Passion for area history began with Flint Journal

Alice Lethbridge wanted to be a reporter. . But like many women journalists of that era, she ended up in the society department after the male reporters returned from WWII.

THE FLINT JOURNAL / STUART BAUER Alice Lethbridge wrote for The Journal from 1945-1984, with time off to raise children. Age: 80 Home: Flint Background: Worked several stints as a Flint Journal feature writer from 1945 to 1984. Wrote several books on local history. Education: 1938 graduate of Flint St. Mary�s. Degree in radio, speech and drama from Nazareth College near Kalamazoo. Attended graduate school at University of Michigan-Flint. Personal: Five children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Memorable story: Lethbridge covered the Flint centennial celebration at Atwood Stadium in 1955, attended by Dinah Shore and other dignitaries. The event sparked her interest in history.

�It was not really what I wanted to do as a reporter,� Lethbridge said. �But they just didn�t have women in that department. That came later.�

Society ran detailed stories on weddings, engagements and all that went on in the women�s society groups.

But Lethbridge said she came to appreciate her view into Flint�s first families and became fascinated with their origin.

Over more than three decades, she chronicled the early history of Flint and Genesee County in the pages of The Flint Journal and wrote books on local history.

Her impetus begun with a centennial pageant at Atwood Stadium in 1955, complete with cowboys, Indians and covered wagons, she said.

�It was really very well done,� she said, �Dinah Shore was a guest singer. (Future) President Nixon and his wife came.�

Lethbridge was valedictorian of her 1938 class at St. Mary�s High School.

She was still in college when she started at The Journal in 1945, writing about military honors and casualties. After finishing school, she was assigned to the society department. She worked several stints in the features department, now known as Tempo, before retiring in 1984.

She has written several books on local history, including �Well Do I Remember� and �Halfway to Yesterday,� a collection of her articles. She also was a member of local bicentennial commissions.

� Ken Palmer