Early woman crime reporter dies at age 93

PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. -- Virginia L. Marmaduke, a reporter who covered Chicago sports, crime and corruption when most women journalists were relegated to the society pages, died Thursday. She was 93.

A spokesman for Pyatt-Harrawood Funeral Home in Pinckneyville said the cause of death was not immediately available.

Marmaduke -- nicknamed "Duchess" by a Chicago editor who thought her last name was a mouthful -- was the first woman on the Chicago Sun's editorial staff, the first woman in Chicago with a sports byline, and one of the city's first women crime reporters.

Born in Carbondale, Ill., Marmaduke grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Iowa. She studied journalism and landed her first job in 1930, working for the Herrin Daily Journal.

She began covering crime for the Sun in 1943 and built a reputation as a colorful reporter. She also worked for the Chicago Times, and the Chicago Tribune.