Alumna

Alumna was up to her ears in journalism at NU

By Charlyne Berens
J Alumni News editor

When Kay Hull came to the University of Nebraska in 1929, she planned to major in music. But while she was waiting to sign up for classes, she overheard a girl ahead of her in line talk about how she was going to register for journalism classes. The more that young woman talked, the more interesting the field sounded to Kay Hull.

  “So I just slipped under the rope and got behind her and registered for journalism,” she said.

  And she loved it. “I was up to my ears in it,” she remembered. During her college years, she worked for the Daily Nebraskan, the Cornhusker yearbook, the Agwam, the campus humor magazine, and the Lincoln Journal. She did general reporting for the Journal, including a story about a Mrs. Stover, who was just getting started in the candy business. The woman’s 6-year-old son, Russell, was playing nearby during the interview. “Look what happened to him,” the 1932 alumnus said.

  Crouch never worked in journalism after graduation, though. She married Robert Crouch, and they moved to Omaha and, later, Des Moines. She applied at the daily papers in both cities, but “they pulled out drawers packed with applications from people who had been in the business for years. I had no opportunity to get a job” in journalism during the Depression.

  The family was living in Davenport, Iowa, when her husband entered the service, and she decided to try once more to work at a newspaper. The editor was willing to hire her but would pay only $25 a week. By that time, she had a daughter, and $25 a week was not a sufficient wage. “So I went to work for the draft board,” she said. It paid much better. But she has used her journalism skills to write for a variety of organizations she has belonged to over the years.

  Crouch, 92, lives in Phoenix with her husband of 69 years — an Iowa State grad. She fondly remembers her days at Nebraska. Besides journalism and her sorority, football was her passion. During her first year at NU, she volunteered to sell candy at the games so she could get in to watch them. “I got to see Dana X. Bible,” she said, “and I had a number of boyfriends on the team.”

  Does she still follow Nebraska football? “You betcha,” she said.

  But she has never been back to the NU campus — and won’t make it for the journalism reunion in September, either. Most of the people she knew in Lincoln are gone now, she said, although she does stay in touch with one Kappa Delta sorority sister who also lives in Phoenix.

  Kay Hull Crouch will probably be at the reunion in spirit if not in fact. The event is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28, and will include a cocktail party Friday night, a Saturday morning golf tournament, a Saturday evening banquet and plenty of opportunities for people to get together and just visit. More information about the reunion appears elsewhere in this magazine and was also scheduled to be mailed to alumni during the summer.

  Crouch would attend the reunion if she could, she said. She continues to be devoted to her alma mater. “It’s the finest university in the world as far as I’m concerned,” she said. “It was — and it still is.”