Longtime Beacon Journal reporter Fran Murphey was an icon, a spirited woman who readers loved.
When she died in 1998 at 75 from liver cancer, a piece of Akron history went with her. If you ever had the pleasure of taking a car ride with her, you know it was no typical drive, as she pointed out local landmarks and told the kinds of stories you wouldn’t soon forget.
Former Beacon Journal reporter Thrity Umrigar wrote an entertaining obituary about the woman who loved this community and the people in it.
“She was an Akron original, as unique and as immediately recognizable as the Goodyear blimp,” Umrigar wrote. “The pronounced limp, the trademark bib overalls, the mop of shocking white hair, the big, hearty laugh, the many eccentricities — all hid the fact that a giant walked in our midst.”
Recently, the Special Collections division of the main Akron-Summit County Public Library received a donation that will thrill Murphey fans.
About a dozen years ago, Laura Loew attended an auction in Broadview Heights. She likes collecting ephemera — paper items such as posters, tickets, fliers and personal letters. So when a box with six scrapbooks came up for bid, she snapped it up. At home, she didn’t take the time to explore the contents, figuring she would do that later.
When Loew moved from North Royalton to Medina, she lugged that box to her new home. But it wasn’t until about a year ago that she discovered the treasure hidden inside.
The books, compiled from the late 1930s to mid-1940s, belonged to the then-budding journalist Frances B. Murphey. They contain clippings of articles she wrote starting as a teen for the Hudson High newspaper and as a contributor to the weekly publications, Hudson Times and Northfield News.
“I’m a big collector and buy, collect and sell things. But I couldn’t bring myself to sell these,” Loew explained. “Very rarely do things cross your path that merit” thoughts of where they should be permanently located for historical value.
Journalistic legacy
Fran’s mother, Marie L. (Thompson) Murphey, was a correspondent with the Akron Times-Press, which merged with the Beacon Journal in 1938. While in junior high, Fran accompanied her mother to political meetings. On election nights, mother and daughter tallied the results by flashlight to get them into the paper the next day.
Some of the scrapbooks, particularly the earliest, include amusing personal notes.
“Mother has worked for the weekly papers … I started to seriously contribute my bit in June of 1938. No pay, but lots of experience and a little glory (very little),” Murphey typed on a piece of paper that’s glued inside the book.
Always striving for accuracy, Murphey put notes in the books that scolded herself or others for grammatical errors in news reports.
What I found particularly amusing was the disparity between how she kept shop at the Beacon and her neatly put-together scrapbooks. This was a young gal who took time and patience to be certain that her keepsakes were beautiful and orderly.
In contrast, as a reporter at the Beacon, she threw nothing out. She was once given a small office because her spreading empire of stuff had trespassed onto other reporters’ work areas. But when she ran out of space in that office, which was literally piled from floor to ceiling, she sneaked boxes under other people’s desks.
In her scrapbook, she boasts about scooping other reporters and how much time she spent getting details for some of the stories she wrote.
My favorite of her early works is something she wrote in response to a collection of news stories about a Francis Murphy, otherwise known as the “bearded woman,” who had been arrested at the New York World’s Fair in 1939.
“Murphy was arrested Oct. 4 for testifying he was a woman when he appeared in felony court against John Durkin … who tried to kiss Murphy in the subway, under the impression the veiled Murphy was really a woman,” read an old newspaper clipping.
In response, our Fran Murphey wrote a note to readers when she was working for the Northfield News.
“Although I have been at the New York World’s Fair, the man who was recently exposed as a fake ‘bearded lady’ is not related to me.
“Yours in Fun, Fran.”
Kim Hone-McMahan can be reached at 330-996-3742 or kmcmahan@thebeaconjournal.com. Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kim.honemcmahan.