Martha Jane Rountree (October 23, 1911 – August 23, 1999) was an American pioneering

broadcast journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

and entrepreneur. She was the creator and first moderator of a public-affairs program, first on radio as ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

'' from June 24, 1945 to 1947, and as ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

'' on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television network from November 6, 1947 to November 1, 1953. She is the only female moderator in the seven-decade history of the show.

Early years

Born in Gainesville, Florida, Martha Jane Rountree was raised in Columbia, S.C. Her father Earl was in sales, at times in real estate, and at other times, selling automobiles, but he was not successful. He died when Martha was 16, and as she later told a reporter, "he left us with absolutely nothing." In order to pay her way through the University of South Carolina, she worked for the ''

Columbia Record The ''Columbia Record'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina. It was established in 1897. International Paper & Power Co. purchased ''The Record'' in 1929 from R. Charlton Wright, who had been principal owner s ...

'' newspaper. Unable to finish her university education for financial reasons, she used her interest in journalism to find work, taking a job as a reporter with ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

'' in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

Early years in New York

In 1938, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from Tampa and worked as a

freelance writer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

. In 1944, she and her sister Ann founded a production company, Radio House, which prepared singing commercials and transcribed programs. One of their ideas was produced by the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

in 1945; it was ''

Leave It to the Girls ''Leave It to the Girls'' is an American radio and television talk show, created by Martha Rountree, and broadcast, in various forms, from the 1940s through the 1980s. Broadcast details Radio version The series was originally a radio program ...

'', which had a panel of one man asking women celebrities questions that had been sent in by viewers. In 1946, eleven years after Lawrence E. Spivak purchased the magazine ''

'', she sent in an unsolicited article which was published. From 1947 to 1954, she worked as a roving editor for the periodical. Because of her experience in radio, Spivak asked for her critique of a radio show he used to promote ''The American Mercury.''

Launching of ''Meet the Press''

Based on her strong criticism of Spivak's self-promoting program, Rountree created a new radio show, which she called ''The American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press'', debuting on June 24, 1945. On November 6, 1947, while still on Mutual radio, it was subsequently reincarnated on the

television network and renamed ''

''. Contrary to the claims of others concerning the program's creator, Rountree developed the idea on her own, and Spivak joined as co-producer and business partner in the enterprise after the show had already debuted. The program's innovative idea was to have public figures respond to probing questions without prior preparation and for those being interviewed to be held accountable on issues of the day.

After ''Meet the Press''

While still moderating ''Meet the Press'', Rountree also hosted '' Keep Posted'', a discussion program for the DuMont TV network (renamed ''The Big Issue'' after ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' withdrew its sponsorship) from 1951 through 1954. In 1953, she sold her shares of ''Meet the Press'' and ''The Big Issue'' to Spivak for $125,000, reportedly after a coin-toss, and left her job at ''Meet the Press''. Rountree started the magazine ''Know the Facts'' in 1955. In the same year, she established the radio station WKTF in Northern Virginia. She returned to television in the summer of 1956 as the moderator of ''Press Conference'' (later retitled ''Martha Rountree’s Press Conference''), which was similar in format to ''Meet the Press''. In the 60s, she served as Washington correspondent for New York's WOR radio and other stations. In 1965, Rountree founded the Leadership Foundation, a conservative, non-profit, public-affairs organization in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

She was a member of the

National Press Club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...

(founded 1908) and the Women's National Press Club (founded 1919). Her first marriage was to Albert N. Williams, Jr. in 1941. The marriage lasted seven years and ended in divorce in 1948. In 1952, she married Oliver M. Presbrey, an advertising-agency executive. He died in 1988. She covered national conventions in the 1950s and 1960s, appeared as a guest on the

Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...

television talk show, led a national campaign in support of school prayer and testified before the

1988 Republican National Convention The 1988 Republican National Convention was held in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, from August 15 to August 18, 1988. It was the second time that a major party held its convention in one of the five states known as the Deep So ...

's Platform Committee. A popular Washington hostess, she included many cabinet members, members of Congress and their wives among her friends. Rountree founded Leadership Foundation, a 501(c)3 entity (educational), and Leadership Action, a 501(c)4 entity (lobbying), located on MacArthur Boulevard, in Cabin John, MD - near her home on Comanche Court in Bethesda, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, DC where she lived with Presbrey. The board of directors and advisory board of Leadership Foundation included some of the leading political figures of her era. The foundation published the Leadership Action Alert political newsletter which was mailed on a regular basis to its thousands of members across the country. It also served as the umbrella foundation for special projects, such as the National Center for Pan-American Studies (NCPAS), a group chaired by Joseph Quinn, which created a political youth leadership exchange program between students in Latin America and the United States. The NCPAS was a member group of the IYY Commission (International Youth Year, a UN sponsored program) as well as a participant in the White House Working Group on Central America. Rountree's relationship with the Reagan White House was a close one. In her later years, Rountree's vision had grown quite feeble but she never let on. Only her closest friends were aware that her many years in the bright

klieg light A Klieg light is an intense carbon arc lamp especially used in filmmaking. It is named after inventor John Kliegl and his brother Anton Kliegl. Klieg lights usually have a Fresnel lens with a spherical reflector or an ellipsoidal reflector wit ...

s of television had taken its toll on her own physical vision (by the mid-1980s she was practically blind), but still her sense of patriotism and heart-felt "vision" of a greater America remained very strong. Her activities with Leadership Foundation served as the final chapter in her long life. In the end of her life, though, her many beautiful memories of famous people and world changing events, were slowly taken away from her. Rountree won a Peabody Award for her role as co-founder and producer of ''Meet the Press''. Rountree died in Washington, DC, from complications of Alzheimer's disease aged 87.

Assessments

"I think of Martha as one of the most creative women I’ve ever known,” opined

Liz Carpenter Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter (September 1, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was a writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speechwriter, political humorist, and public relations expert. As the first woman executive assistant to Vice Presiden ...

, the former White House staff director and press secretary of

Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (''née'' Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She previously served as Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 whe ...

. “She won a wide audience by initiating a thoughtful debate of issues on the air before it became commonplace.” The Paley Center for Media Mrs. William Randolph Hearst described Rountree as “a diesel engine under a lace handkerchief.”

References

Notes

*Ware, Susan & Stacey Lorraine Braukman. 2004. ''Notable American Women:A Biographical Dictionary Completing the 20th Century'', Harvard University Press. *

External links

Meet the Press (May 17, 1953): Martha Rountree
with James Wechsler,

Marquis Childs Marquis William Childs (March 17, 1903 – June 30, 1990) was a 20th-century American journalist, syndicated columnist, and author. Early life and education Childs was born on March 17, 1903, in Clinton, Iowa. He graduated from Lyons High Sch ...

, Frank Waldrop, Bert Andrews, and

Lawrence Spivak Lawrence Edmund Spivak (June 11, 1900 – March 9, 1994) was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program ''Meet the Press''. He and journalist Martha Rount ...

].
Meet the Press
- About
The Nation
- "Meet The Press and Leave it to the Girls"
Paley Center for Media
She Made It - Martha Rountree

* ttps://archive.today/20130204230344/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,805792,00.html 1951 Time magazine review of ''Meet the Press''*
The Definitive: ''Meet The Press'' radio programMartha Rountree papers
at the University of Maryland libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Rountree, Martha 1911 births 1999 deaths People from Gainesville, Florida American radio journalists American television news anchors NBC News people Journalists from Florida 20th-century American journalists