author
Agnes S. Underwood
A tough, trailblazing newspaperwoman, she rose from switchboard work to become one of the first women to lead a city room at a major metropolitan daily. Her career in Los Angeles crime reporting put her close to some of the city’s most notorious stories.
1 Audiobook
The Story of a Robin
by Agnes S. Underwood
About the author
Born Agness May Wilson in San Francisco in 1902, Agness Underwood built a remarkable journalism career in Los Angeles. She began at the Los Angeles Record in the 1920s and became widely known for covering police, courts, and major crime stories with speed, nerve, and strong reporting instincts.
In 1947, she was named city editor of the Los Angeles Herald-Express, making her one of the first women in the United States to hold that role at a major metropolitan daily. She later served as assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and her newspaper career lasted more than four decades.
Underwood is remembered both for her pioneering place in American journalism and for the vivid, hard-driving style that made her a standout in the newsroom. She died in 1984, but her story still captures an era when big-city reporting was rough, competitive, and changing fast for women in the profession.