Maggie Savoy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Margaret Ann Case February 14, 1917 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 1970 (aged 53) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1947–1970 |
| Spouses | William Savoy
(m. 1940; div. 1950)J.W. Pitts III
(m. 1951; died 1963) |
Margaret Ann Savoy Pitts Bellows (née Case; February 14, 1917 – December 19, 1970) was an American newspaper editor. She was the women's editor for the Phoenix Gazette between 1947 and 1959, and then spent five years at The Arizona Republic. She moved to New York City in 1964 following her third marriage, to fellow journalist Jim Bellows, and wrote for the Associated Press, before joining United Press International to write on its urban beat. After moving to Los Angeles in 1967, she became the women's editor for the Los Angeles Times, writing for Section IV until it was renamed as the View in July 1970, where she profiled women including Joan Didion, Maya Angelou and Nancy Reagan.
Savoy worked to expand the focus of the women's page of newspapers, writing about social and environmental issues at a time when this was uncommon. She wrote columns on rape helplines, domestic violence, the death penalty and welfare. In 1963, she worked with Marie Anderson to survey editors nationally on the content of women's pages and the conditions for women's editors, finding that women's editors received less pay and support. She was an outspoken feminist, often profiling leaders of the women's liberation movement, including Elizabeth Duncan Koontz and Aileen Hernandez. Fellow editor Dorothy Roe described Savoy as "one of the two or three ablest women's editors in the country".