Dee Mary

American on-air radio personality, also known by her married name Mary Dudley, she is widely considered the first African-American woman disc jockey in the United States. On 1 August 1948, she went on the air at WHOD radio. Gaining national attention, Dee broadcast from a storefront, "Studio Dee", in the Hill District of Pittsburgh from 1951 to 1956. She moved her show, Movin Around with Mary Dee, to Baltimore and broadcast from station WSID from 1956 to 1958. In 1958, she moved to Philadelphia and hosted Songs of Faith on WHAT until her death in 1964. Dee is considered a pioneer in developing the radio format which combines coverage of community affairs with music and news. She was one of the first two black women admitted to the Association of American Women in Radio and Television, and was successful in campaigning for the organization to forego meetings in segregated facilities. During her lifetime she received numerous awards for her civic work. In the mid-1930s, she married Franklin C. Dudley, a steel worker, with whom she had four children; the couple later divorced. Mary Dee died on 17 March 1964 at age 51 in Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia from colon cancer. In 2011 she was honored posthumously with the Thomas J. MacWilliams Lifetime Achievement Award from the Media Association of Pittsburgh. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less