Gilmer, Elizabeth Meriwether (1861–1951)

US journalist (under the pen-name Dorothy Dix) and women's rights pioneer. Author of a nationally syndicated column covering women's issues and based on her responses to letters from her readers, she was also a reporter covering high profile cases, and was active in the women's suffrage cause. With an estimated 60 million readers who wrote her 400–500 letters a day, she continued her column until 1949, personally answering much of her mail. She also published seven books. Dismissed by some as a ‘sob sister’, she has come to be recognized for providing an important outlet for ordinary women to air their concerns.

Gilmer was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee. She had a difficult youth due to the illness and early death of her mother. After a limited formal schooling, she married George Gilmer in 1882. Their 47-year marriage was unhappy; often ill, he became incapacitated and died in a mental hospital. She lived apart from him for many of those years and turned to writing fiction and sketches for newspapers. She joined the staff of the New Orleans Daily Picayune (1894–1901), beginning a weekly column under the name ‘Dorothy Dix’ in 1895. In 1901 she was hired by William Randolph Hearst to report on the Temperance Movement crusader Carry Nation and that year she moved to New York to work for Hearst's New York Journal (1901–17). In 1917 she joined the Wheeler Newspaper Syndicate and returned to work in New Orleans.