writer, and it was then that she announced to_her grandmother that she was going to be a writer.
Miss Grinstead received the bachelor of arts and the master of arts degrees from the University of Missouri. She also attended the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury, Vt., famous as a summer school of writing, on an Atlantic Monthly scholarship.
She came to KU as assistant pro-
MISS FRANCES GRINSTEAD
fessor of journalism in 1948 and was
made associate professor in 1951.
Following her years at MU, she worked on two newspapers within two years, the Mexico (Mo.) Intelligence and the Spartanburg (S.C.) Journal. She taught at MU for 15 years and came to the University in the summer of 1948.
Two-thirds of her time is devoted to classroom work on the Hill. The other third is spent teaching extension classes in writing in Topeka, Kansas City, Leavenworth, Wichita, and Lawrence.
Miss Grinstead teaches her extension and her Hill courses in a practical way, having the students keep in mind a market for sales as they write.
Sales in her classes while at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information have been between $2 and $300. Students in her extension classes also sell
Miss Grinstead likes to sit back and tell of her students' achievements.
stories to national magazines and newspapers.
One of her students, a housewife,
Mrs. Ina Jahr, 1428 Ohio street, first
enrolled in her Lawrence extension
class two years ago. Mrs. Jahr's
sales and prizes during the past year
have amounted to $600.
Another student, Miss Margaret Mae Maness, now a journalism teacher at Haskell institute, enrolled in the first magazine writing course that Miss Grinstead taught at KU. Miss Maness has made more individual sales than any of Miss Grinstein's students. Selling to many markets, Miss Maness keeps her manuscripts going, sending one out as many as 28 times.
Miss Grinstead also is faculty sponsor for Theta Sigma Phi, women's professional journalistic fraternity. In spite of all these activities she still finds time to write features for the Kansas City Star and to write for professional journalism magazines.
Flint's Role In Journalism
mentioned some of the dinners held in his honor. One in particular wa in 1937 when he gave the KU alumni address at commencemen and was presented a watch and radio by members of the journalism department.
A
Another special event was in 1941 when Mr. Flint was about to retire. A testimonial dinner was given in his honor with Raymond Clapper as a special guest and William Allen White as toastmaster, Mr. Clapper flew from Washington just for the event.
"It meant more to me than the Diamond Jubilee which started the next day," reminisced Mr. Flint with blue eyes bright behind horn-rimmed glasses.
"Do you wonder that some teachers fall heir to egotism," said Mr. Flint after speaking modestly of the former student who flew from Berkeley for the dinner. When Mr. Flint suggested that they get together the next day after the activities, the former student said he had to go
from page 1)
back—he'd just come for the dinner.
There were headaches a plenty in his 35 years of service. One special headache occurred when a new boy came to class, the lecture that day concerned political systems with an emphasis on Communism. A week later Mr. Flint received some Tulsa newspapers containing a headline editorial, stating "Kansas teacher is Communist."
"While I was worried about it, nothing ever came of it," smiled Mr. Flint. "No one paid any attention to it, except me."
To take the place of their three grown sons, the Flints now have three college students living in their home.
This friendly, congenial old gentleman has the distinction of being the dean of all journalism heads in the United States in years of service. During his 35 years of service, more than 1,200 students completed work in the journalism department at KU.
Congratulations
on your new move
UNDOUBTEDLY THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF OUR NATION, AND IT IS ONLY FITTING THAT THE FINEST AND MOST MODERN EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES BE USED TO TEACH YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE.
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DIAL
KLWN
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Congratulations
on your new Journalism Building!
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