A Guide to the Lois Sager Foxhall Collection, 1917-2011 (bulk 1936-1976)

Biographical Note

Born to Emory H. Sager and Irene Kelly Sager in Memphis, Texas, Lois Sager Foxhall (1917-1989) was a Dallas Morning News journalist and served as one of the first female war correspondents during World War II. After graduating from Childress High School, Foxhall attended Texas State College for Women (now Texas Woman’s University), before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Communications in 1939 and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Following her graduation, she worked in UT Austin’s Department of Public Relations.

Foxhall began her career as a journalist in the mid-1930s, initially writing for her hometown newspaper, the Childress Daily Index. In 1943, she was hired as a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. She gained a great deal of acclaim after authoring a series of articles on juvenile delinquency during wartime, which were later reprinted as a pamphlet by UT Austin’s Hogg Foundation. During World War II, she became the first foreign female war correspondent from the Southwest U.S. after the Dallas Morning News sent her on assignment to Europe. Foxhall wrote on a wide range of economic and social issues, including rehabilitation and reconstruction in Germany as well as the response of the United Nations and the Nuremberg Trials. Headquartered in Weisbaden, Germany, she traveled throughout East Germany and other European countries, interviewing refugees, the displaced, and American soldiers.

Following the war, Foxhall received the prestigious Nieman Foundation Fellowship journalism award from Harvard University in 1947. Studying modern history and international relations for two years, Foxhall returned to the Dallas Morning News as a writer for the Austin Bureau a year later.

On October 31, 1949, she married Lewis Foxhall, with whom she had three children: Nene, Carol, and Lewis. Foxhall settled with her family in Memphis, Texas, and continued to write for the Dallas Morning News as a free-lance journalist until the mid-1970s. Her articles from this period concern family life, women’s issues, politics, and other social commentary. Following her death in 1989, her daughter Nene E. Foxhall established the Lois Sager Foxhall Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Journalism at UT Austin.

Sources:

"Former Journalist Lois Foxhall dies at 72."Houston Chronicle. Last modified July 6, 1989. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1989_636333/former-journalist-lois-foxhall-dies-at-72.html.

"Lois Sager Foxhall Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Journalism." University of Texas at Austin Development Office. Accessed March 30, 2012. http://endowments.giving.utexas.edu/5464/.

Scope and Contents

Comprising correspondence, newspapers and newspaper clippings, manuscript drafts of essays and features, printed materials, notes, notebooks, research materials, literary productions, scrapbooks, publications, military reports and orders, financial documents, photographs, and miscellaneous materials, the Lois Sager Foxhall Collection, 1917-2011 (bulk 1936-1976), chronicles Foxhall’s career as a journalist for the Dallas Morning News. Newspapers, clippings, scrapbooks, and manuscript drafts consist of Foxhall’s essays and features primarily published in the Dallas Morning News and the Childress Daily Index, documenting her writing process and work as a journalist. Such topics addressed in her articles include life as a student, the reconstruction of Europe, especially Germany following World War II, women’s issues and political involvement, child rearing, fashion, and social and educational topics.

Correspondence concerns the war, family life, her career as a journalist, her Nieman Foundation Fellowship, and her relationship with fellow journalist Nora Waln. Printed materials consist of brochures, programs, and pamphlets relating to journalism; research materials including clippings, correspondence, among other items, and notes pertain to individuals impacted by World War II, child development, psychology, the Nuremberg Trials, and the United Nations; World War II military orders and reports relate to the statuses of refugees, displaced persons, reparations and restitution in Germany, and Foxhall’s travel throughout Europe; and notebooks and literary productions illustrate Foxhall’s creative endeavors and her writing process.

Additionally, the collection includes financial documents such as receipts; photographs of Foxhall and her family members; miscellaneous materials relating to travel, Europe in World War II, and journalism standards; and course notes and assignments as well as other educational-related materials concerning Foxhall’s attendance at Texas State College for Women (now Texas Woman’s University), UT Austin, and Harvard University during her Nieman Foundation Fellowship.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Separated Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Lois Sager Foxhall Collection, 1917-2011 (bulk 1936-1976), Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Bethany Anderson, March 2012.

Detailed Description of the Papers