Miriam Schmich: Savannah Sunscreen Writer

Savannah has a grand history of remarkable women. Whether it be Juliette Gordon Low, Flannery O’Connor, Leah Ward Sears, or many others the herstory of Savannah is remarkable. One of the seldom explored aspects of herstory in Savannah is the host of women journalists that have either worked or lived in Savannah. In my next few blogs, I will make my contribution to exploring the journalistic women of Savannah.

The world of Chicago journalism would be very different without the influence of Savannahians. In fact, the Chicago Defender would have never become the leading Black newspaper in the United States without Savannahians. The founder Robert S. Abbot (Robert Abbott: The Defender - Freeman's Rag)was born and raised in Savannah. His father was a minister and ran a local black journal here. Abbott groomed his nephew, to take his place (my next blog will talk about him) and one of their best reporters and columnist was Rebecca Stiles Taylor Savannahian (read my blog Rebecca Stiles Taylor: Leading the Way - Freeman's Rag. But the influence of Savannah does not stop at the Chicago Defender but one of the most beloved columnists of the Chicago Tribune (Chicago’s premier paper) was Mary Schmich born and raised in Savannah. 

Mary Schmich was born is Savannah and spent her childhood here. After graduating from Pomona College, she attended journalism at Stanford University. She would work for papers at the Peninsula Times Tribune, Orlando Sentinel but eventually in 1985 settled at the Chicago Tribune. Her column started in 1992 and would continue to 2021.  Along the way she earned money possibly showing her Savannah background as a ragtime piano player. Savannah Tom Turpin was credited with the first published rag by an African-American ("Harlem Rag" of 1897) In 1985 she also became the writer for the Brenda Starr, Reporter comic strip until it ended in 2011. The following year (2012) she earned a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her column in the Chicago Tribune. The Pulitzer committee wrote she received the award because of "her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city."  She won other awards in her career.  In 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club and has been on every list of The Most Powerful Women in Chicago Journalism ever posted.

Various of her columns have made their contribution into the nomenclature of our society. “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young', the often quoted "Do one thing every day that scares you’. One column she wrote was a Commencement speech she would deliver if ever asked to. It is her Wear Sunscreen column in which she offers advice from her future self to her younger self ‘If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Wear Sunscreen would also become the name of her book of collections of her columns. The column would so resonant Baz Luhrmann would release a song ‘"Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" in which this column is read word for word. A quote on the column was even a Jeopardy question on January 21, 2019. It was even credited online to Kurt Vonnegut who when asked about his accreditation replied,” What I said to Mary Schmich on the telephone was that what she wrote was funny and wise and charming, so I would have been proud had the words been mine,” Vonnegut told the New York Times. He even had to break the news to his wife, who had the “graduation speech” sent to her and was proud of her husband. She asked him why he didn’t tell her he gave the commencement speech at MIT.

Her time at the Chicago Tribune ended when a corporation took over the paper. She had pleaded in her column for a billionaire Chicagoan to buy the paper to keep it under local ownership, but her pleas went unanswered. She resigned in 2021.
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So, you may say how do we know if her time in Savannah influenced her life, we need only look at her advice of wear sunscreen to know Savannah had an impact on her.’ Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth. But trust me on the sunscreen.’

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