Woods, Mattiebelle
(born: 1902 - died: 2005)Journalist Mattiebelle Woods was born in Louisville, KY, the daughter of Annabelle and Ira Woods. She grew up in Milwaukee, WI and married when she was 19. Shortly after her daughter was born, Woods lost her husband in a car accident. She was briefly married again at age 24; that marriage ended in divorce.
Beginning in the 1940s, Woods became a society reporter for African American newspapers. In 1964, she joined the Milwaukee Courier, also reporting for several other Milwaukee newspapers and the Chicago Defender. She was also a freelance writer for Ebony and Jet magazines.
Woods loved to danced: she was featured in Jet doing the electric slide. She attended a Christmas party at the Clinton White House. Her newspaper column, "Partyline," was last written the week she died; Woods had been a journalist with the Milwaukee Courier for more than 40 years and was the oldest working journalist in the U.S.
For more see A. R. Silvers, "Obituary: Mattiebelle Woods 1902-2005," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/19/2005, News section A, p. 1; "Mattiebelle Woods," in vol. 8 of African American National Biography, edited by H. L. Gates, Jr. and E. B. Higginbotham; and E. Gordon's remembrance of "Mattiebelle Woods, pioneer journalist on NPR."