Dear Mrs. Griggs
Before Dear Abby and Ann Landers, Ione Quinby Griggs (I.Q.G.) dispensed advice to generations of Wisconsinites on the back page of the beloved Green Sheet of The Milwaukee Journal. For 51 years, she was the prim, proper Mrs. Griggs who counseled the lovelorn, mediated marital woes, arbitrated parent-teen growing pains and referred readers to social service agencies for help.
Former Journalites Genevieve McBride and Steve Byers bring her life to readers in 'Dear Mrs. Griggs': Women Readers Pour Out Their Hearts From the Heartland. The most unexpected and fascinating story for many Milwaukeeans growing up with Mrs. Griggs' advice column was the first act of her career. During the Roaring Twenties, I.Q.G. was Ione Quinby, a crime reporter and sob sister for The Chicago Evening Post, who ran with a Bohemian crowd in the Windy City.
In the age of the reporter-rewrite man relay, she more than snared her share of bylines interviewing female murderers and covering lurid court trials. During Chicago's Prohibition mob wars she rode with a gangster and shared a candy bar with Al Capone. It's easy to see the similarities between Quinby and the Hildy Johnson character in former Chicago Daily News reporter and prolific Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht's classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday. If you didn't have an opportunity to attend Green Sheet editor Dan Chabot's fond remembrance of a Milwaukee icon 20 years after it passed into history, you can borrow and watch Remember When...Everyone Read the Green Sheet with family and friends.
Mr. Tweedy @ Central
(Dan, Local History Librarian)