Up from the Scrub

Up from Scrub

A South Dakota ex-schoolteacher last week perched on one of the highest roosts in the newsman's aviary: night city editor of the Chicago Daily News, fourth largest afternoon paper in the U.S. Her daily job, from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m.: to put the News's first edition to bed.

Lois Thrasher, 32, had had seven years of reporting on the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus-Leader when she came to Chicago in 1942, just when many a big city's news room was converting from profanity to perfumery. Sent to cover a hotel murder case, she wangled a job as chambermaid, scrubbed seven bathrooms on her hands & knees, muttered: "I wouldn't do this for the man I love. I don't know why I do it for the Daily News." Last week, her scrubbing and striving rewarded by promotion, Night City Editor Thrasher was still not certain it was worth it. Said she: "The responsibility is terrible. Why. I look ten years older already."

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