Edna Cain Daniel

Edna Cain Daniel (October 23, 1875 - February 21, 1957) was a writer, columnist, newspaper editor, and publisher in Georgia for over 50 years. She was the first woman reporter to work for The Atlanta Constitution.[1] For many years she edited the weekly Free Press in Quitman, Georgia. She has been called the "grand lady of journalism in Georgia"[2] and "one of the South's best all-around newswomen."[3] In 1984 she was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Edna Cain Daniel
Edna Cain in 1907
Born
Edna L. Cain

(1875-10-23)October 23, 1875
Chattooga County, Georgia
DiedFebruary 21, 1957(1957-02-21) (aged 81)
Quitman, Georgia
OccupationNewspaper publisher
Years active1895 - 1956
Known forOver 50 years of journalism in Georgia
Spouse(s)
Royal Daniel
​
​
(m. 1915; died 1939)​

Early life

Edna L. Cain was born in 1875 in Summerville, Georgia to John Wilson Cain[4] and Amanda B. Cain (nee Johnson).[5] She had a brother John Jr. and a sister Catherine.[6] Her father was a newspaper publisher and had also represented Chattooga County in the Georgia State Legislature.[6]

Career

Cain assisted her father at the Summerville newspaper. Although she later joked she had convinced him to put her name on the masthead as an editor so she could get a free railroad pass,[7] she was assistant editor and "right hand man" to her father.[8] She showed her ability as a writer with poems, clever stories and other items.[8] She was regarded as "one of the brightest writers" for the newspaper.[9]

In 1896 she lobbied for a bill to allow women to serve as state librarian,[10] and she served for a time as the assistant state librarian.[11] While in Atlanta she later became the first woman reporter for the Atlanta Constitution[1]. In 1897 she became editor of the society news for the Constitution.[12]

Edna Cain in 1896

In 1899[11] Edna moved with her father to Quitman, Georgia.[13] He had bought the Quitman Free Press,[6] (a weekly newspaper)[14] after the death of its former editor.[11] Edna and her brother John assisted their father with the paper.[11]

Against the wishes of her father[3], in 1907 she traveled to New York and became a member of the feature staff of the New York World.[4] There she worked for the editor Charles Chapin, and "held her own" with the other staff such as Irvin S. Cobb.[3] She wrote feature stories from Puerto Rico and elsewhere for New York newspapers.[4] After a year in New York she moved back to Georgia.[7]

In 1913, Royal Daniel (a former managing editor of the Atlanta Journal) became editor and publisher of the Quitman Free Press as John Cain Sr. stepped back to be managing director. Edna Cain was associate editor of the paper.[15] She married Daniel in September 1915.[16] She stepped up to full editor during World War I[3] as her husband became busy with other duties including directing the southern division of the American Red Cross.[17]

An incident during the War was illustrative of Daniel's resolve as editor. A scandal arose over a local clergyman getting more than his "Hooverized" share of flour. The local administrator cracked down on the clergyman, and a banker in the town "ordered Miss Edna" to denounce the administrator in an editorial. Her reaction was to laugh him out of her office, but he retaliated with a loan foreclosure against the paper. The town sided with Daniel, to the point that a replacement loan from a different bank had so many endorsers that there was no room for her own signature on the note.[3]

Her father died in 1921.[16][6] She and her husband Royal Daniel were co-editors of the paper together[14] for some 25 years.[7] She became the sole editor and publisher of the newspaper[7] when her husband died in 1939.[4]

Daniel called herself a "liberal Democrat".[7] She always opposed conservative Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge in editorials. When a businessman threatened to pull his advertising from the paper unless she relented, Daniel told him, "All right, you can cancel, but I'll give you one free ad. I'll write it and tell why you canceled. That's blackmail, I suppose, but I learned about it from you." The businessman relented.[3] Daniel continued to oppose Talmadge in his final run for office, in what became a controversial election in 1946.[7]

Even while she was editor and publisher of the Quitman Free Press she continued to write for other outlets including The American City,[18] The Georgia Review, The Delineator,[19] and others.[20][21] She also wrote a ("wonderful" according to Celestine Sibley[22]) column for the Atlanta Journal until two years before her death.[4]

For many years she was involved in the Georgia Press Association including serving as vice president[23] and attending the Georgia Press Institute.[24] She was active in civic life in Quitman. She was a charter member of the Quitman Garden Club, the first chairman of the Quitman Parks Commission and the first woman to serve on the Brooks County Board of Health.[4]

Death and legacy

In 1956 Daniel was given the Brenda Award for her "fearless journalism" from the Atlanta chapter of Theta Sigma Phi.[13] The award is presented annually for "outstanding public service in the field of journalism". It was the first time that award had been presented to a woman.[25]

She died the next year in Brooks County Hospital after having a heart attack, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Quitman.[13]

In 1984 Daniel was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame,[26] which had also inducted her husband Royal Daniel in 1944.[27]

References
  1. Harris, Evelyn (August 20, 1948). "Women in Dixie Journalism". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 10. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  2. Aikman, Leo (May 5, 1960). "State Welcomes NEA Delegates". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 4. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  3. "Miss Edna". TIME. Vol. 44 no. 5. Time Inc. July 31, 1944. p. 55. ISSN 0040-781X. OCLC 1311479. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  4. "Mrs. Edna Cain Daniel Dies; Quitman Editor, Publisher". The Atlanta Constitution. February 22, 1957. p. 1. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  5. "Edna L Cain in household of John W Cain, Summerville, Chattooga, Georgia, United States". FamilySearch. United States Census, 1880. 22 August 2017. citing enumeration district ED 16, sheet 32D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,139.
  6. "Former Legislator Dies at Cordele". The Atlanta Constitution. September 20, 1921. p. 14. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  7. "Noted Woman Country Editor of Georgia Is Visiting Here". Knoxville News Sentinel. June 9, 1946. p. A14. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  8. "A Talented Young Georgian". The Atlanta Constitution. July 19, 1896. p. 19. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  9. "With Georgia Editors". The Atlanta Constitution. December 26, 1895. p. 4. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  10. "In Halls of Legislation". The Atlanta Constitution. December 1, 1896. p. 5. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  11. "Will Manage The Free Press". The Atlanta Constitution. February 3, 1899. p. 3. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  12. "Gleaned from State Press". The Atlanta Constitution. January 19, 1897. p. 4. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  13. Associated Press (February 23, 1957). "Mrs. Edna Cain Daniel". Chattanooga Daily Times. p. 7. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  14. "Royal Daniel Dies of Heart Attack". The Atlanta Constitution. June 19, 1939. p. 1. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  15. "Royal Daniel Leases Quitman Free Press". The Atlanta Constitution. September 11, 1913. p. 14. Retrieved July 27, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  16. Blair, Ruth. Georgia Women of 1926. Georgia Dept. of Archives and History. p. 20. OCLC 3831135. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via HathiTrust.
  17. "Royal Daniel Appointed General Field Secretary Of the Red Cross Society". The Atlanta Constitution. June 6, 1918. p. 9. Retrieved July 27, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  18. Cain, Edna (December 1915). "Intelligent Civic Advertising". Town & County Edition of The American City. Vol. XIII no. 6. New York: Civic Press. pp. 477–480. OCLC 8267710 – via Google Books.
  19. Daniel, Edna Cain (1954). "Me and Edna Earl". The Georgia Review. 8 (2): 137–139. JSTOR 41398016.
  20. Daniel, Edna Cain (August 1, 1918). "Canteen Service for Colored Troops". Red Cross Briefs - Southern Division. Vol. 1 no. 22. Atlanta: American National Red Cross. pp. 5, 8. OCLC 18234987 – via Google Books.
  21. Daniel, Edna Cain (October 1941). "Right In The Gal's Face". The Southern Frontier. Commission on Interracial Cooperation. OCLC 7756661 – via Google Books.
  22. Sibley, Celestine (February 23, 1998). "A dark closet best for facing iffy wardrobe". The Atlanta Constitution. p. B1. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  23. "Editors' Day at Tybee". Savannah Morning News. July 18, 1902. p. 10. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  24. "Georgia Editors Gather for Press Institute". The Atlanta Constitution. February 23, 1941. p. 3. Retrieved July 25, 2020 – via newspapers.com. (Includes photo)
  25. "Publicist Will Speak at 'Brenda' Luncheon". The Atlanta Constitution. April 5, 1956. p. 25. Retrieved July 19, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  26. "Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame 2019 Nomination Form" (PDF). Georgia Press Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  27. "Newspaper Trio in Hall of Fame". The Atlanta Constitution. July 22, 1944. p. 3. Retrieved July 1, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
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