Williams said she wrote about everything from truck rodeos to prison life and rarely saw her gender as an impediment. Writers like Williams and the late Carole Kass, longtime Times-Dispatch movie critic until her retirement in 1992, were on board for much of the newsroom's cultural change. Louise C. Seals is managing editor of The Times-Dispatch. Pamela S. Feibish is business editor. The paper has women columnists and critics.
Women hold key positions in writing, editing and presenting other important parts of the paper.
The political arena changed, too. Joan Girone, Chesterfield County's first female member of the Board of Supervisors, is now a real estate agent in Chesterfield. It shocked the old courthouse. Elected in 1975, Girone served three four-year terms on the board. And in 1998, she congratulated Chesterfield Supervisor Renny B. Humphrey when she was named chairwoman.