Barbara Funkhouser, El Paso Times
Barbara Funkhouser

Barbara Funkhouser, El Paso Times

El Paso Times Editor - first woman editor of The El Paso Times. Barbara Funkhouser is the only female editor in the newspaper's 133-year history. She was editor from 1980 to 1986. Funkhouser began her career in 1958 as a freelancer for a year, then worked for a Las Cruces paper for a year before being hired at the El Paso Times. Funkhouser also wrote the coffee-table book, "The Caregivers: El Paso's Medical History, 1898-1998." Funkhouser was born March 1, 1930, at Hotel Dieu hospital and was raised on a farm in Fairacres, near Las Cruces, that her parents had owned since 1924. Her father died when she was 6, and her mother ran the farm with the help of hired labor, according to an oral history she did in 1996 with the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. She graduated from Las Cruces Union High School and from New Mexico State University in 1952. She spent six months in Europe on a 4-H Club exchange program and then worked for five years for the 4-H organization in Washington, D. C., and Chicago, before returning to New Mexico and beginning her career as a journalist, according to the oral history. During her 30-year career at the El Paso Times, Funkhouser interviewed singer-artist Vikki Carr in 1973 and 21-year-old Kurt Russell when he joined the El Paso Sun Kings baseball team. Funkhouser also covered the El Paso premiere of the 1968 film "Firecreek", and interviewed James Stewart, Barbara Luna, director Vincent McEveety and screenwriter Calvin Clements. Funkhouser retired from the El Paso Times on June 1, 1990. She taught at New Mexico State University and was a part-time editorial writer for the Las Cruces Sun-News for several years. (Source: Alex Hinojosa, Robert Moore, El Paso Times article written August 18, 2014) March is Women's History Month

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: El Paso County Historical Society

Reference ID: 013-1984-050

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

View towards Ciudad Juárez

The image shows parts of the two cities El Paso and Ciudad ...

View towards Ciudad Juárez

In the front the image shows parts of downtown El Paso, for ...

Angelus Hotel and Crawford Theater

Angelus Hotel and Crawford Theater before 1944.

Arrival of the Railroad

While Gould's railroad company was still 130 miles form reaching ...

Horse Drawn Ambulance

The McBean & Carr Ambulance in front of Providence Hospital. Mr. ...

El Paso Street

South El Paso Street was the center of town in 1882. The sign on ...

San Jacinto Plaza

When the US government leased land from Smith's ranch, for the ...

Downtown El Paso

Horse and Buggies meander through the streets of downtown.

Pioneer Plaza - 1908

Photograph of Pioneer Plaza in the year 1908.

San Francisco Street

San Francisco St. taken from Pioneer Plaza located at the road's ...

El Paso Public Library

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the El Paso Public Library ...

Major W. J. Fewel

Started the first gas company in El Paso,Texas with Zach White. ...

Harry Wiley

Chief Deputy Sheriff Harry Wiley.

Samuel Schutz

The first Jews were drawn to the area as it became a center for ...

Dr. Walter N. Vilas

Dr. Walter N. Vilas was a major surgeon of the First Texas ...

Jonathan Rogers

Jonathan Rogers was a four-time El Paso mayor and founder, ...

Ronald D'Emory Coleman - El Paso, Texas

Ronald D. Coleman, a United States Representative from El Paso ...

Ramon Villalobos

Ramon Villlalobos was one of the first Hispanic reporters in El ...

George Kinsinger - El Paso Times

Mr. Kinsinger was a member of the staff of the El Paso Times. He ...

Bill Latham--El Paso Times Editor and Dr. Thomas Barnes

Bill Latham, the El Paso Times editor is to the left. Dr. Thomas ...

Gertrude Goodman and Sarah Lea - El Paso, Texas

Gertrude Goodman (on the left) was commended by the Senate of ...

Mrs. Paca Alarcon

Mrs Paca Alarcon came to El Paso in 1853. Then she married a ...

James Harden-Hickey

Traveling to Tibet before his marriage, his crew made a stop in ...

home.search_collection