Ida Ann (Murphy) Peters (1918 - 1996)

Born 20 Sep 1918 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Samuel Edward Smith — married 19 Apr 1938 (to 1968) in Cook County, Illinois, United States

Died 13 Apr 1996 at age 77 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Biography

Ida (Murphy) Peters is a part of US Black heritage.

Ida was a Newspaper Reporter.

Ida (Murphy) Peters was born in Washington, District of Columbia.

Ida was born about 1918. She is the daughter of Carl Murphy and Vashti Turley.

Ida Peters, a reporter for the Afro-American newspaper in Baltimore for more than 35 years who was known for her finely crafted stories about the world of entertainment, died Saturday, Sep 13, 1996, of a heart attack. She was 77.

She suffered the heart attack while covering "For Sisters Only," a program for young and middle-aged African-American women at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Mrs. Peters, who lived on Rux-ton Avenue, gave equal attention to the big-name Hollywood personalities and the smaller acts that appeared in Pennsylvania Avenue nightclubs. James D. Williams, editor of the Afro-American, said Mrs. Peters especially enjoyed covering younger entertainers because "it made her feel that she was on the cutting edge." . "She has interviewed all of the big celebrities in Hollywood," he said. "She was strictly a professional. She was just totally enveloped in the world of entertainment. She had a fire that keeps going."

Mrs. Peters had "an unquestioned loyalty to journalism," said Sam Lacy, a sports reporter and editor at the Afro-American for 55 years. "She has occupied a very big role here for a longtime."

A Baltimore native, the former Ida Murphy graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1935 and the University of Wisconsin with a degree in journalism in 1940. That year she joined the Afro-American, working in the advertising department. At that time her father, the late Dr. Carl Murphy, was the newspaper's editor and publisher, and her grandfather, the late John H. Murphy Sr., was its owner.

In 1960, she became a feature writer and in 1964 began her "What's Happening" column, reporting on community events. It became one of the paper's most popular features. For years she headed the paper's "Clean Block" neighborhood beautification contest and was the paper's Mrs. Santa for a charity drive that provided needy families with food and gifts at Christmas.

On 19 April 1938, in Cook County, IL, Ida Murphy married S. Edward Smith. They divorced in 1968.

In 1970, she married B. John Peters, who died in 1987.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M631-D8L : 1 February 2021), Ida Ann Murphy in entry for Carl J Murphy, 1920.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X34H-SJN : accessed 12 February 2021), Ida Murphy in household of Carl Murphy, Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 659, sheet 9B, line 61, family 177, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 869; FHL microfilm 2,340,604.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7X1-6CJ : 8 January 2021), Ida M Smith in household of Carl J Murphy, Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 4-850, sheet 4B, line 43, family 28, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1541.
• "Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1968," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q212-Z9C9 : 28 November 2018), Samuel E Smith and Ida A Murphy, 19 Apr 1938; citing Marriage, Cook, Illinois, United States, citing Cook County Clerk. Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 102463286.
• Obituary: The Baltimore Sun; Publication Date: 16 Apr 1996; Publication Place: Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/170975233/?article=41b9e7f0-31b1-403e-ad6a-f2b4770327da&focus=0.18698929,0.090864,0.34900615,0.6791749&xid=3355
• Obituary Newspapers.com Ida Ann Murphy Peters Obit

See Also:

• Toya G. Corbett, "Family, Faith And Feminism: The Murphy Women, 1896-2000" (PhD dissertation, Morgan State University 2014). A doctoral dissertation about Vashti Turley Murphy, her inlaws, her children, and her grandchildren.
• Sean Yoes, "The Murphy Women: Matriarchs of a Media Dynasty" AFRO (March 19, 2020).