In anticipation of my event this Sunday at JCC Rochester, I was recently interviewed by Nancy O’Donnell for a feature story in the Democrat & Chronicle, where my career in journalism began. Here’s an excerpt of the piece:
A reference to Samuel Beckett might not appear in Gail Sheehy’s newest book, Daring: My Passages, A Memoir, but the Irishman’s famous challenge resonates throughout: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Sheehy, the trailblazing journalist, lecturer and profiler of presidents, prime minsters and prostitutes, will recount her life and times on Sunday at the Atkin Center at Jewish Senior Life in Brighton — a special event as part of the 22nd annual Jewish Community Center Lane Dworkin Jewish Book Festival.
The memoir shares the story of Sheehy’s writerly life — which actually began in Rochester at the Democrat and Chronicle — to her rocketing success among the New York literati during the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s. It also examines her personal life, from a first marriage, divorce and single parenthood to love affairs and her final marriage to Clay Felker, a pivotal figure in American publishing and the founder of New York magazine. Perhaps the most moving section deals with the slow grief and profound loss she experiences while caring for Felker through several bouts of cancer before his death in 2008.
But before all that, in 1961, she was moving to Rochester as the dutiful wife of University of Rochester medical student Albert Sheehy. They found a small apartment on Thayer Street and settled in.
“My father had told me I had to study something closer to business at an inexpensive state college,” said Sheehy, who did as she was told and graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in English and home economics. “I learned merchandising, economics, design along with the useless [English] degree. It was very helpful. It helped me to get a job at JC Penney as a manager trainee.”
“I was the breadwinner,” Sheehy said. “I thought he’d get his start, and I’d write in the background.”
Next, she was hired as a fashion coordinator at McCurdy’s department store. “It was very cool. I picked the models for the fashion shows. I did window-decorating.”
She did it for a year, until the fashion editor for theDemocrat and Chronicle approached her and said she was leaving because her husband had gotten a job out of town. The editor told Sheehy, “You have to write for the newspaper.”
“I marched into the interview with the editor of the women’s section — remember this was the 1960s,” said Sheehy. “His name was George Jewell. He was a nice guy of his time … but the interview was memorable.”
Sheehy recalls Jewel’s very first question was to ask her age. She said 23, and she noticed he started to look a bit suspicious.
“He told me he didn’t want someone to work just a year and then want a family. I was very fresh. I said, ‘I didn’t expect a pregnancy exam.’ “
Sheehy added: “It was the either/or box. You were either Holy Mother or Frigid Career Girl.”
This was the first but not the last time that Sheehy wrangled with the male-dominated working world. But she got the job. Later, the same restraints would greet her at theHerald Tribune in New York City and New York magazine. Again, she showed a bravery and gutsiness that would surprise and at the same time charm the men in power.
At the D&C, Sheehy displayed her characteristic ambition. She wrote her three assignments a week — often about “young married couples who both worked,” even as she pitched other types of ideas. While she failed to get the meatier stories she wanted while in Rochester, the D&C set her on her path.
“The paper taught me to write on deadline and to see that to get the good stories — to build a career — I had to get in on it early and have vision.”
IF YOU GO
Gail Sheehy will speak at 2 p.m. March 1, at Atkin Center at Jewish Senior Life, 2021 S. Winton Road, as part of the Jewish Book Festival. D&C and Rochester Magazine columnist Pam Sherman will act as facilitator for the event. Tickets are $8 for JCC members; $11 for the general public, available at the main desk of the JCC, 1200 Edgewood Ave., Brighton; or by visiting rjbf.org.
Read the full piece here: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/2015/02/23/gail-sheehy-author-passages-speaking/23894183/
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