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Dorothy Dix Facts & Worksheets

Dorothy Dix was one of the most prominent journalists in American history. Millions of people read her syndicated advice columns every day.

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Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, famously known by her pen name “Dorothy Dix”, was one of the most prominent journalists in American history. Millions of people read her syndicated advice columns every day.

See the fact file below for more information on Dorothy Dix, or you can download our 24-page Dorothy Dix worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • On November 21, 1861, Elizabeth Meriwether was born on the Woodstock plantation in Montgomery County, Tennessee, not far from the Kentucky border. She was the daughter of Maria Winston Meriwether, who passed away when Elizabeth was still a child, and William Douglas Meriwether, a prominent member of the Virginia aristocracy.
  • The Meriwether family suffered financial losses during the Civil War, just like many other Southern aristocrats. She received a meager formal education and, as a shy young woman, felt she had few options in life. 
  • She first attended the Female Academy in Clarksville, Tennessee, before spending one unhappy semester at Hollins Institute in Virginia, where she was teased for her pigtails and uncultured country ways.
  • Elizabeth, who weighed only 90 pounds and stood only five feet tall, rushed into marriage at the age of twenty-one in 1882.
  • The bride’s stepmother’s brother, George O. Gilmer, was the attractive groom and ten years older. He spoke grandly of his aspirations to become an inventor. This pairing turned out to be a terrible mistake, but the young woman was determined to stay because she did not support divorce.
  • She eventually gave up due to his mental issues and inability to maintain a job, so she moved to Bay Saint Louis on the Mississippi Gulf with her father to recover.

WRITING CAREER

  • There, she met the prominent female publisher of the South and owner of the New Orleans Daily Picayune, Eliza Nicholson. Nicholson offered Gilmer a position after noticing some features that Gilmer, who had always enjoyed writing, had recently freelanced to newspapers.
  • Thus, at the age of thirty-three, Gilmer found herself embarking on what would become a career that would continue for more than half a century.
  • Gilmer seized the opportunity right away. She was eager to master the art of journalism when she was hired in 1894 as an assistant to the awe-inspiring Major Nathaniel Burbank, editor of the Picayune. She spent her evenings in her run-down rooming house, going over newspapers to study style and composing articles.
  • Years later, she revealed that she had “studied the backs of books of synonyms and word books and dictionaries; I followed big stories in every part of the country to see which papers played them up best; I dissected the work of the leading paragraphists” (writers of the snappy, witty commentary that was popular in her day).
  • Under the supervision of the major, she advanced to reviewing plays before starting her own weekly column, which debuted on May 5, 1895 under the pen name Dorothy Dix. She chose this name in accordance with Victorian convention, which required genteel women journalists to adopt alliterative noms de plume to conceal their true identities from the stigma of public exposure.
  • Gilmer chose hers partly because she thought the name Dorothy had dignity and partly because she recalled a black servant by the name of Dicks who had buried the family silver during the Civil War and therefore saved it.
  • The column did not start in the question and answer style that eventually became well-known, although it offered commentary on women and counsel for them. Gilmer instead produced humorous, straightforward “sermonettes” that garnered notice around the country.
  • She was recruited to New York in 1901 by William Randolph Hearst to work for his Evening Journal with the then-magnificent compensation of $5000 per year. At the turn of the century, sensationalism ruled the newspaper industry in New York.
  • Gilmer, one of Hearst’s most well-known “sob sisters”, excelled in reporting on murder trials of women. Her sympathies were always with the ladies accused of murdering family members, typically their husbands or fathers. She was so sympathetic to these ladies that she never came across a murderess that she didn’t admire or recognize as a tragic figure. 
  • Gilmer covered significant trials for Hearst over the following fifteen years, transforming the courtroom into, in Culley’s words, “a place where the war between the sexes continues in particularly bold relief” (interestingly, no jury ever convicted a woman defendant whom Gilmer befriended in print).
  • The journalism of Gilmer’s time featured narrative and conveyed tales much more than it does today. Instead of factual presentation, human interest attracted readers and increased circulation. Gilmer depicted courtroom proceedings as tragedies of tainted passion and the mistreatment of women.
  • Gilmer continued to write her five-day-a-week feature column while covering trials and also received a growing amount of correspondence from people seeking her advice on their own problems. 
  • She worked hard to respond to every letter, which significantly increased her workload and resulted in a protracted illness in 1905. Gilmer, though, kept working for Hearst until 1917.
  • She shifted to the national Wheeler Newspaper Syndicate that year. She relocated back to New Orleans to focus on her advice column, which she produced in the form of questions and answers and letter-style columns she termed sermonettes. She declared to Arthur Brisbane, Hearst’s star editor, that “The next murder I cover will be yours!” because she was sick of writing about legal circuses. She thought her advice column helped real people and served a social good, whereas her crime reporting primarily increased readership for Hearst newspapers.
  • She only agreed to cover a murder trial once again in 1926, when the Ledger syndicate, to which she had moved in 1923, offered her $1,000 per week, at the time a sizable sum, in addition to her regular compensation, to cover the Hall-Mills case. At nearly 65 years old, Gilmer was described as “a tiny figure, housewifely and plump who looked like somebody’s grandmother… (who) sweated over her copy every night like a novice and did a workmanlike job” by another female reporter. 
  • By this time, Gilmer was living in luxury in New Orleans, surrounded by pricey antiques and adoring friends. Her husband passed away in a mental hospital in 1929.
  • Gilmer switched to the Bell Syndicate in 1942 and wrote her advice column there until April 1949, when deteriorating health compelled the syndicate to send out articles she had already written and eventually to provide a ghostwriter who proceeded along the lines Gilmer had laid down. Gilmer spent the following year in hospital.

DEATH AND LEGACY

  • On December 16, 1951, she passed away in New Orleans from kidney disease at the age of 90, leaving a nearly 2.5 million dollar fortune behind. Gilmer absorbed the principles and attitudes of the professional journalist despite the fact that she began her work later than others. She put in a lot of effort to become an expert. She always adhered to deadlines and got along with editors, following newspaper industry customs.
  • She used traditional reportorial approaches, was skilled at interviewing, and excelled at capturing the rich details that distinguished her trial reports. 
  • Beyond that, her exceptional interest in people made her work readable and approachable, making her the highest-paid newspaperwoman in the world at the time.
  • Over 60 million readers around the world were familiar with Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer’s advice column and knew her as Dorothy Dix when she passed away.
  • Her writing career included six books: Mirandy (1914), Hearts à la Mode (1915), Mirandy Exhorts (1922), My Trip Around the World (1924), Dorothy Dix: Her Book, based on her columns (1926), and How to Win and Hold a Husband (1939).
  • Gilmer was adamant that being a woman was the hardest job in the world and, as a career woman, she had a special understanding of working women. She pushed female students to think about a profession in journalism in 1931 after receiving an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. “What is a newspaper, anyway”, she said, “but the aggregate gossip of the world”.

Dorothy Dix Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Dorothy Dix across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Dorothy Dix, who was one of the most prominent journalists in American history. Millions of people read her syndicated advice columns every day.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Dorothy Dix Facts 
  2. Got It!
  3. Fill My Ink!
  4. Taking Notes
  5. Sentence Generator
  6. Auto Correct
  7. Life Highlight
  8. Good Old Days
  9. Newspaper Clip
  10. Friend Request
  11. Honoring Dorothy Dix

Frequently Asked Questions

What was famous for?

She became a well-known journalist in America by writing an advice column and covering sensational crime stories with a sentimental flair.

What she wrote about?

Some examples of the celebrated cases and trials she covered are the Nan Patterson murder trials in 1904 and the Harry Thaw-Stanford White murder and trial in 1906.

What happened to her husband?

He became mentally ill and could not take care of himself. He died in an institution for mentally ill people in 1931.

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Link will appear as Dorothy Dix Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 10, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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