Around our border city, we have all heard of the El Paso Times, right? If you are from El Paso or live near the El Paso area, it is safe to say you have. If you have not, let me say the El Paso Times has dedicated itself to bringing extensive news coverage of El Paso County and the surrounding area, not to mention state, national and international news, since its founding in I 88 I. You can find the local news and hot topics from around the world, from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the hike in gas prices, to the local nightlife and sports; it has it all, thanks to a hard-working writing and editorial team and their final editing touches.
Speaking of editing, you would think that sometime throughout the annals of its history, the El Paso Times would have had a few female editors, considering it has been around over 130 years. However, it was not until 1980, 99 years into the newspaper's history, that Barbara Funkhouser became the first female editor. That in itself is newsworthy.
Historically, it was challenging for women to hold high-level positions in most industries. The Women's Rights Movement arguably dates back to 1848 with the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of lndependence. Funkhouser was not an overnight success with male-dominated workforce positions, but perhaps she should have been. It took her two decades of hard journalistic work before becoming editor of the El Paso Times, her career with the newspaper spanning over three decades.
Funkhouser was born on March I, 1930, in the long-gone Hotel Dieu Hospital. Only true, vintage El Pasoans will remember Hotel Dieu, once located on the comer of Stanton and Arizona Streets. According to the El Paso Museum of History, Funkhouser was raised on a farm her family purchased in 1924 in Fairacres, New Mexico, very close to Las Cruces. At only six, in 1936, her father, Kenneth Funkhouser, passed away. According to the Barbara Funkhouser Collection housed at the Institute of Historical Survey Foundation, "Kenneth Funkhouser was born in 1896 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Seaman Recruit in September 1914 to 1919, during which he kept diaries of his overseas adventures for his family to read after the war. These papers document his enlistment aboard the Destroyers USS Perkins and USS Stevens and provide information about the ships' activities."
Image caption: Barbara Funkhouser. Courtesy of the El Paso Museum of History.
With a daughter and a farm to run, Funkhouser's mother held firm and did what she needed to do. Funkhouser states in an oral history produced in 1996 by the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum that her mother continued to operate the farm with hired help. They had "families" living on the farm, and her mother used the Bracero Program to hire Mexican national workers. The Barbara Funkhouser Collection notes that Funkhouser's mother even hired German prisoners of war during WWII. Mourning the loss of her husband, Funkhouser's mother did what she could to not let the farm die. It is fair to assume that she was the most significant influence in creating the strong, independent woman Funkhouser grew up to be.
At 17 and a high school senior, she won first prize for showmanship in the state fair junior swine show, not something one would expect from a future newspaper editor but fascinating in its own way. As a young high school girl, Funkhouser outdid the nearly all male field.
In the oral history, Funkhouser tells interviewer Jane O'Cane, an oral historian, about graduating from Las Cruces Union High School and later graduating in 1952 as an English major from New Mexico State University, where she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
Following her BA, Funkhouser did graduate work at American University in Washington D.C. Even though she majored in English there, her area of study was journalism. After graduating, she spent six months in Europe on a 4-H Club exchange program after World War II. Upon returning to the States, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News, in 1956, Funkhouser worked for the 4-H organization in Washington, D.C, and Chicago for another five years as assistant editor. She then was drawn back to New Mexico in 1958, where she did freelance journalism for a year. Eventually, Funkhouser became a Las Cruces newspaper staff member before joining the El Paso Times in 1960. It was a long journey on the road to making history in El Paso. Her obituary states she also participated in early discussions with Gannet Company in the development of USA Today, an American middle-market newspaper founded in 1982 by Al Neuharth.
Funkhouser's early career with the El Paso Times consisted mostly of being a general reporter, covering stories such as the film premier of Firecreek in 1968 and conducting interviews with director Vincent McEveety, who is most notably known for directing The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, six Star Trek episodes, Magnum P.I., How the West Was Won, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E, among others. Some of you may have to dig deep into the crevices of your minds to remember these shows. Funkhouser also interviewed screenwriter Calvin Clements and actors Jimmy Stewart and Barbara Luna. Of particular interest to local baseball fans, Funkhouser interviewed actor Kurt Russell, who played at 21 with the El Paso Sun Kings. Not too many may remember that one, but perhaps Russell is better known as starring in such memorable films as It Happened at the Worlds Fair, Escape from New York, Silkwood, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango and Cash, Backdraft, and most recently, the Quentin Tarantino blockbuster The Hateful Eight. In 1973, Funkhouser interviewed Grammy Award winner and local legend Vikki Carr. Anyone who knows Vikki Carr would agree that an interview with her is quite a coup.
Funkhouser's writing included feature articles, such as one on Mazatlan in January 1963 and an article about abstract art in September 1969. In the Mazatlan article, "Journey Ends with Beautiful Culiacan and Plush Mazatlan," Funkhouser shares her journey to Mazatlan, beginning with the bus ride: 'The close comfort achieved by a Mexican man, his wife, and two-to-four children in a double bus seat is absolutely amazing." It is as if reading a short story rather than a news article. She proceeds to describe the meteor exhibit, the second-largest meteor in the world! In "Abstract Artist Proves Talent, Training in Painting," Funkhouser writes, "Mrs. Archer's paintings have a definite yet impressionistic composition, embodying unusual use of color. She arrives at the finished product through the same steps as other successful, creative, well-trained professional artists," nicely highlighting the hard work and expertise of Mrs. Dorothy Archer, the local abstract artist highlighted in the article. What is notable here is Funkhouser's ability to cover various topics, showing genuine interest in all of them. She was not a reporter covering a beat or an assignment; she was a writer with a flair for presentation.
Despite what may have seemed like impossible odds, Funkhouser's experience and dedication inevitably led her to become the first female editor for the El Paso Times in 1980. According to Rene Kimball in his August 19, 2014, Albuquerque Journal article "Women Rise for Recognition," it is astonishing to think there were only a handful of women in journalism and even fewer female editors in the nation. Kimball, an arts editor for the Albuquerque Journal, states that before becoming editor, Funkhouser "was a one-woman staff, often reviewing theater and arts performances." She was also the director for the El Paso Chapter of the Texas Women's Press Association and the El Paso Press Club. She received local, state, and national awards for editorial writing and other reporting. As an editor, Funkhouser focused on what the city needed and the importance of education for everybody. Kimball further asserts that Funkhouser was "widely respected in journalism circles for her straightforward, blunt honesty, and her tell-it-likeit- is style. She was also known for her deep concern for journalism ethics, and her dry witty sense of humor. She befriended and mentored scores of young journalists." She was not afraid to tell people the truth and give her honest opinion.
In "El Paso's Problems Deserving of Public Attention," Funkhouser calls out El Pasoans for caring more about the name of a street than actual issues within the city. It is exceedingly difficult not to agree with her. She addresses issues such as dental care for indigent children and jurors' civic duty, among other local issues she feels should take precedence over naming a new street.
Kimball continues that Funkhouser's accomplishments were not only outstanding achievements for her but paved the way for women across El Paso, women like Zahira Torres, for example, who is now the second woman and first Latina to become an editor for the El Paso Times. Women from all fields of work and study can look up to Funkhouser as a pioneering woman who etched a path for all career women.
Funkhouser retired from the El Paso Times on June I, 1990, after 30 years with tile newspaper. But it was not the end of Funkhouser's journalistic experiences. Soon upon retiring, she joined the New Mexico State University faculty and wrote editorials for the Las Cruces Sun-News. Remaining active in the community, she was a founding member of the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum, and in July 1996, she recorded her oral history.
Image caption: Book cover of The Caregivers. Courtesy of Amazon.
If that was not enough, she is also remembered for the coffee-table book The Caregivers: El Paso s Medical History, 1898-1998, which focuses on El Paso's medical history and influential figures concerning medicine in El Paso and presented by the El Paso Medical Heritage Foundation and the El Paso County Medical Society. Her roots never strayed too far from her family and upbringing, owning and operating the Tatreault Vineyard, nestled in her family's farm in Fairacres, New Mexico, until her death. She passed away at her home in Fairacres on August 15, 2014.
Funkhouser grew up in a time when males dominated the journalism industry, among scores of others. She did not let that stop her. From a 17-year-old high school senior to a steadfast journalist, she broke through the barriers, stood atop both men and women, and became the best at what she did. There is a reason she became the first woman editor of the El Paso Times. If you are a young journalist with big aspirations or a young anything with big aspirations, Barbara Funkhouser, a pioneer of sorts, is someone to look up to and model after.
The caregivers : El Paso's medical history, 1898-1998 by 
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