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Ruth Ashton Taylor (born 1921) is a retired American television and radio newscaster, with a career in broadcasting that spanned over 50 years.She was the first female newscaster on television in Los Angeles and the West Coast.She has received many awards and honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[edit] BiographyA native of Los Angeles, Ruth Ashton graduated in 1939 from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. She relocated to New York City thereafter, receiving a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1944.Following her graduation, she took a job as a news writer at CBS radio, taking a place among the original members of the documentary unit of Edward R. Murrow. When she first began as a writer and producer there, she had no thoughts of going on air as, to her knowledge, it simply wasnt done in major news markets. According to her, CBS management didnt want to broadcast women because they just didnt like those squeaky voices. However, by 1949, Ashton Taylor was on the air, interviewing such notable individuals as Albert Einstein. Eventually, she was transferred to a religious program, and, disappointed by her exclusion from news broadcasting, she left CBS radio in New York and returned to Los Angeles.In 1951, she became the first woman in Los Angeles or on the West Coast on television news when she took a job with LAs KNXT-TV (now KCBS). Although originally hired to cover the Womens Angle, she has indicated in interviews that the lack of conventional roles for women in broadcasting gave her considerable freedom in the stories she selected to cover. In 1958, she left briefly to work as a public information officer at a college before returning in 1962. She officially retired in 1989, but continued occasionally contributing into her 70s. As a news reporter and program host, she became an influential figure on subsequent female journalists, with numerous industry awards and a career that included notable interviews with such diverse people as Jimmy Carter and Jimmy Durante.During her time in broadcasting, Ashton Taylor became a widely known and celebrated figure. In 1983, The Los Angeles Times indicated that she had a reputation as one of the best newspeople in television. A 2007 article in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media described her as one of the most recognizable people on radio and television in Los Angeles She was given a Star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. Other notable honors include a Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and a Diamond Achievement Award from Women in Communications (1984).The Good News Foundation, an organization of women journalists in Los Angeles, offers in her name to female students intending a career in journalism a scholarship which not only provides financial assistance but also the mentorship of a working professional. The organization cites her as a true pioneer in broadcast journalism—a woman who paved the way for others to follow.[edit] References^ Famous students from Poly High School. Press-Telegram. 1995-08-06. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LB&p_theme=lb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAE9059ADE70EAD&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^ a b c d e f g Biagi, Shirley. (1992-08-19) Ruth Ashton Taylor introduction Washington Press Club Foundation. Retrieved 2008-09-03^ Not the retiring kind: if Ruth Ashton Taylor has quit, its news. Daily News of Los Angeles. 1989-06-28. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LA&p_theme=la&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EF51EF72F09F9DC&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-09-08. ^ a b Conway, Mike (Sept. 2007). A guest in our living room: the television newscaster before the rise of the dominant anchor. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_3_51/ai_n25012579/pg_12. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^ a b Cohen, Jerry (1983-05-07). Growing older in America. Los Angeles Times: pp. A1-A2. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/671814192.html?dids=671814192:671814192&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=May+07%2C+1983&author=JERRY+COHEN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Growing+Older+in+America&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^ a b c Magers, Paul (2008-03-13). Whatever happened to Ruth Ashton Taylor. cbs2.com. Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20080315005147/http://cbs2.com/local/Ruth.Ashton.Taylor.2.674219.html. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^ TV Journalist reluctantly becomes a Hollywood Star. Daily News of Los Angeles. 1990-12-11. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LA&p_theme=la&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EF6113DB2435541&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^ a b Ruth Ashton Taylor Scholarship application, Good News Foundation. Retrieved 2008-09-08.[edit] External links2008 interview, CBSPersondataNameTaylor, Ruth AshtonAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birthPlace of birthLos Angeles, California, U.S.Date of deathPlace of deathRetrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ashton_TaylorCategories: American television journalists | American television personalities | People from Los Angeles, California | Living people | 1921 birthsPersonal toolsLog in / create accountNamespacesArticleDiscussionVariantsViewsReadEditView historyActionsSearchNavigationMain pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact WikipediaToolboxWhat links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkCite this pagePrint/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable version This page was last modified on 7 December 2010 at 21:55.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;additional terms may apply.See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact usPrivacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersif ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.config.set({wgCanonicalNamespace: , wgCanonicalSpecialPageName: false, wgNamespaceNumber: 0, wgPageName: Ruth_Ashton_Taylor, wgTitle: Ruth Ashton Taylor, wgAction: view, wgArticleId: 19229847, wgIsArticle: true, wgUserName: null, wgUserGroups: [*], wgCurRevisionId: 401130925, wgCategories: [American television journalists, American television personalities, People from Los Angeles, California, Living people, 1921 births], wgBreakFrames: false, wgRestrictionEdit: [], wgRestrictionMove: [], wgSearchNamespaces: [0], wgFlaggedRevsParams: {tags: {status: {levels: 1, quality: 2, pristine: 3}}}, wgStableRevisionId: null, wgRevContents: {error: Unable to get content., waiting: Waiting for content}, wgWikimediaMobileUrl: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki, wgCollapsibleNavBucketTest: false, wgCollapsibleNavForceNewVersion: false, wgArticleAssessmentJUIPath: http://bits.wikimedia.org/w/extensions-1.17/UsabilityInitiative/js/js2stopgap/jui.combined.min.js, Geo: {city: , country: }, wgNoticeProject: wikipedia});}if ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.loader.load([mediawiki.legacy.wikibits, mediawiki.util, mediawiki.legacy.ajax, mediawiki.legacy.mwsuggest, ext.vector.collapsibleNav, ext.vector.collapsibleTabs, ext.vector.editWarning, ext.vector.simpleSearch]);mediaWiki.loader.go();}if ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.user.options.set({ccmeonemails:0,cols:80,contextchars:50,contextlines:5,date:default,diffonly:0,disablemail:0,disablesuggest:0,editfont:default,editondblclick:0,editsection:1,editsectiononrightclick:0,enotifminoredits:0,enotifrevealaddr:0,enotifusertalkpages:1,enotifwatchlistpages:0,extendwatchlist:0,externaldiff:0,externaleditor:0,fancysig:0,forceeditsummary:0,gender:unknown,hideminor:0,hidepatrolled:0,highlightbroken:1,imagesize:2,justify:0,math:1,minordefault:0,newpageshidepatrolled:0,nocache:0,noconvertlink:0,norollbackdiff:0,numberheadings:0,previewonfirst:0,previewontop:1,quickbar:1,rcdays:7,rclimit:50,rememberpassword:0,rows:25,searchlimit:20,showhiddencats:0,showjumplinks:1,shownumberswatching:1,showtoc:1,showtoolbar:1,skin:vector,stubthreshold:0,thumbsize:4,underline:2,uselivepreview:0,usenewrc:0,watchcreations:1,watchdefault:0,watchdeletion:0,watchlistdays:3,watchlisthideanons:0,watchlisthidebots:0,watchlisthideliu:0,watchlisthideminor:0,watchlisthideown:0,watchlisthidepatrolled:0,watchmoves:0,wllimit:250,flaggedrevssimpleui:1,flaggedrevsstable:false,flaggedrevseditdiffs:true,flaggedrevsviewdiffs:false,vector-simplesearch:1,useeditwarning:1,vector-collapsiblenav:1,usebetatoolbar:1,usebetatoolbar-cgd:1,variant:en,language:en,searchNs0:true,searchNs1:false,searchNs2:false,searchNs3:false,searchNs4:false,searchNs5:false,searchNs6:false,searchNs7:false,searchNs8:false,searchNs9:false,searchNs10:false,searchNs11:false,searchNs12:false,searchNs13:false,searchNs14:false,searchNs15:false,searchNs100:false,searchNs101:false,searchNs108:false,searchNs109:false});mediaWiki.loader.state({user.options:ready});/* cache key: enwiki:resourceloader:filter:minify-js:3:ae2156c08a06314b12473d37e57711e2 */} if ( window.isMSIE55 ) fixalpha();