Lois Jean Wille was a Chicago-based journalist, editor, and author.
19 Facts About Lois Wille
1.
2.
Lois Wille won her first of two Pulitzer Prizes in 1963 for a series on local government's failure to provide contraceptive information and services to low-income women.
3.
Lois Wille's stories led to a number of important policy changes in women's healthcare, public housing, and the juvenile court systems.
4.
Lois Wille's father was born in Leipzig, Germany, and moved to America in 1924 after finishing college.
5.
Lois Wille attended a Lutheran grammar school and Arlington Heights High School before attending Northwestern University, where she received both a bachelor's degree and master's degree from the university's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in 1953 and 1954, respectively.
6.
Lois Wille was involved in the efforts to integrate campus dormitories.
7.
When Lois Wille saw an opening in the newsroom in 1957, she jumped at the opportunity.
8.
Lois Wille got the job, becoming one of two women in the newsroom.
9.
Early in her career, Lois Wille began covering the civil rights movement and social welfare issues.
10.
In September 1962, Lois Wille ran a five-part series investigating the state's failure to provide birth control information and services to women on public aid and women below the poverty line.
11.
Lois Wille found that city public health clinics and the public Cook County Hospital refused to give women information on contraception if they relied on the state for health care.
12.
Lois Wille faced some pushback in the lead-up to running her series.
13.
In 1963, Lois Wille won her first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
14.
Lois Wille had said that she never imagined she would win a Pulitzer for this story, and that her goal was to change public policy.
15.
For several of her stories, Lois Wille went undercover or semi-undercover.
16.
Lois Wille was promoted to editor of the editorial page in 1977.
17.
In 1984, following Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Sun-Times, Lois Wille left the paper for its rival paper, the Chicago Tribune.
18.
Lois Wille met her husband, Wayne, an editor and journalist, in a journalism class at Northwestern.
19.
Lois Wille died on July 23,2019, in Chicago following a severe stroke.