TENNESSEE, USA — Tennessee Journalist Nellie Kenyon is the subject of author Tyler Boyd’s newest work, "Nellie Kenyon: Trailblazing Tennessee Journalist."
He discovered her while penning a book about his great-granduncle, Tennessee Statesmen, and McMinn County native Harry T. Burn, who cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment.
“She was the very first reporter to be sent to Niota to interview Febb Burn, the mother who saved suffrage,” said Tyler Boyd.
The year was 1920 and Nellie Kenyon scooped the competition. Febb Burn had successfully convinced her son, Tennessee Representative Harry T Burn, to vote for women’s suffrage.
The interview was an impressive get for the junior journalist.
“That launched a remarkable career in journalism that went all the way into the 1970s. And throughout her career, she was the only woman covering a lot of these stories,” said Boyd.
Nellie Kenyon didn’t go to college but grew up around the newspaper business.
“Her mother was the society editor of the Chattanooga News for many years, covering teas and things like that,” said Boyd. “Well, Nellie had no interest in that.”
Shortly after Tennessee ratified the 19th amendment, Kenyon was in the middle of another national news story in Dayton Tennessee — The Scopes Trial.
“She received press pass number one,” said Boyd.
However, she couldn’t be in the courtroom because she was a woman.
“She was sent by her editor to do a lot of the preliminary interviews leading up to the trial," said Boyd.
And in July 1925, a jury convicted John Scopes for teaching evolution in the classroom.
“She did such outstanding work interviewing Scopes, his father, the judge, the jury, the people around town, figuring out how the trial got started, how it was all concocted in a drugstore," he said.
For Kenyon, it was the beginning of many big stories and big interviews. She later tracked down Al Capone at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
“She got to talk to him on the train," said Boyd. "And it was the last time that anyone saw him as his old self because he ended up getting sick in prison and dying a few years later.”
She also witnessed Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa’s mistrial in Nashville.
“During that trial, he survived an assassination attempt and Nellie was in the room and saw that happen," said Boyd.
She also covered Hoffa’s conviction in Chattanooga.
Kenyon spent her 50-year journalism career at two major Tennessee newspapers — The Chattanooga News and The Nashville Tennessean. Her groundbreaking reporting even solved a robbery.
“This is one of the few exceptions to when she said reporters shouldn't make the news," said Boyd.
Kenyon chased down leads and was relentless at times.
“She was feared in a good way,” said Boyd. “By the time she retired she did say she was glad to see more women getting involved in journalism.”
Kenyon donated her personal papers, scrapbooks and memorabilia to the UT Knoxville Library Special Collections in Knoxville.
“And, it really gave me an insight into who she was as a person. It was a lot of fun bringing her career to life," said Boyd.
Kenyon started a scholarship in her name for women pursuing journalism at the University of Tennessee. She died in 1982.
Boyd’s book about her life and career, Nellie Kenyon: Trailblazing Tennessee Journalist, will be published in late April.