Vivian Castleberry - Oral History Page: 1 of 4

                                
Vivian Castleberry- Oral History
Written by: Samantha Guzman and Desiree Cousineau
From the flower-printed sofas to the wood paneled walls, everything about Vivian
Castleberry's home is reminiscent of one your grandmother might own. A powerful woman with
plenty of stories to tell, Castleberry is incredibly humble. Her interest is you first.
For Castleberry 90 is the new 30. Her heels click loudly on her wood floor as she bustles
from room to room-answering phone calls and scheduling events in her planner. A picture of her
five daughters, 14 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren sits on her mantle. It's clear she
is nowhere near slowing down.
"I will never stop as long as I breathe," she said. "I'm trying to wind down, but I have
loose ends."
Castleberry has already written four books, served as the first female editor at the Dallas
Times Herald, was the first woman on an editorial board in the Southwest and is the founder of
the Castleberry Peace Institute at the University of North Texas. Her accomplishments are
nothing short of amazing by today's standards, but Castleberry did all of this when the only
woman found in newsrooms were secretaries.
"In my day, to have a woman in the field of leadership in journalism was an anomaly,"
she said. "We just weren't there, we weren't visible. Our place was at home in the kitchen,
rearing children."
Castleberry pushed beyond the limits of being a woman in the newsroom. She
transformed the women's section from sewing techniques to cutting-edge stories about divorce,
abuse and blended families. She created a new legacy for her newsroom's culture and story
content.