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| Mary Denman |
The list of things in radio and television that Mary was the
first to do would go on into tomorrow.
Among them, she was the first woman to appear on television in Corpus
Christi, when she hosted Toyland Time' as 'The Song Lady' on KVDO back in the
early 1950s.
In San Antonio, Denman became the first woman to co-anchor a
newscast on KENS-TV, where she also hosted 'Our Town,' a weekday interview
program.
She worked in public
relations, and then she joined WOAI Radio in 1975, when the station made the
switch to news/talk. She produced talk
shows and was the first host of the 'Morning Magazine' show, which aired every
morning from 9 to 11.
Eliza Sonneland, who
joined WOAI as Mary's producer and later succeeded her on the show, remembers
Mary as somebody who was fighting for women's equality before there was such a
thing.
“When she was being told that you can’t have a raise, and
you are already married and you already have a husband who makes money and he
is supporting the family, a lot of people back then would be going, ‘well,
that’s true’,” she said. “Not Mary.”
Mary won the Broadcaster of the Year Award from American
Women in Radio and TV back in 1973, when there weren’t many woman in radio and
TV. She won Joske’s Woman of Achievement
Award in 1984, and the National Achievement Award and the Silver Award of
Excellence from American Women in Radio and Television in 1995.
Mary died Wednesday
of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease, according to her friend, former
Bexar County Court at Law Judge Bonnie Reed.
She had been in declining health for two years.
After leaving “Morning Magazine,” Mary hosted ‘Prime Plus’
on WOAI, as well as on the old KENS-AM and then on KLUP-AM until December of
2004.
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