RARE \"First Lady of Radio\" Hazel Markel Hand Signed 3X5.5 Card For Sale

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for sale a RARE! "First Lady of Radio" Hazel Markel Hand Signed 3X5.5 Card. 

ES-2650

Hazel Kenyon Markel's rich life included singing and dancing in

vaudeville at age 7, teaching French at the University of Washington and

becoming a distinguished commentator once known as the "First Lady of

Radio." Services for Mrs. Markel, who died at home Sunday after a long

illness, were held yesterday. She was 92. During her long journalism career she

worked as a columnist, correspondent and executive for print and broadcast-news

organizations. She spoke nine languages, interviewed celebrities, presidents

and kings and started a popular radio show called, "Dateline D.C." She

was born in Pendleton, Ore., on Sept. 11, 1899, and attended the University of

Washington, University of Oregon, The Sorbonne in Paris, New York University,

and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Mrs. Markel served as a lieutenant

commander for the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II and was director of

the Women's Radio Chaplain Corps. She won several honors for her work with the

radio corps and worked with singer Kate Smith. She married Daniel Bond Markel,

an assistant of Washington Sen. Warren Magnuson, in 1949 in Washington, D.C. Her

career is chronicled in the 1974 edition of edition of Who's Who of American

Women. She interviewed the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish and

accompanied Grace Kelley on the steamship to her wedding in Monaco. Her

scrapbooks were full of photographs of her with famous people. Her many jobs

and posts included: station director and manager of KBPS in Portland; education

director of KIRO-TV in Seattle; program director of WTOP in Washington, D.C.;

news commentator for NBC; columnist for The Washington Daily News' Diplomat

Magazine; Washington correspondent for Palm Beach Life Magazine; and White

House correspondent for the National Radio News Service. She also held

positions in a number of organizations, including being a founding member of

U.S. Savings Bond Commission, president of the board for the Women's Medical

College, and member of the Animal Welfare Institute. She received dozens of

professional and service awards. Mrs. Markel's husband died shortly after the

couple moved to Seattle in 1974. Despite battling Alzheimer's disease the past

nine years, she remained active with the help of her care-givers until she was

homebound four years ago. "When she would perform her vaudeville act for

me she would always sing `Never the Less,' " said Andrea Hays, one of

three women who cared for her in the final years. "She said, `Audiences

always really liked that number.' She was always so vivacious and funny. She'd

hear the steel bands at Westlake Mall and start dancing," said Hays. Lauren

Melville, who tended Mrs. Markel the past nine years, said the walls of her

downtown Seattle apartment were filled with photos of the Kennedys, Bess Truman

and others she had interviewed. But Melville said it was Mrs. Markel's grace

the past few years that impressed her most. "I feel so fortunate to have

spent those years with her and for the way she opened her life to me,"

said Melville.