Ruth Gray (26 January 1922-May 27, 2008), also known as Ruth Weigand Gray and Ruth Gorrell Gray, was an American editor, restaurant critic and food writer.
Early life and education edit
Gray was born 26 January 1922 in Topeka, Kansas.[1][2] She earned degrees in home economics and journalism from Kansas State University.[3][2]
Career edit
In the early 1950s Gray was food editor at the Detroit Times.[4]: 172
Gray became food editor at the St. Petersburg Times, considered one of the South's most progressive newspapers at the time, in 1963.[3] She became the paper's restaurant critic in 1974.[3][1] She worked for Nelson Poynter.[3]
Gray's restaurant reviews included descriptions of wheelchair accessibility; this was unusual at the time, as the Americans with Disabilities Act wasn't passed until 1990.[3] She attempted to maintain anonymity by wearing hats and scarves to disguise her appearance and making notes in restaurants' women's restrooms.[3][1] Photos of her were posted on multiple kitchen walls.[3][1]
Her reviews were influential; one restaurant fired its chef after a negative review. Another renamed a dish after her after a negative review.[3][1] She never accepted free meals, and when a server, after calling her by name, told her the meal was on the house, she refused to review the restaurant.[3] In 1975 the Times had to clarify its reviewing policy because patrons sometimes claimed to be her when in a restaurant, hoping for a free meal or better service.[3] Gray was known to attempt to balance negative and positive comments and avoid completely negative reviews; a colleague once commented that if a review ended with Gray writing she'd return if she happened to be in the area, it actually meant "only if I'm starving".[1]
Gray was a member of the Association of Food Journalists.[3] She retired in 1987.[1]
Influence edit
Women's journalism scholar Kimberly Wilmot Voss called Gray a "pioneering" food journalist.[5]
Personal life edit
Gray was a lifelong Republican; colleagues teased her about working for such a progressive newspaper.[1] In 1947 she married Malcolm Gray, a WWII Navy veteran from Topeka with whom she had a son and a daughter.[2][1] They moved to St. Petersburg in 1960.[2] She was widowed in 1998.[2]
Gray died 27 May 2008 of Alzheimer's disease in Heath, Ohio.[1][2] She was 86.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hayes, Stephanie (31 May 2008). "Being critical didn't come naturally to critic". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ruth Weigand Gray". Legacy.com. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Voss, Kimberly; Speere, Lance (1 May 2013). "Food Fight: Accusations of Press Agentry". Gastronomica. 13 (2): 41–50. doi:10.1525/gfc.2013.13.2.41. ISSN 1529-3262.
- ^ Voss, Kimberly Wilmot (2014). The food section: newspaper women and the culinary community. Studies in food and gastronomy. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-2720-0.
- ^ "Florida Food in the Golden Era of Women's Page Journalism". Florida Humanities. 5 January 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2023.