White Bluffs Spokesman

Lights of New York By L. L. STEVENSON

Down in Burkett, Texas--300 inhabitants and no sidewalks--is the little post office where Kathryn Cravens used to look forward to the big event of the week the arrival of the newspapers from Dallas and Fort Worth. She was assistant to her mother, who was postmistress, and so the flaxen-haired girl had a chance to look over the news before the papers went into the mail boxes. As she read world happenings, she dreamed of the time when she too would be a part of that same great world which seemed remote indeed. Well it might since Burkett, 300 miles southwest of Dallas, is 17 miles from a railroad.

Nevertheless today Kathryn Cravens, tall, blonde, statuesque, has a New York apartment, wears minks and orchids. has five secretaries to help her answer her correspondence, and when she wishes to go anywhere, she flies.

After the death of her father, Miss Cravens went to live with a minister brother. Having been graduated from high school, she entered Kendall college, now the University of Tulsa, and from there, went to the Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City. Next came the Norse School of Expression in St. Louis.

Despite her early interest in the news of the day, she was attracted to dramatics. So instead of seeking a newspaper job, she chose the stage. Eventually, she played opposite a childhood idol, Guy Bates Post, whom she had seen in a stock company in her early years. Then Hollywood beckoned to her. But her experience there was only minor roles in silents, so she returned to St. Louis and concentrated on radio acting.

One day while listening to Edwin C. Hill, Miss Cravens decided that women should have a news commentator of their own -and that she would be that commentator. Instead of rushing to the nearest station with her idea, she spent three months in study and then presented it to an executive. He wasn't impressed, but she induced him to take a chance. The result was so successful her sponsors brought her to New York to broadcast over a Columbia national network. Thus Miss Cravens became the first coast-to-coast woman commentator.

But she says she got her real start down in Burkett and is planning to return there to visit at her first opportunity.