WEST PLAINS, Mo. – Officials with the Ozarks Heritage Research Center (OHRC) at Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) will host a presentation, “Lucile and Betty, the Ozarks’ Fearless Female Journalists” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at OHRC, which is located inside MSU-WP’s Garnett Library, 304 W. Trish Knight St., in West Plains.
Free and open to all, this event is sponsored by Missouri Humanities and the OHRC. Refreshments will be provided.
The presentation will be given by Susan Croce Kelly, former newspaper reporter, columnist, executive speechwriter, magazine editor and a prize-winning author. She will provide a portrayal of Lucile Morris Upton, a longtime Springfield newspaper reporter and columnist during the last century, and her colleague, newspaper photographer Betty Love. The two women became well-known as they covered news across the Ozarks during the middle years of the twentieth century.
More about Kelly
Susan Croce Kelly has been involved in the writing world most of her life. During the course of her career, she has been a newspaper reporter in St. Louis and Springfield, practiced public relations in the US and Europe, was editor of two magazines, an executive speechwriter, and author of three award-winning books.
Her newest book, “Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks,” won the Missouri Library Association’s 2024 Literary Award. She says the book speaks to her love of the rapidly disappearing newspaper world.
She grew up in the St. Louis suburbs, holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, and a research master’s degree from Saint Louis University. Today she lives with her husband, Joel Kirkpatrick, and a black-and-white dog named Sunshine. They have three children and two perfect grandchildren.
More about “Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks”
When a 24-year-old schoolteacher talked her way into a job on the “Denver Express” a hundred years ago (1923), she was in the right place, at the right time, with the right temperament to take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves in a changing world.
Even before she knew much about writing a news story, Lucile Morris Upton met the President of the United States; later she reported on leading feminists of the day, flew with aviation legend Wiley Post, covered the worst single killing of U.S. police officers in the 20th century, and spearheaded a movement to preserve iconic sites of regional history. In the 1950s and early 1960s, her partnership with news photographer Betty Love made them both famous across the Ozarks for doing what they loved – covering the news and telling stories about where they had been.
For more information about the event, contact Rebekah McKinney at 417-255-7949 or RebekahMcKinney@MissouriState.edu. Visit WP.MissouriState.edu/Ozarks for additional information and upcoming events hosted by OHRC.
