Nancy Hess

Nancy Hess. December 25, 2020 of Whitemarsh, Pa. Beloved mother of Steven (Lisa) Hess and Joanne (Dean) Uhle. Devoted grandmother of Claire, Curtis, Naomi and Colin. Services and interment were private. Contributions in her name may be made to a charity of the donor's choice. Below is a paper that Nancy's granddaughter Naomi wrote for a Woman's Studies class at Princeton University this past semester.
It is a fitting tribute to Nancy and provides a brief history of how strong and passionate a woman Nancy was throughout her lifetime, starting at a very young age. It goes without saying that anything Nancy put her mind to she was a complete success and she let nothing stand in her way. By the way, Naomi got an "A" on this paper!


Nancy Hess as a Successful Working Woman in the 1950s

When Nancy Hess, then Nancy Wise, decided to enter the workforce after college, she did not expect that she would get paid to respond to fan mail sent to a chimpanzee named J. Fred Muggs who worked as a co-host during the inaugural seasons of The Today Show. Yet that was one of her many duties when she worked at NBC Studios headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City from 1952 to 1954. In a time when women overwhelmingly married early and remained at home as housewives, Nancy lived with friends in a big city while working in the burgeoning television industry. Her first taste of adulthood and independence in New York City after her college graduation serves as an exemplary case of professional life in a direct contrast to societal norms that kept women out of the workforce.
More women were beginning to find employment when Nancy began to work, but women still worked at a much lower rate than men. In March 1940, 28% of women worked in the labor force. This percentage jumped to 37% just five years later in April 1945 during World War II. Women were needed to work on the home front to help the country in its war efforts and replace the men fighting overseas. While the war provided a convincing reason to join the labor force,the end of the war did not bode well for female employment prospects, with many women either losing their jobs or choosing to stop working once the men returned home. 30% of all women worked in April 1947, 32% worked in April 1950, and 33% worked in April 1953. Although still remaining low, the number of female workers never dipped back down to its pre- war level, and slowly yet gradually continued to increase.

Nancy's path clearly differed from the majority of women, as she entered the workforce immediately after college instead of marrying right away. Nancy was born in 1930 to Henry and Claire Wise in Philadelphia, where her father worked as a physician with his office inside their home. She studied music at Oberlin College, which holds a significant place in American women's history in itself as the first college to admit women in 1837. Soon after her college graduation, she moved to New York City to live with four friends from college in an apartment in a run-down neighborhood on West 98 th Street. In 1950, 7,891,957 people lived in New York City. The city would continue to grow in the years to come, but even then it was full of constant excitement and energy. Nancy paid her share of the rent on her own and did not rely on the relative wealth of her family. She rode the subway to get to work and would sometimes run out of money to eat anywhere but the cheap hamburger place around the corner. Her father knew a vice president at NBC who helped her get a summer job after college graduation. While the job was supposed to be temporary, they wanted her to continue.

Nancy's first year at NBC was spent as a secretary for Dave Garroway, the first host of The Today Show. The Today Show premiered in 1952 as the first in its genre of morning shows. While Nancy was excited to work in the television industry, she found this job to be rather boring. As a secretary, she had to do whatever her boss desired, which was how she got stuck answering the fan mail of the aforementioned chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs, whose regular appearances catapulted the show to success as he attracted more viewers and more advertisers. Writing letters and completing random errands was not fulfilling, especially for a college- educated women like herself. Nancy's experience of feeling underutilized in her employment were commonplace at the time. An analysis of responses to the 1957 and 1964 Women's Bureau surveys found that "in fields other than teaching, social work, and nursing, college women were required to have typing skills and little else." As one respondent to the surveys wrote, "it is a source of great frustration to be unable to use one education or training." While Nancy's degree in music may not have been directly related to the television industry, she had still picked up certain skills and abilities in college that this job did not allow her to use. Nancy felt like she was not doing enough as a secretary, so she wanted a more meaningful job.

Nancy found what she was looking for when she became a production assistant for The Tex and Jinx Show. Former cover girl Jinx Falkenberg and journalist Tex McClary were the married co-hosts of their eponymous show, which was one of the first talk shows to ever air. Nancy would set up props for live commercials, and Jinx would read from cue cards that Nancy wrote and held up. Every day, Nancy typed up the script for next day's show on a typewriter in the office she shared with the producer. Occasionally, she would speak on the phone with guests and write questions for Jinx to ask them on the air. At this point, Nancy had moved to an apartment on East 52 nd Street and greatly appreciated being able to walk to work, admiring the shops on 5 th Avenue and taking in the bustle of the Big Apple. Nancy enjoyed this job because it was as exciting as the city itself. One of her duties was greeting and showing around the many famous guests who appeared on the show, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Frost, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt documented her appearance on the show in her My Day column from May 20, 1954, in which she expressed her excitement after she found out about Brown v. Board of Education while on the show. Nancy admired Eleanor as a proponent of social progressivism and racial and gender equality, and she looks back fondly on their meeting to this day. Nancy felt fulfilled in this job and knew that she was making useful contributions to the television show, in a way that differed from her menial clerical tasks at The Today Show.

The rest of Nancy's life demonstrated a similar dedication to her work. Nancy left New York in late 1954 to marry Richard Hess, her brother's best friend from high school, who she saw frequently during college and while she lived in New York. But her marriage did not lead to the end of her career; instead, Richard supported her desire for a life outside the home. In fact, Nancy said she may not have gone to graduate school without a push from Richard. She received a Master of Music in Music History from Temple University and never left the university, instead teaching and later serving as the Director of Music Preparatory and Extension. She retired in 2003, but even retirement was not enough for her to give herself a break and stop working for good. She launched the Classical Music Program at her retirement community The Hill at Whitemarsh, organizing approximately nine classical performances a year since 2007. In New York and throughout her entire life, Nancy found meaningful employment at a time when women often did not get to have professional careers. Her time in New York allowed her to prove to herself and her family that she could live independently and succeed without the assistance of a husband. Nancy's life and career demonstrate the importance of employment as a way for women to find purpose, a belief she still holds today at 90 years old. (www.levinefuneral.com)