Martha Rountree

Martha was a news worker. She grew up in South Carolina. She worked for a newspaper to pay for school. Martha moved to New York City to write.

She had a big idea for a show. It started on the radio. Later, it moved to TV. The show was called Meet the Press.

Martha was the first woman to lead the show. She asked people important questions. She was a very smart leader.

Martha also started a radio station. She even started a group to help people learn. She worked hard for many years.

She won a special prize for her work. Martha was a true pioneer in news. Do you like to learn news?

Martha Rountree was a famous news worker. She was a pioneer in broadcast journalism. This means she was one of the first people to lead news shows on radio and TV.

Martha grew up in South Carolina. Her father worked in sales. When he died, Martha had to work to pay for her college. She worked for a newspaper. Later, she moved to New York City to write.

In 1945, Martha had a big idea. She created a radio show called Meet the Press. In 1947, the show moved to the NBC television network. Martha was the first moderator, or leader, of the show. For many years, she was the only woman to lead it.

Martha did many other things, too. She started a radio station in Virginia. She also founded a group called the Leadership Foundation. This group helped people learn about politics. Martha even won a Peabody Award for her work on Meet the Press. She lived a long life. She died in Washington, D.C., at age 87.

Martha Rountree was a very important news worker in America. She was a pioneer in broadcast journalism. This means she was one of the first people to lead news shows on radio and TV. She helped change how people learned about the world through their screens and speakers. For a very long time, she was the only woman to lead the famous show Meet the Press. Her work helped make news shows a common part of daily life. She was known for being very creative and smart.

Martha's big idea started with a radio show. In 1945, she created a program called The American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press. She developed this idea all on her own. Later, the show moved to the NBC television network. In 1947, it was renamed Meet the Press. Martha served as the first moderator, which is the person who leads the discussion. She stayed in this role until 1953. She worked hard to make sure the show was interesting for everyone.

Martha had a very busy life from a young age. She was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1911. She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Her father worked in sales, but he died when Martha was 16. Because her family had no money left, she worked for a newspaper to pay for college. She moved to New York City in 1938 to work as a writer. She even started a company called Radio House with her sister, Ann. This company made special programs for the radio.

After her famous show, Martha did many more things. She sold her part of Meet the Press for $125,000 in 1953. She started a magazine called Know the Facts in 1955. She also set up a radio station named WKTF in Northern Virginia. In 1965, she founded the Leadership Foundation in Washington, D.C. This was a group that helped people learn about politics. She was a member of the National Press Club too. She even won a Peabody Award for her great work.

Martha's life connects to the news we see today. Many people watch news shows on TV every single day. The way they talk about important topics started with people like Martha. She lived in Bethesda, Maryland, for many years. Even when she became nearly blind in her later years, she kept her strong spirit. Martha died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 87. Her work helped open doors for many other women in news.

Martha Jane Rountree was a pioneering American broadcast journalist and entrepreneur. She was a creator who helped shape how news is discussed on radio and television. Most importantly, she was the creator and first moderator of the public-affairs program Meet the Press. For seventy years, she remained the only female moderator in the long history of the show until 2023. Her work helped establish the format of televised debate and political discussion.

Rountree’s career began with a strong interest in journalism and a need to support herself. Born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1911, she grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Her father worked in sales, but he died when Martha was 16. This left her family with no money. To pay for her studies at the University of South Carolina, she worked for the Columbia Record newspaper. Financial difficulties prevented her from finishing her degree. However, she used her skills to find a job as a reporter for The Tampa Tribune in Florida.

In 1938, Rountree moved to New York City to work as a freelance writer. She and her sister, Ann, later founded a production company called Radio House. This company prepared transcribed programs and singing commercials. In 1945, their idea for a show called Leave It to the Girls was produced by the Mutual Broadcasting System. This show featured a panel where one man asked female celebrities questions from viewers. Rountree also became a roving editor for The American Mercury magazine from 1947 to 1954.

The creation of Meet the Press happened through Rountree's own critical thinking. Lawrence E. Spivak owned The American Mercury and used a radio show to promote the magazine. Rountree provided a critique of this program. Based on her observations, she developed a new idea for a radio show. She called it The American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press, which debuted on June 24, 1945. While some claimed others created it, Rountree developed the idea on her own. Spivak joined as a co-producer and business partner after the show had already started.

Meet the Press eventually moved from radio to the NBC television network. This transition happened on November 6, 1947, and the show was renamed. Rountree served as the moderator until 1953. During this same era, she also hosted a discussion program called Keep Posted on the DuMont TV network. This show was also known as The Big Issue. In 1953, Rountree sold her shares of Meet the Press and The Big Issue to Spivak. The sale was reportedly decided by a coin-toss and amounted to $125,000.

Rountree continued to be active in media and public affairs for many years. In 1955, she started the magazine Know the Facts and established the radio station WKTF in Northern Virginia. She returned to television in 1956 to moderate a show called Press Conference. In the 1960s, she worked as a Washington correspondent for WOR radio. In 1965, she founded the Leadership Foundation in Washington, D.C. This was a non-profit organization for public affairs. The foundation included the Leadership Action group, which focused on lobbying.

Her work with the Leadership Foundation included several important projects. The foundation published a political newsletter called the Leadership Action Alert. It also supported the National Center for Pan-American Studies. This group created a youth leadership exchange between students in the United States and Latin America. Rountree had close connections to the Reagan White House. She was a member of both the National Press Club and the Women's National Press Club. For her role as a co-founder and producer of Meet the Press, she won a Peabody Award.

In her final years, Rountree lived in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband, Oliver M. Presbrey. Although her physical vision became very weak by the mid-1980s, her sense of patriotism remained strong. She eventually suffered from complications of Alzheimer's disease. Martha Rountree died in Washington, D.C., in 1999 at the age of 87. Her legacy lives on through the continued existence of the programs she helped invent. She proved that creative ideas could change the way an entire nation communicates.