Eva Hodges Watt
1 book in the catalogue, published 2007.
Eva Hodges Watt spent her career as a reporter and editor at The Denver Post, writing under the byline Eva Hodges. She is the author of Papa's Girl, a biography of Helen Bonfils, which Western Reflections published in 2007. Papa's Girl is her only book on our list.
About Eva Hodges Watt
According to her obituary, Eva Watt was born in Silver City, New Mexico, on September 27, 1922, and graduated from Colorado College in 1942. She began as a reporter for the El Paso Times. About two years later she walked into the Post newsroom in Denver, asked for a job, and was hired on the spot.
She joined the city desk during World War II, then served as the paper's religion editor, fashion editor and society editor. The obituary says she covered Paris fashion runways, interviewed figures including Mamie Eisenhower and Clark Gable, won a 1979 Penney-Missouri award for fashion coverage, and retired in 1986. She died on October 3, 2012. Besides Papa's Girl, the obituary lists a book on Helen Marie Black of the Denver Symphony. Her obituary says she married Tom Watt in 1953, when he was the Post's photo editor. It also names Billy Graham, Cary Grant and Bill Blass among the people she interviewed, and notes her membership in the Denver Woman's Press Club and her work with the League of Women Voters.
What the books share
Watt's writing grew out of the places she worked: the Denver Post newsroom, Denver society, fashion, and the city's arts. Papa's Girl draws on her years at the paper and on interviews with people who knew Helen Bonfils, and the book's subject owned the paper. Her other book, on Helen Marie Black, centers on another Denver arts figure, the Denver Symphony. Both are biographies of Denver women who shaped the city's cultural life.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Learning who the Bonfils family were
Start with the Colorado Encyclopedia article for dates and public facts, then read the biography for the personal view. Reading them in that order lets you tell general history apart from one writer's account.
Starting Denver newspaper research
If the Post's early years interest you, begin with the Denver Public Library research page and search its finding aids. Write down a name, a year and a topic before you ask for help, because archivists can do more with a narrow question.
Seeing the arts legacy in person
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the organization that grew from Helen Bonfils's support of theater. Check its site for what is playing now if you would like to pair the reading with an evening there.
Go deeper
Papa's Girl is a biography of Helen Bonfils, whose family owned The Denver Post and who gave Denver its theater. These pages cover her life, her arts legacy, and a Denver archive where newspaper era research can start.
Colorado Encyclopedia: Helen G. Bonfils
An encyclopedia article on Helen Gilmer Bonfils, 1889 to 1972, with references and related articles for further reading.
Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
The hall of fame's profile of Helen Bonfils, useful for a short account of her place among notable Colorado women.
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
A news item from the center that says Helen Bonfils put her resources into making sure Coloradans had access to the performing arts.
Denver Public Library Special Collections
The library's research page lists research guides, and its finding aids search covers manuscripts and archives held in Denver.
Good to know
Who was Eva Hodges Watt?
What is Papa's Girl?
Did she write other books?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
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