Pioneer journalist, author and Michigan State University and State News alum, Myra MacPherson, died on Feb. 2, 2026, at 91.
During her over-20-year tenure at The Washington Post, MacPherson covered culture, politics and war — most notably exploring the psychological impact of the Vietnam War in her reporting and in her 1984 book "Long Time Passing", which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
MacPherson was born on May 31, 1934, in Marquette, Michigan, and grew up in Belleville. She balanced being editor-in-chief of her high school paper with writing a weekly column for a local paper. She then came to MSU where she worked on the yearbook staff, at the time called the "The Wolverine," and wrote for The State News, working as the night city editor and as a feature editor, according to the 1955 yearbook.
On her LinkedIn page, MacPherson wrote that “Work on the university daily newspaper prepared me for my career."
After graduating in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in journalism, MacPherson wanted to work at The Detroit Free Press to cover politics, a job traditionally filled by men.
In a 2014 interview with CSPAN, MacPherson said that when she told the Detroit Free Press’s editor that she wasn’t considering writing for the women’s desk, "he looked at me as if I had said I just shot my mother or something.”
“We have no women in the city room,” the editor told her, MacPherson said.
Still, MacPherson continued breaking gender barriers as she advanced her reporting.
When writing for The Detroit News in 1960, MacPherson covered the Indianapolis 500, where she said she was the only woman covering the race. She was forced to hold interviews through a chain-link fence after being denied entry to the race.
She ran into a similar problem covering the New York Mets in 1969, where she was denied the full access granted to her male colleagues.
