c. 1931

Helene Foellinger Typewriter

Publisher and President of Fort Wayne Newspapers Inc.: Helene Foellinger (1910-1987)

Helene Foellinger joined the staff of her father's newspaper, the News Sentinel, as a reporter, feature writer, and the paper's first female editor in 1932. However, upon the premature death of her father four years later, she assumed her father's responsibilities, becoming the youngest publisher of a big daily newspaper. In just her first five years as publisher, she increased circulation by twenty percent. She formed one of the first joint publishing firms in the country in 1950, Fort Wayne Newspapers, Inc., printing the News Sentinel and the Journal Gazette. In 1958 Helene and her mother Esther founded the Foellinger Foundation, which awards grants to nonprofit organizations that strengthens Allen County children and families, particularly those with the greatest economic need and fewer opportunities. Helene Foellinger was the first woman to be inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1974.

This Underwood portable typewriter, c. 1931, was used by Helene Foellinger. She was a publisher of the News Sentinel newspaper until 1980, and is perhaps best known today for the legacy she left us as a founder of the Foellinger Foundation.